UPDATE: Minecraft 1.9 Pre-Release 4 is now available.
UPDATE: Minecraft 1.9 Pre-Release 3 is now available.
UPDATE: Minecraft 1.9 Pre-Release 2 is now available.
It is time to stop waiting and start playing. A pre-release of Minecraft 1.9 is now available. We are very excited to enter the final stage before the new version is released.
First the answer to the most asked question: We are currently planning to release the final version of Minecraft 1.9 next week, on Thursday, 25th of February 2016. (UPDATE: the release date was moved to Monday, 29th of February 2016)
And now to the usual release notes. Once we release the final Minecraft 1.9 update, we will also provide a complete list of changes between Minecraft 1.8 and Minecraft 1.9.
Version 1.9-pre4 only fixes some minor issues that were not reported to the bugtracker, so we don’t have a list here. According to the commit log, these issues were touched:
Player entities ticking twice on servers
Fixed an issue that can affect sound positions
Invulnerability during dimension changes
Projectile scaling
Handling of r= in entity selectors (commands)
Some cleaning up in the code that doesn’t change any behavior
Bugs fixed in 1.9-pre3:
[Bug MC-49888] - World bundled Resources Pack doesn’t work on server
[Bug MC-91173] - Eyes of Ender not targeting any of the new strongholds
[Bug MC-92079] - The Loading World GUI Overlay allows users to switch to another world while loading another world.
[Bug MC-92444] - Certain sounds are missing sound event name
[Bug MC-92525] - Signs only import first word on each line.
[Bug MC-94394] - black screen instead of credits [MP only]
[Bug MC-96004] - Books only import first word written
[Bug MC-97225] - Subtitle mistakes and typos
[Bug MC-97235] - Resource pack in minecraft world save file not working
[Bug MC-97389] - Horses are pushed into the wall on dismount
[Bug MC-97461] - MalformedJsonException when connecting to a 1.8.9 server with 1.9 pre release
[Bug MC-97491] - Spawner spawns entities with NBT tags and monster with no Pos tag at wrong position
[Bug MC-97521] - Missing sound for event: minecraft:entity.snowman.ambient
Bugs fixed in 1.9-pre2:
[Bug MC-35127] - Wrong NBT TAG Type for fallTime in FallingSand Entities
[Bug MC-35714] - Sounds loop/restart when exiting screens
[Bug MC-89928] - Portals not placing the player at correct coordinates
[Bug MC-90101] - Mob Spawner is overwriting (ignoring?) Pos[x,y,z] data of entity
[Bug MC-91290] - Skeletons with no AI spawning naturally
[Bug MC-95538] - /playsound command doesn’t work with selectors not resolving to exactly one entity
Notes for 1.9-pre1:
Notable changes:
Bugs fixed
Increased durability of shields
Some crystals in the end are protected by cages again
Added 34.7% more hype for Minecraft 1.9
Bugs fixed:
[Bug MC-96863] - Marker ArmorStand Should Not Have Passenger Offset
[Bug MC-97217] - Weird placement of player while riding an entity after swimming with elytra
[Bug MC-97235] - Resource pack in minecraft world save file not working
[Bug MC-97251] - Rail Duplication Glitch
Please report any and all bugs you find in Minecraft to bugs.mojang.com. If nobody reports a bug, we can’t fix it!
To get snapshots (or, in this case, the pre-release), open your launcher and press the “New Profile” button. Call it “snapshots” and check the box saying “Enable experimental development snapshots” and save. To switch to the normal version, you can select it in the dropdown at the bottom left corner of the launcher. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (See the “new profile” dialog).
Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds.