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[Sacheverell]

Back in December, Minecraft Pocket Edition passed the 5 million mark on sales - not even counting the crazy-high figures for the holidays themselves - and an update has been in the works for a first-quarter release.  So, what's in store for 0.5.1?  Jeb tweeted yesterday that the sand and gravel blocks in Pocket Edition will soon succumb to the effects of gravity, as it has on PC for some time.  Additionally, Pocket Edition will be seeing slabs, stairs, even new clouds on the horizon (pun totally intended).

Pictured: Stairs, slabs, clouds aplenty

So what of certain land generation features, like caves?  They aren't coming any time soon, unfortunately, primarily owing to performance issues on handheld devices.  While they are not planned in the coming days, it has not yet been ruled out that caves may make an appearance in the future.  0.5.1 is expected to hit handhelds everywhere by sometime late January, or possibly early February.  Who knows what else lies in store between now and then?  We will keep you appraised!

[UnileggerDripper222]

"Late January or early February" means "In the next 2 months".

[x_clucky]

Yay!!! Slabs and stairs!

[3pix]

Hooray! Builders should be happy now. Still waiting for caves though.

[Abandon_Ships]

There are no performance issues. Minebuilder has infinite worlds, more crafting and more blocks, and cave systems, and is made by an indie developer. There's no reason at all that Jeb can't make caves happen beyond his own laziness.

[Cswartz9]

"We'll keep you appraised"

Does appraised have a meaning I don't know, or is this a typo?

[ChadtheBuilder]

rist_violin, on 15 January 2013 - 11:38 PM, said:

There are no performance issues. Minebuilder has infinite worlds, more crafting and more blocks, and cave systems, and is made by an indie developer. There's no reason at all that Jeb can't make caves happen beyond his own laziness.

Caves could easily be coded into the game, probably without much trouble. Caves do, in fact, cause more lag. I do think there should be an option for caves. Ported maps from PC to PE that contain caves, do have a considerable amount of more lag.

[KTrevlyner]

It's funny, because minecraft originally was "Cave Game"

[Kevintrinidad]

Redstone is still missing i wish they add it someday.

[EliteMsl]

Still missing something from the PC minecraft, but I got to admit I can't wait !

[Kholdstare]

Do I see nether quartz?

[trentd78]

Isn't there already stairs and slabs? wtf? in my game, i haz stairs and slabs...

[Is2creeper]

Kholdstare, on 16 January 2013 - 01:00 AM, said:

Do I see nether quartz?

Yes, there is nether quartz stuff

[InsanityBringer]

I do have to wonder what causes these apparent issues with caves, and how they can be fixed. I quite like PE but the survival game is actually kind of extremely boring without caves of any sort (I've never been a fan of proper mining simply because sitting in a small tunnel lit well enough to not spawn monsters mining out tunnels in various patterns is boring to me.)

If anything though, I'm happy to see the game getting a graphical boost. Having Minecraft on a tablet is an amazing experience, though it's kind of ugly at the moment. I really need to go in and figure out how to install texture packs on android to try to make things a tad more pretty for the moment.

[Princ3ssblonde]

We have stairs and slabs. same saying wtf? But still excited for clouds still wish for the sun buckets redstone and villagers the end dogs enchantment tables and most of all CATS!!

P.S They need to compare the computer version with pocket edition and see what they need to add and add it and Jeb should start adding more animals and red dragons! And cars XD Lol.


Plus how do you get the update when it's not even out its easy on the computer but how on pocket edition???

[sebas101]

Why dont they generate the  World on server and push them to the device ? It would make cave and stronghold generation very easy...

[InsanityBringer]

sebas101, on 16 January 2013 - 01:30 AM, said:

Why dont they generate the  World on server and push them to the device ? It would make cave and stronghold generation very easy...

Issue isn't generation, from what I can tell. I don't think there's any problems with the way that the code's written that makes it impossible to port to mobile devices (correct me if I'm wrong), and it doesn't need to run in real time (as I recall the entire level gets generated when you make the level -- sorta like Indev). the bit about imported pc levels running slowly with caves implies that the problem's in rendering.

Also, I think the mention of stairs is because stairs are getting their PC abilities now, like being able to put upside down and in corners. I'm hoping the next update comes with more decorative blocks. It seems iron bars are missing, and I love those, heh

[beenjamin4days]

trentd78, on 16 January 2013 - 01:05 AM, said:

Isn't there already stairs and slabs? wtf? in my game, i haz stairs and slabs...

Princ3ssblonde, on 16 January 2013 - 01:23 AM, said:

We have stairs and slabs. same saying wtf?

Yes now they are adding more.

Princ3ssblonde, on 16 January 2013 - 01:23 AM, said:

still wish for the sun buckets redstone and villagers the end dogs enchantment tables and most of all CATS!!

not going to happen for a while

Princ3ssblonde, on 16 January 2013 - 01:23 AM, said:

Jeb should start adding more animals and red dragons! And cars XD Lol.

Cars = never gonna happen... haha

[Shad0_]

I'm loving 0.5.1

[Princ3ssblonde]

Thanks beenjamin4 days for the info but I knew cars weren't going to happen I was just joking about the cars