Minecraft has always been a hit thanks to its no-fuss charm. But after ruling the gaming world for over 15 years, its retro visuals—while super lovable—hadn’t budged much. That all flipped when Mojang dropped the Vibrant Visuals update for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition.
Now, sunlight streams through glass panes and tree tops, tossing around lively shadows that move with the sun’s path. Water mirrors the world with a crispness that catches you off guard, and volumetric fog adds a moody depth to every biome. Mojang describes it as “dazzling—shadows move as the sun arcs across the sky, water reflects the landscape around it, and clouds appear infinite as they stretch far into the distance.”
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Mojang didn’t ditch the game’s classic art though, despite the update’s name. “Vibrant Visuals is designed to evoke how Minecraft looks in your head,” says Art Director Jasper Boerstra, nailing the idea of boosting what’s already there instead of starting over. Every texture gets upgraded to play with light in its own way, making each block stand out under the new system. That biome-specific color tweak, teamed with volumetric lighting and spot-on shadows, turns exploring into a stroll through a living painting.
Vibrant Visuals comes with a handy on-off switch in Bedrock Edition’s video settings, letting you pick between performance or visuals focus, with sliders to mess with fog and such. “This is a visual enhancement—there are no changes to Minecraft’s gameplay,” Mojang states. It’s built to play nice with old worlds, so your past creations load up smooth, and Realms pals can hang out whether they’re rocking Vibrant Visuals or the old style. On beefy devices like Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, high-end PCs, and some Android or iOS gear, it’s on by default, though older consoles like PlayStation 4 or Xbox One might need a manual flip due to the extra grunt it needs.
This update leans on a ton of prep work, including a rendering code overhaul that kicked off last year. For Bedrock Edition, that meant months of tinkering to make it work across all kinds of hardware. Executive Producer Ingela Garneij calls it “the beginning of an ongoing effort to improve what Minecraft can look like, without abandoning its signature vibe.”
Java Edition fans, though, are in for a wait. Mojang’s busy reworking the rendering setup to bring Vibrant Visuals over, splitting gameplay and rendering code to keep things steady on Windows, Mac, and Linux. “We really want to take this time to build this properly for Java Edition,” Mojang notes.
Some Marketplace goodies, like custom worlds or texture packs, aren’t ready to play nice yet, and splitscreen multiplayer won’t work with Vibrant Visuals turned on. Nintendo Switch players are left hanging too, with no word on whether they’ll get in on the action from Mojang’s announcements.
