This major new graphical update, newly revealed in Minecraft Live, is on the way to Minecraft, entitled “Vibrant Visuals.”
This upcoming upgrade will first be released for compatible Minecraft: Bedrock Edition devices, but there are plans to bring vibrant visuals to Minecraft: Java Edition in the future. Includes improvements to visual elements such as directional lighting, volumetric fog, pixelated shadows and noticeably sparkling water. The lively visually enhanced visuals make no changes to Minecraft gameplay. For example, “visual shadows do not affect light levels in the sense of game mechanics or where hostile mobs arise.”
Players can switch between new and previously existing visuals in Minecraft using a simple press on buttons. This means that those who want it can maintain a classic look.
“So the first release is actually a few months after the beta platform,” said Agnes Larsson, Minecraft Vanilla’s game director.
“There’s been a lot of testing going on to try to access as many platforms as possible, but it’s important to have a high quality and excellent performance. Yeah, this is really the beginning of the journey.”
That journey into a new look of Minecraft was further explained by Maddie Psenka, Senior Product Manager of Vibrant Visuals.
“I think it was a journey for a while. I wanted to do it for the game. I had past projects that wanted to incorporate graphics and this kind of update, but this time I wanted to take up some space to build the foundations for this new mode. The updates are something they’ve been asking a bit.”
“We called it going as fast as possible on a PC and making things look really great and finishing it,” Psenka continued. “We wanted to make sure it worked on mobile and it worked on consoles, and of course there is a lot of complexity, as you can imagine when jumping over platforms and different backends.
This is just the beginning of Minecraft’s new graphical journey. This is something that will improve and evolve over the next few years as a Mojang Balance team that wants to make the team look like a “modern game.”
“As Minecraft continues to evolve, you’ll find new things to add to your graphics over the years, right?” said Jasper Boerstra, art director at Minecraft.
“I mean, we’ve always been active development and we’re here for a long time. Minecraft is always ongoing. It’s more relevant than ever. Yeah, these graphics updates are when something comes up, when you get a new idea, or have player feedback.
Vibrant Visuals is a free update that will come to Minecraft in the near future. Mojang continues to refuse to monetize any of the bestsellers of all time. This philosophy of improving and expanding the original game works with the studio’s desire to not make “Minecraft 2” or use generative AI technology. He may be 15 now, but there are really no signs of Minecraft slowing down.
Check out everything announced at Minecraft Live 2025 for more information on what comes to the game.
Simon Cardy can be found to be running around open world games, indulging in Korean movies, or despairing in Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets state. Follow him on Bluesky @cardy.bsky.social.
