NEW BEDROCK SECRET FEATURE brings us one step closer building on the Nether Roof

New SECRET feature allows creators to change build limits per dimension

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A feature that didn’t get mentioned in any of their recent Minecraft Bedrock change logs brings dimension settings and build height options to Minecraft Bedrock Edition add-ons. Do you wish you could build on the Nether roof in Bedrock edition like they do on JAVA edition? Well now we’re officially one step closer to being able to do that.

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In Minecraft Bedrock Edition 1.18.30, Mojang silently released an incredibly powerful new feature into the game. This feature, intended for use by Minecraft Marketplace Partners and add-on creators, is intended to allow the creator to extend or limit the build heights of the Overworld dimension in order to optimize the game. But there’s a lot more to it.

The new feature, which doesn’t require any experimental features to be toggled, introduces dimension files into the behavior pack section of add-ons which until now, didn’t exist. However, it currently only allows for the Overworld dimension to be added and edited. Adding in files for The Nether and The End just throws up errors in the game but we’ll no doubt get access to those further down the line. 

By following the instructions on the official Microsoft documentation for data driven overworld height (linked below), you can use this feature to make a complete void world or to change the generated build limit of existing worlds between -512 and 512 on the Y-Axis.

...making the game run quicker...

This means it’s possible to have overworlds with a build limit of 1024 blocks which is a substantial increase over the current 384. 

There are some substantial limitations to this feature however.

The feature is designed to limit the build height of existing chunks, rather than affecting world generation directly. This means that if you add it to an existing world with chunks that exist, any blocks outside of the new build limits will be visually missing, making the game run quicker as there's less data to load per chunk. 

That data doesn't get deleted though. If you remove the add-on, all of the chunks will render how they did before. Also, the system doesn't allow for generating new chunks with varying terrain height, but it does allow for void world's to be created. And that's the other aspect of this tool.

...build on the Nether roof...

Most adventure maps and marketplace maps are built inside of void worlds, in order to limit the amount of data the game needs to load and make the experience more optimized. However, until now, it wasn't possible to create a void world in game. To make a true void world, creators had to utilize third party tools like MCC Toolchest in order to edit the level.dat file which controls how worlds are generated.

Now that this is possible with the simple inclusion of an add-on, it's going to be far easier for creators to generate true void world's keeping map content optimized and efficient.

So what does all of this mean for the other dimensions? Well like myself, you might be wondering if this will allow us to change the build height in The Nether dimension and build on the Nether roof like they do in Minecraft JAVA edition.

Assuming this feature is rolled out to the other dimensions, which it would seem odd not to considering how it's currently implemented, then the answer would be yes, that would technically be possible.

.,.enabling build height changes in any dimension.,.

However, the fact that this system is limited to pre-generated chunks is concerning as it means that this tool is not suitable for survival gameplay as any new chunks would be generated as void chunks, corrupting your world.

My hope is that as this feature develops, it will allow for vanilla world generation whilst the add-on is active, truly enabling build height changes in any dimension.

By the way this feature has been implemented so far, it seems that is the direction it's heading. So fingers crossed it gets there soon so we can bring a little bit more parity over to Bedrock Edition, even if it's by using an add-on.

Documentation Link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/minecraft/creator/documents/datadrivenoverworldheight

Article Author: FoxyNoTail

Foxy is a Minecraft player, content creator and official Marketplace Partner. He's been playing the game for over 13 years, delving into the code creating datapacks, add-ons, resource packs and other tools for the Minecraft player base and communities to use and enjoy. He also hosts The Minecraft Update weekly podcast. You can find Foxy on Twitter @foxynotail

Publisher: Minecraft Update News

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