The bug
When placing stairs and blocks some of them placed have a shadow-like effect on them as if they are in the dark even though they are properly lit.
Related issues
is duplicated by
MC-148844
Torch lighting in cave systems
MC-149121
Lighting breaks directly above blocks if there are blocks next to it
MC-152601
Strange issues with smooth lighting
MC-153152
lighting looks glitchy in small tunnels
MC-155708
Bug on the Stairs Shadows
MC-166975
Lighting is not smooth even when smooth lighting is on when going around corner
MC-167697
Smooth Lighting Issues: Blocks seemingly have shadowy lighting on surrounding block
MC-173023
Smooth lighting transition bug
MC-184050
Lighting issues (again again)
MC-184086
Lighting bugs (again again again)
MC-188639
Odd lighting behavor on walls
MC-196845
Smooth lighting doesn't work on concrete.
MC-209158
Lighting bug
MC-215449
White concrete, possibly some others makes some weird lighting visuals when placed together forming a small tunnel
MC-237805
Irregular Smooth Lighting In 1-Block High Tunnels
MC-241814
Lighting bug with overhang
MC-262823
Visible Seams in Smooth Lighting
relates to
Attachments
Comments
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Let's dig into this a little bit because I think this issue's title is a poor descriptor of the problem and I don't want future bug reports to be wrongly labeled as duplicates of this issue.
This is really an issue with ambient occlusion in smooth lighting, as it only occurs with smooth lighting on (note that minimum and maximum smooth lighting makes no difference, as per https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-58668) and it is unrelated to actual in-game torch or sun light levels. We can see it in full effect if we use an all white texture and night vision:
[media]Some parts are so jarringly un-smooth that it appears that there are some gray blocks, even though there is only 100% white blocks used in the scene.
Contrast with this scene in which wide (2x2) tunnels are used and the ambient occlusion is correct:
[media]
(one might say that you can see some subtle lines here that don't make it "truly" smooth, but this is just a side effect of the linear interpolation, and is unnoticeable once a proper texture is applied.)
I think a better title for this issue would be "Tight spaces break smoothness of smooth lighting's ambient occlusion effect"
migrated
Still an issue in 1.14.4 and 19w42a
Redspyro99
Still present in 1.15 Pre-release 3
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The fabric API alone, seems to fix this somehow. Just thought I would share that here, it might be useful,,,?
[media]
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Confirmed for all 20w snapshots, including up to 20w09a.
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Confirmed for 20w10a and 11a
[media]
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even I reported it 4 times and it did not get fixed. I hope this time it gets fixed.
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Confirmed 20w22a. Please add to affected versions!
migrated
Can confirm for 1.16 pre relase 5
muzikbike
Affects 20w28a, can I request ownerhip? Original author has been inactive for over a year
amber meow
Affects all versions through 20w46a.
In addition to that, and while it may not be particularly helpful to talk about a mod on a vanilla bug forum, I thought it was worth mentioning that a popular mod called Sodium fixes both this issue and MC-1531, amongst others. If within reason, someone might want to ask the developer of the mod (JellySquid) to help out with these issues.
Brevort
Confirmed for 1.16.5 and 21w06a.
migrated
Confirmed for 21w10a. Ambient occlusion interacts strangely with smooth lighting, too, creating lots of visual artifacts. I'll attach some screenshots.
ampolive
Can confirm in 1.17.1.
ampolive
Can confirm in 21w38a.
ampolive
Can confirm in 21w40a.
Dobastickrn
Can confirm for 22w44a
Brevort
Affects 1.19.4-pre4. I experienced this issue on the west face of a block by digging a 1x2x1 hole in flat terrain
dirtTW
Can confirm in 23w17a.
dirtTW
Still can confirm in 23w18a
[Mod] Jingy
Affects 1.20.1 to 1.20.2-pre2
migrated
Can confirm in 23w51b.
LetsGoAway
Can confirm in 1.21.5