Minecraft 26.3 Snapshot 3: Everything Added and Changed

New snapshot, new reasons to stay up playing Minecraft until dawn. The third snapshot of version 26.3 brings two long-awaited items, a technical breakthrough for datapack creators, and dozens of bug fixes that have annoyed players for years. Let’s go through it all step by step.

Cushion: Minecraft Gets Cozier — Now You Can Just Sit

For the first time in a long while, Minecraft has received a fully interactive decorative item: the Cushion. It comes in 16 color variants and is crafted from three Wool Slabs of the same color. You can place it on any flat surface — stairs, trapdoors, and more. Just click it to sit down.

One important detail: cushions have no collision and can overlap with other objects, except other cushions. If the block underneath is removed, the cushion breaks. At last, making a truly cozy campfire corner is actually possible.

Straw Bed: Sleep Anywhere Without Losing Home

The Straw Bed is a new type of bed for players who want to skip the night without changing their spawn point. It is crafted from three Hay Bales and gives you 4 beds at once. They also stack up to 16, which makes them great for long expeditions.

The key rule is simple: a straw bed disappears immediately after use. In the Nether and the End, it is also destroyed if you try to sleep in it. The upside is that you can now travel with a запас of straw beds without worrying about losing your main spawn point. Straw beds now also generate in Abandoned Camps.

Gothic Language in Minecraft: A Dead Alphabet Comes to Life in Pixels

A small but neat addition: Java Edition now officially supports the Gothic language. Fans of linguistics and historical alphabets will appreciate it.

Dappled Forest: New Sounds, Fog, and More Lively Textures

This snapshot also updates the reworked biome. In Java Edition, Poplar Leaves and Red Shrubs now have new ambient sound events, matching Bedrock Edition with unique audio. In Bedrock Preview 26.40.30, poplar leaves received new textures and updated fog settings. Bugs affecting poplar door textures and incorrect poplar trunk generation were also fixed.

Technical Breakthrough: The Snapshot Mapmakers Have Waited Years For

This snapshot is a real gift for technical players and content creators.

• /posteffect command: You can now add and remove post-processing shader effects for specific players. Supported subcommands include add, remove, clear, and list. Custom shaders from resource packs are now fully usable, opening huge possibilities for maps and servers.
• Data-driven brewing recipes: Potion recipes are now data-driven. Datapack creators can add entirely new recipes and modify vanilla ones using the minecraft:brewing type. Recipes define input, reagent, and output — and any items can be placed in those slots.

• New minecraft:number_provider registry: New ways to define numeric values in datapacks have been added. New types include number_dispatcher, conditional_value, and weighted_list, along with ready-made providers for composting with different trigger chances.

The Bugs That Drove Us Crazy: Mojang Finally Fixed Them

This snapshot also resolves several genuinely frustrating issues:

• Mobs on the same team no longer attack allies when friendly fire is disabled
• Brewing with one Dragon’s Breath bottle once again returns the empty glass bottle
• Incorrect lighting on mobs and block entities has been fixed, including sides that appeared too dark or too bright
• Critical renderer crashes when switching fullscreen mode or resizing the window have been eliminated
• Drowned once again properly chase players and no longer use items incorrectly
• Projectiles no longer lose the can_break property after reloading the world
• Copper doors can once again have oxidation and wax removed

The third 26.3 snapshot is a packed one: cozy additions for builders, powerful tools for technical players, and plenty of long-awaited fixes. Which change are you happiest to see? Share your thoughts in the comments.