Minecraft snapshot 25w37a patch notes: Copper golem improvements, server API changes, and more

Mojang has released Minecraft snapshot 25w37a, featuring improvements to copper golems, changes to the new Server Management Protocol API, and, as always, lots of bug fixes for Java Edition.

Minecraft's next major update, titled The Copper Age, is almost finished, as Mojang has confirmed they are done adding new features. In the new snapshots, Mojang is polishing features like copper golems and shelves, as well as adding technical elements such as the Server Management Protocol API, mannequins from the previous snapshot, and more.

To learn about what's new in Minecraft snapshot 25w37a, check out the complete patch notes below.

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Minecraft snapshot 25w37a patch notes: All you need to know

Changes in Minecraft snapshot 25w37a

• OpenGL 3.3 is now required to play the game, up from 3.2. This does not change our posted Minimum Requirements

Developer’s Note: We do not expect the update to OpenGL version to affect many people, if any at all. Our posted Minimum Requirements has been OpenGL 4.0 since 2017, and OpenGL 3.3 turned 15 years old recently.

Minor Tweaks to Blocks, Items and Entities

• Fixed a bug where breaking a Shelf while another player is interacting with it could lead to visual bugs in the player inventory
• Copper Golems hitbox has been tweaked
• The hitbox is now 0.49 blocks in width to be able to pathfind through narrow spaces
• Copper Golems can now open doors
• Test Instance Blocks now preserve error markers between world reloads
• Ambient lighting on entities has been adjusted to be more visually in line with blocks and other parts of the game
• The underside of flat surfaces will now be lit from that direction, instead of the opposite direction
• This mainly affects models containing cubes that are either flat or "hollow" such as:
• Worn armor
• Worn Elytra
• The outside layers on player skins
• The ribcages of Skeletons or Skeleton Horses
• The feet of Chickens or Frogs
• The wings of Phantoms or the Ender Dragon
• The fins on fish
• And more!

Game Mode Switching

• Switching from Spectator Mode to Creative Mode no longer causes the player to stop flying
• Instead, flight now only gets disabled when switching game modes if the player is near the ground
• A player is considered to be near the ground if there is a collidable surface (i.e. blocks, Happy Ghasts, boats...) within 1 block below them
• Flight will not get disabled if the player was inside a block or collidable entity
• This is to prevent players from suddenly falling through the ground

Developer's Note:This change is a partial revert of a bugfix from a previous snapshot. Even though the old behavior prior to the fix was unintended, the approach we took to fixing flight didn't quite land the way we wanted it to. In response to community feedback, we're trying this new approach as a less disruptive alternative.

Minecraft Server Management Protocol

• Clients must authenticate to access the API
• Clients should supply an Authorization bearer token header with a server specific secret
• The secret is configured in the server properties file
• management-server-secret=
• The secret should be exactly 40 alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9)
• The secret will be automatically generated if the server property is empty
• Unauthorized requests are rejected with 401 Unauthorized
• TLS is enabled by default
• Can be disabled in the server properties file
• management-server-tls-enabled=false
• Requires a keystore file to be set in the server properties file
• management-server-tls-keystore=path/to/keystore.p12
• The keystore file must be in PKCS12 format
• Keystore password can be set in the following ways, in order of priority
• Environment variable: MINECRAFT_MANAGEMENT_TLS_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD
• JVM argument: -Dmanagement.tls.keystore.password=
• Server property: management-server-tls-keystore-password=

Server Properties

• Default value of management-server-port was changed from 25585 to 0, assigning an available port each time management server is started
• Added server property management-server-tls-enabled controlling whether the Minecraft Server Management Protocol uses TLS or not
• Defaults to true
• Added server property management-server-tls-keystore controlling the path to the keystore file used for TLS
• Defaults to an empty string
• A dedicated server won't start when TLS is enabled and no keystore is provided
• Added server property management-server-tls-keystore-password controlling the password to the keystore file used for TLS
• Defaults to an empty string

Game Rules

• Added spawnerBlocksEnabled game rule controlling if Spawner Blocks should be enabled or not
• Defaults to true

Mob Spawning

• Logic for choosing type of equipment for mobs spawning with equipment has been tweaked to add Copper as a possibility
• The initial roll to choose a type now chooses between Leather, Copper and Gold
• The chance to increase an armor tier has increased from 9.5% to 10.87%

Sounds

• Some sound sliders in the Music & Sound Options now play a preview sound when adjusting the setting outside a world

UI

• The Resource Pack and Data Pack selection screens now have a search box

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Technical changes in Minecraft snapshot 25w37a

• The Data Pack version is now 87.0
• The Resource Pack version is now 69.0
• Some previously hidden debug features have been exposed to players

Debug features

• Some debug features that were previously removed during compilation are now preserved and can be used by players
• Individual values can be enabled with JVM properties:
• First, a global debug flag must be enabled with -DMC_DEBUG_ENABLED or -DMC_DEBUG_ENABLED=true
• Then, a specific feature can be enabled, for example -DMC_DEBUG_BRAIN or -DMC_DEBUG_BRAIN=true
• To get the list of all available debug properties, add -DMC_DEBUG_PRINT_PROPERTIES
• Warning: this is debug code. Handle with extreme care!
• This is an advanced feature, meant to help modders - it should not be used for normal play
• Features not guaranteed to work as intended
• It might crash your game or corrupt your worlds
• Individual options might be added, changed or removed without a notice

Data Pack Version 87.0

• Changed name of game rule enableCommandBlocks to commandBlocksEnabled

Resource Pack Version 69.0

Textures

• Moved the result slot of gui/container/villager.png up by one pixel

Shaders & Post-process Effects

Shaders

• A new PER_FACE_LIGHTING flag has been added to the following shaders:
• core/entity.vsh
• core/entity.fsh
• When set, cardinal lighting will be computed separately for front- and back-faces
• As we now require OpenGL 3.3, we have bumped the version of all shaders from 150 to 330

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Fixed bugs in Minecraft snapshot 25w37a

• MC-220913 - Parity issue: Adjusting slider in the sound settings when not being in a world does not play a sound of that category
• MC-254052 - /locate doesn't work outside build limit
• MC-295841 - Interactive collision check path is broken
• MC-300076 - Copper golems remain completely stationary while searching chests, causing them to float and making them unable to receive knockback or be pushed
• MC-300077 - Copper golems can interact with chests diagonally through solid blocks
• MC-300299 - Copper Golems can open chests that are blocked
• MC-300723 - Second armor layer is still not rendering properly on all pieces
• MC-301294 - Higher tiers of mob armor are unreasonably less common than they were before 25w31a
• MC-301494 - Falling particles no longer appear from floating sand or gravel
• MC-301510 - GUI sprites nine slice performance regression
• MC-301531 - Server Management Protocol returns wrong response for invalid method IDs
• MC-301547 - Switching from Spectator mode to Creative mode now makes you fall out of the sky
• MC-301554 - Management protocol doesn't support batched requests
• MC-301558 - Copper golems can't pathfind through thin blocks
• MC-301563 - When you have the darkness potion effect, the chat, letters and words in the pause menu, items, F3 will darken
• MC-301564 - Management protocol doesn't support string-based request IDs
• MC-301574 - The spawnMonsters game rule does not take effect when switched
• MC-301593 - Monsters can spawn from spawners with the "spawnMonsters" game rule set to false
• MC-301599 - Action key getting stuck on when entering an interface so you are unable to exit without it reopening instantly
• MC-301620 - Banner animation is not independent when two banners are rendered
• MC-301661 - Server Management Protocol prints some incorrectly formatted messages in the console
• MC-301711 - The name of the "enableCommandBlocks" game rule is inconsistent with Bedrock Edition
• MC-301748 - Striking a Lightning Rod with non-default oxidation level with Lightning keeps nearby redstone components powered
• MC-301751 - The client crashes when in the vicinity of a mannequin spawner
• MC-301752 - Mannequins with profile.model set to "wide" render as a Steve skin
• MC-301754 - The hand animation plays when right-clicking shelves with nothing in your hand
• MC-301758 - Shield model clips through shelves
• MC-301759 - Elements within the realms “Worlds” tab are not selected in order when using the TAB key
• MC-301766 - Heads and skulls appear too high when placed on shelf
• MC-301768 - Structure blocks frame is not displayed when in spectator mode
• MC-301785 - Squid ink particles are yellow
• MC-301811 - Loot from suspicious blocks does not render while brushing
• MC-301833 - Text of text_display entities is darker when "see_through" property is set to true
• MC-301869 - The specification for the minecraft:ip_bans server management method says it returns an array of players even though it returns an array of ip_ban objects
• MC-301870 - Command feedback for successful /ban and /ban-ip commands with no specified reason can't be sent to the client
• MC-301889 - Documented return type does not match for clear methods in server managment protocol
• MC-301891 - Server management method minecraft:bans/clear clears allowlist, not bans
• MC-301899 - The output slot in the trading GUI is misaligned with other slots
• MC-301903 - Dropped chests, including variants, are no longer translated upward
• MC-301935 - Chest placed on bottom of shelf despite the rest of the items arent
• MC-301952 - Conduit visual bug

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That's it for Minecraft snapshot 25w37a. Players who have been keeping track of snapshots know that recent releases only include changes and fixes, as the development of The Copper Age update is almost complete. In the coming weeks, players can expect Mojang to announce pre-release snapshots for the 1.21.9 update.

Read previous snapshot: Minecraft snapshot 25w36a patch notes: Mannequins, multi-action keybinding, and more