Minecraft Preview 1.19.50.20 improves vanilla parity and Spectator Mode

Image of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition.
(Image credit: Mojang Studios | Twitter)

What you need to know

  • Minecraft Preview 1.19.50.20 is rolling out to players with a plethora of fixes, vanilla parity improvements, and more.
  • The pre-release build arrives just before Minecraft Live 2022, which airs on Oct. 15, 2022.
  • The next major Minecraft update is expected to be revealed during the live event.
  • Players can now download and test the latest Minecraft Preview release.

Minecraft Live 2022 may be just around the corner with news of what the next major Minecraft update will entail, but that isn't stopping Mojang Studios from dropping a brand-new Minecraft Preview build on Thursday. Minecraft Preview 1.19.50.20 is now rolling out to players with a hefty number of changes for players to test.

Highlights of the latest Minecraft Preview release, which is now rolling out to Minecraft players on every platform, include vanilla parity improvements, further changes to the evolving Spectator Mode, and a host of other fixes and alterations across various aspects of the game. There aren't any exciting new feature additions with this release, but that's to be expected.

The build comes days before the start of Minecraft Live 2022, where Mojang Studios is expected to share the latest news and announcements for several Minecraft games, all of which able to lay claim to a spot among the best Xbox games you can play. During the event, which airs on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022, Mojang Studios will likely reveal the next major content update for vanilla Minecraft.

Players will also be able to participate in the Minecraft Live Mob Vote 2022, which begins on Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. This year, voting takes place across a Minecraft: Bedrock Edition server, the Minecraft Launcher, and the Minecraft website. Be warned — participating in the Minecraft Mob Vote via Minecraft: Bedrock Edition requires being on version 1.19.31. If your preferred place to play is on Android, you may need to unenroll from the beta program in order to cast your vote.

The full changelog for Minecraft Preview 1.19.50.20 includes:

Features & bug fixes

General

  • Fixed Bat resting location being offset when at negative world height
  • Fixed a bug where fully charged items were lost when going through a portal
  • Bubble columns are now properly generated above underwater Magma Blocks

Commands

  • Using the `/enchant` command to apply the same level of enchantment no longer results in a higher level being applied
  • Fixed an issue where `hasItem` wouldn't correctly detect an item with a data value if `hasItem` wasn't provided a data value

Gameplay

  • Fixed blocks flickering when moved by Pistons
  • Fixed an issue where breeding mobs with applied effects would result in the offspring having the effect bonuses permanently applied
  • Piston's arm now extends more smoothly
  • Blocks attached to Pistons now move more smoothly
  • Fixed a bug that could cause the player to teleport back to a portal after exiting it
  • Fixed an issue where signs would not play a placement sound when placed
  • Maps corrupted by black pixels can now be repaired by revisiting corrupted areas. Previously affected maps can now be repaired by holding in main or off hand

Graphical

  • Applied ambient light to blocks moved by Pistons
  • Fixed the brightness of the night sky when enabling RTX

Items

  • Freshly crafted tools and armor now work the first time they are used
  • Weapons, tools, and armor can now be dropped from the players inventory the first time after being renamed
  • Fixed an issue where an entity at coordinate 0,0,0 prevented Pressure Plates from being placed

Mob effects

  • Jump Boost now consistently affects mobs ridden by players
  • Slow Falling now consistently affects mobs ridden by players

Mobile data

  • Added a new Mobile Data Blocked screen on Android / iOS when mobile data is available but disabled in-game and Wi-Fi is not connected

Mobs

  • Increased Enderman follow range from 32 to 64

Touch controls

  • In Preview, we've re-enabled the new stack splitting functionality for touch devices
  • "Split Control" option will only appear in Classic control mode and only affect the Classic control scheme
  • Fixed an issue where hotbar slots could not be touched in Crosshair and Touch control schemes in certain situations
  • Scrolling the inventory screen is easier as the dwell time has been increased to 180 milliseconds (was 120 previously). The dwell time is the length of time an item must be held before a drag action begins
  • Untangled the connections between "Lock Joystick", "Joystick Always Visible", and "Joystick Visible When Unused"
  • Added toggle "Delayed Block Breaking (Creative Only)" in Touch Settings to control this functionality
  • Fixed an issue where double tapping touch control buttons can be difficult on high refresh rate screens
  • Improved the way that button presses and camera movements work in tandem in the new Touch Controls
  • Action buttons now show up when in a Boat while using Crosshair mode

User interface

  • Fixed a bug where the boss bar name would not update when the boss's name changed until the bar was reloaded by the player
  • A warning now appears when the player is about to lose changes when moving away from the Create New World screen
  • Changed the error handling of copying worlds to display a modal pop-up instead of a toast notification
  • Fixed a bug causing the HUD to not rotate with the player's direction while riding in a Boat in VR
  • Changed the color of the description text for the “Allow mobile data for online play” option to be more readable
  • Hotbar item text background is now affected by the Text Background Opacity slider

Vanilla parity

Blocks

  • Dirt Path and Farmland collision are now one pixel lower
  • Players swimming above Mud will not have their screen covered
  • Projectiles landing on Mud will not repeatedly shake
  • Amphibious mobs no longer have trouble pathfinding around Mud Blocks
  • Mud and Soul Sand Block bounding boxes now matches their visual bounding boxes for when a player places the blocks
  • Sugar Cane will break on next random tick when its water source is removed
  • Fixed a bug where placed Light Blocks were invisible even while selecting a Light Block

Spectator Mode

  • Spectator Mode has moved from an experimental toggle into the base game
    • Please remember worlds that have used Experimental toggles will always be flagged as Experimental. We recommend keeping these Experimental worlds separate from your main saves
  • Players can go in and out of Spectator Mode using the Personal game mode in the Settings Menu or the `/gamemode spectator` command, if cheats are enabled
  • Spectators have a reduced HUD that does not show the crosshair, hotbar, XP, health, hunger, or armor UI elements
  • Player's inventory, health, held items etc are unchanged when switching into Spectator Mode and when you leave Spectator Mode
  • Spectators are always flying and cannot be grounded
  • Spectators pass through solid blocks and entities without collision
  • Spectators can see out of solid objects when inside blocks
  • Spectators cannot take damage and are not affected by any blocks, mobs, items, portals or effects
  • Spectators cannot use items or interact with blocks or mobs
  • Spectators cannot open their inventory or interact with block UIs like chests
  • Spectators cannot be seen by mobs or other players except other players in Spectator Mode
  • Spectators are not needed to sleep to pass the night
  • Spectators appear as a transparent floating head to other players in Spectator Mode
  • When playing in first person, spectators do not see their arm or held item
  • Spectators generate chunks if they fly to new chunks
  • Spectators do not spawn any mobs
  • Non-persistent mobs around spectators will check for distance to any non-spectators when deciding if they should despawn
  • Commands can select and act on spectators
  • Open container, Command Block or Structure Block screens now close when players enter Spectator Mode
  • Spectator Mode now appears on the list of Personal Game Modes in Settings

Technical updates

General

  • Min / Max distance values in sound events now only affect the sound event and not all events using the same sound
  • Added client-side-chunk-generation-enabled toggle to `server.properties`

Networking

  • Added server property `enable-lan-visibility` to disable the explicit LAN discovery by clients
    • This will prevent unexpected port conflicts when running multiple dedicated servers on a single host
    • Clarified port use in server logs and made error messaging more clear

Stability & performance

  • Fixed a crash that would occur if the `texture_index` of a spawn egg was out of bounds. Now a content log error will be presented instead
  • Added `null ptr` check when retrieving actor `ref` in `CameraAPI` to prevent crashing
  • Fixed an issue where game would crash when Ender Dragon breath attack hadn't hit blocks or fell into the void
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when navigating down in the Villager screen with the keyboard

Experimental features

General

  • Crafting Table UI updates when a block changes to a permutation with a different `minecraft:crafting_tableblock` component

Scripting, APIs, and GameTest Framework

  • Fixed wireframes still rendering after using the `/gametest` clearall for distant gametest structures command
  • Entity
    • Removed function `runCommand`. Consider `runCommandAsync` as an alternative
  • Dimension
    • Removed function `runCommand`. Consider `runCommandAsync` as an alternative
  • Converted `BlockRaycastOptions` to an interface
  • Converted `EntityEventOptions` to an interface
  • Converted `ScoreboardObjectiveDisplayOptions` to an interface
    • Location type updated to IVec3
  • Vector
    • `add` — updated `a` and `b` arguments to accept an IVec3 interface type
    • `cross` — updated `a` and `b` arguments to accept an IVec3 interface type
    • `distance` — updated `a` and `b` arguments to accept an IVec3 interface type
    • `divide` — updated `a` argument to accept an IVec3 interface type
    • `lerp` — updated `a` and `b` arguments to accept an IVec3 interface type
    • `max` — updated `a` and `b` arguments to accept an IVec3 interface type
    • `min` — updated `a` and `b` arguments to accept an IVec3 interface type
    • `multiply` — updated `a` argument to accept an IVec3 interface type
    • `slerp` — updated `a` and `b` arguments to accept an IVec3 interface type
    • `subtract` — updated `a` and `b` arguments to accept an IVec3 interface type
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Minecraft: Bedrock Edition

Minecraft Preview 1.19.50.20 tests changes to make Minecraft: Bedrock Edition even better, and it's already one of the greatest ways to play Minecraft on practically every platform imaginable.

Buy from: Amazon | Xbox

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Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

Minecraft: Java Edition and Minecraft: Bedrock Edition are available through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, making Microsoft's subscription service the best place to gain access to everything Minecraft.

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Zachary Boddy
Staff Writer

Zachary Boddy (They / Them) is a Staff Writer for Windows Central, primarily focused on covering the latest news in tech and gaming, the best Xbox and PC games, and the most interesting Windows and Xbox hardware. They have been gaming and writing for most of their life starting with the original Xbox, and started out as a freelancer for Windows Central and its sister sites in 2019. Now a full-fledged Staff Writer, Zachary has expanded from only writing about all things Minecraft to covering practically everything on which Windows Central is an expert, especially when it comes to Microsoft. You can find Zachary on Twitter @BoddyZachary.