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The immersive world of Minecraft provides players with an enticing sandbox experience where they can unleash their creativity by building various structures, thanks to a massive catalog of items present in the game. Although most of these items are blocks that have their own 3D texture, there are also objects like doors that still look bland in comparison to other, newly-added items. That being said, a Minecraft player took it upon himself to uncover 3D door textures that were added to the game in a long-forgotten snapshot. Without further ado, let’s take a look and figure out what the fuss is all about.
3D Door Textures Found in Minecraft Snapshot 14W32D
On 28th November, a Reddit user who goes by @Conart557 posted screenshots on the Minecraft subreddit, comparing door models between snapshots 14W32D and 14W33A. Taking a look at the images shows us a clear difference in the texture quality between the two with the top image looking much more realistic due to its 3D textures that highlight the window slits. The bottom image of the door looks much more pale in comparison as the developers have removed the model from the game and stuck with 2D windows even with the latest version.
This post has garnered the attention of numerous fans, receiving over 16,000 upvotes at the time of writing. Digging through earlier patch notes revealed that this snapshot was released as the 45th entry for Java Edition 1.8 all the way back on 8th August 2014. Although this snapshot mostly provided minor updates and bug fixes, one of its key features was the addition of textures for the different types of doors in the game. This was a welcomed change but sadly, that was the last time anyone saw the inclusion of 3D door textures, as it was changed in the very next snapshot.
Many fans in the comments were curious about why Mojang removed these textures as it added a layer of immersion and realism. Some thought it might have been intentionally done to increase visibility through doors from side angles, while others responded that it might cause performance issues for players on low-end devices as the game engine has to render 3D window slits inside blocks.
Another user who goes by @TheoryTested-MC has provided a detailed explanation of the technicalities behind Minecraft’s 3D rendering system. His comment reads:
“Minecraft's 3D rendering system uses a back face culling algorithm - specifically, a process that ensures textures facing away from the player are not rendered. In the bottom picture, the door model and textures are for a single cuboid, which is simpler. The back face culling algorithm explains why you can't see the back of the door through the holes in the front. In the top picture, the back face culling is still there, except there are more front textures to render, and more textures overall for the algorithm to check, which is more complicated and creates lag.”
That is pretty much everything we know about Minecraft’s 3D door textures. Although it sounds exciting, it is unsure whether Mojang will add these textures to the game considering that they have retained the 2D textures for every single version since then.
