7 best features and changes in Minecraft snapshot 24w34a

One of the most exciting parts of a new Minecraft snapshot is getting to see and experiment with all of the changes made by Mojang. The new 24w34a snapshot has no shortage of monumental and exciting changes, many of which relate to experimental additions made in the previous snapshot surrounding redstone, minecarts, bundles, and more.

This article lists seven of the best features, changes, and additions of snapshot 24w34a.

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7 of Minecraft snapshot 24w34a's best changes and features

1) Better bundles

The bundle's better UI (Image via Mojang)

Minecraft's bundle has been made even better in snapshot 24w34a. The UI that appears when hovering over the item has been improved to include three rows. This allows it to display a minimum of eight items at all times.

In the previous snapshot, this UI would only display two or three items once the bundle started filling up, making it much less useful than it is now.

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2) Minecart dispenser stacking is back

Dispensers can once again stack minecarts (Image via Mojang)

Entity cramming is an incredibly handy mechanic utilized in many different Minecraft farms. It refers to the fact that once there are too many entities within a spot, any new ones will take huge damage.

Minecarts were one of the best ways to make entity-cramming traps since they could be stacked by hand or using dispensers. This ability was removed in snapshot 24w33a and was one of the only bad changes in the preview version.

Thankfully, the most recent snapshot has walked back a portion of this change. Minecarts can now once again be stacked using dispensers, making it easy to create entity-cramming traps again.

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3) Even less redstone randomness

This change removes most of the randomness introduced by the last snapshot (Image via Mojang)

One of the biggest changes from the previous snapshot related to the order of Minecraft redstone updates. Redstone now updates starting from the power source, moving outwards. Unfortunately, this introduced a bit of randomness to redstone in situations where two components were equal distance from the power source.

Mojang has fixed this randomness in snapshot 24w34a by adding a left-first preference to redstone. This means that in the case where two components are equal distance from a power source, the left-most one from the perspective of the source will update first. Less randomness always makes redstone easier to work with, thanks to the consistency, making this a great change.

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4) Fixed piston bolts

My first diagonal piston bolt, around 400 blocks long. I thought it was cool and decided to post it here. What do you think? byu/TRONEK_ intechnicalminecraft

In snapshot 24w33a, minecarts would snap to the center of a rail when moving onto it. This broke some advanced contraptions, such as piston bolts. For those unaware, piston bolts utilize pistons and precisely placed railways to move much faster than minecarts normally can. This allows for totally AFK long-distance travel and even item transportation through the use of chest minecarts.

Thankfully, 24w34a has fixed this issue, which should allow piston bolts to function as normal, giving players the ability to easily move long distances with these machines once again.

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5) Framerate improvements

Higher render distances will have better FPS on this snapshot (Image via Mojang)

A particularly exciting change mentioned by Mojang is that snapshot 24w34a should feature significant improvements in Minecraft's FPS when on higher render distances. Moving the camera around rapidly at higher render distances should also be smoother.

The extent of this performance update will depend on the player's machine, with low and mid-end devices getting more benefit. However, performance improvements are always a welcomed change.

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6) Creative mode item consumption

Items like honey will no longer flood inventories with garbage items in creative mode (Image via Mojang)

Building in creative mode has also been made more convenient in snapshot 24w34a.

Items that normally create a secondary item when consumed will no longer do so in creative mode. This applies to things like Minecraft potions or honey bottles that would normally leave an empty glass bottle behind after being consumed.

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7) The recipe book saves the last used recipe

`This inventory shortcut makes crafting large amounts of the same items much faster (Image via Mojang)

Minecraft's recipe book has also been improved considerably in snapshot 24w34a. Whenever a player selects a recipe from the book, it's saved. Then, by pressing a set key, spacebar by default, the game will automatically pull materials out of the player's inventory and place them in the crafting UI to make the same recipe.

This makes crafting large numbers of useful Minecraft items, such as hoppers or observers, much quicker and more convenient.