Particles do not render underwater, behind water or behind other transparent blocks

Just noticed this issue with smoke particles behind nether portals.
This issue should be linked to similar MC-161899 and to MC-9553

Affects 19w40a

Seems to not be affected by fully transparent blocks, like glass panes.

Duplicated by MC-164234

particles underwater are also only viewable when camera is also underwater

Yes this is still present within 1.15 Pre-3

Not transparent blocks, semi-transparent blocks.

Affects Release 1.15

Affects 1.15.1 as well.

I reported it as I didn't realize someone else had reported this. If a particle isn't directly visible, then it won't render. If it's underwater and you're not, it won't render. If you're underwater but it's in the air or another body of water, it won't render. Transparent blocks block particles too. If you don't have a direct straight path of nothing but air or water blocks to a particle, then it won't show up. 

Are the particles still rendered/processed but merely invisible? I ask because it feels like bubble columns don't cause nearly as much lag as they used to, which might be related.

still broken in 1.15.1

Affects 1.15.2 Pre-2

Affects 1.15.2

Affects 20w06a

20w07and08a

20w09a

affects 20w10a and 20w11a

Related Bug - MC-165595

It seems like they work behind glass but not water in 20w13b

yeah its the same in the newest Snapshot 20w14a
Please fix this!!

Same for 20w15a

Particles show just fine through plain, non-stained glass, as it has no transparent pixels (< 100% opacity)

However this bug started occurring in 1.15, it really needs to be fixed.

Please only add a comment if you have anything new to add to the ticket, otherwise it will be removed.

Updated for 20w16a. And apparently every update from then on out, especially with this current attitude we're getting and a lack of assurance that this will end.

If the issue is

• Serious, so much so that there are 111+ duplicate issues in a vain attempt to get this fixed

• Been going on since an update as far back as a 1.15 snapshot

• Has no assignee this whole time, suggesting that this isn't that big of a deal to them

• Was non-existent in a previous update, but out of the blue is a problem now

• Affects the game to the point where it is not 100% playable as intended

• Far less attended to that a ticket that is more of a suggestion than a bug

• Unable to be fixed by a common user

Then it is extremely difficult not to comment, in hopes of inspiring somebody to fix this critical issue. I understand that going through every single ticket is challenging, but undeniably, some tickets are "wants" while some are "needs". Seeing a very inconsistent and unwanted trend between the two types, repeatedly commenting for a "need" to be fixed can be annoying to anyone, but as people who have no control of the game, what else can we reporters do? Finally, it's scary how this website is much more focused on comments, duplicate issues, and certain people than what this site is entirely for: bugs and problems with the game.

This comment is more of an explanation why everyone on this ticket (including me) is the way they are, rather than requesting/demanding that the bug be fixed. As stated, we are powerless in this situation. I hope developers understand the difficulties we as users/players have, as we understand the difficulties they have (Minecraft is not easy to make).

The comments are for adding new information, not for complaints. Likely nobody from Mojang reads this, so you only annoy the moderators and the 53 people who watch this report. If you want to express that you want this bug fixed, vote for it. If you find it more important than Mojang, then fix it in a mod or get someone to fix it in a mod.
Other information that can be helpful: Confirming it in a new version and analysing the code (in the form "this happens because XYZ is wrong in method ABC", not by writing a fix for Mojang, that sadly does not help). If you want to do even more, you could check the exact version/snapshot that this bug was introduced in.
Also, the field "Mojang priority" means that this bug was "triaged", so it is now included in Mojang's internal systems and they are aware of it. That already raises the chance that it's fixed soon. I've also seen Slicedlime being annoyed by that bug himself when playing in a stream.
About bug importance in general: This is a client-side only bug. Those usually do not have as big of an impact on the game as a server-side bug, because nothing in the world actually changes because of it. That could explain why it has only "normal" priority. Here are some more important bugs (some not visible except for mods and devs): https://bugs.mojang.com/issues/?filter=23011

Not sure if it helps from a technical point of view, but this is a regression of a MC 1.8 bug (MC-35716) "Rain could not be seen through any stained glass". Maybe looking at how it was fixed back then could give hints to the new developer that picks up this ticket.

As an attempt to be remotely useful, I have a theory that could be completely wrong because I don't know the Minecraft code. But I imagine that a statement from before this bug started occurring said "If there is transparent/opaque color (stuff like water and stained glass), show the particles in this manner". But as the whole lighting and graphics systems were being revamped, that statement went missing, and it simply needs to be put back in. I'd imagine that, by default without proper coding, nothing shows through any piece of color, no matter how opaque. And that only new blocks and non-particle entities have been set to be shown. I could be very incorrect and might even sound silly for being so straightforward, but I think it's worth looking into.

I have tested these particles of which they are affected: (on 20w16a)
There's some extra information you can add to this ticket.

Affected:

• Bubbles (bubble columns or splashes) - major

• Water Particles - minor

• Dolphin Particles - minor

• Eye of Ender Breaking - moderate

• Splash Potions - minor

• Experience Bottles - minor

• Tridents Thrown in Water - major

• Broken Blocks - moderate

• Anvil Breaking - minor

• Endermen's Natural Particles - minor

• Squid Ink - minor

• Entities Disappearing when Killed - major

• Campfire Smoke - moderate

Fixed:

• Guardian Beams - so glad this change was reverted to beams again

Now a bug in 20w17a, and seemingly in every version hence forth. Confidence for this fix is slowly burning away.

Disclaimer: Not every single person who plays Minecraft is an aficionado mod maker who is capable of fixing any bugs at all, including this one. If that were the case, Minecraft would be absolutely perfect for everyone in their own ways, and this site wouldn't exist. But it saddens me how the very vast majority of players depend on higher-up developers for the content/improvements they want, or rather need in this case. And this problem continues in a snapshot, so mods are not possible. And how important this bug is, while it can be viewed as an opinion, having an impact on a player's overall gameplay (such as visibility to bubble columns, potion effects, and overall just looks absolutely awful) makes it something that not everyone could live with, it's just impossible to let lie. Lastly, the quotes directly from Mojang: "We can't fix a bug if nobody reports it!" implies that that's all it takes to fix an issue, but with the received impression that it also takes willingness and compassion on their end, we reporters are encouraged to do far more than report, which sadly there isn't a lot, besides emphasizing our issues, nervousness, and diminishing patience with this bug. I really don't know how to help/support/motivate anyone at this point, other than come back every week to confirm the bug still exists for each new never-ending Minecraft update.

Affects 20w18a

Shulker's faces also don't render behind their shells if they are invisible.

Affects 20w19a

Please only comment if you have new valuable information about the bug, not to complain about what you all dislike about the game. Most of which you said is also not true, but I will not discuss this further here. Go to reddit.com/r/mojira or https://discord.gg/rpCyfKV, if you want to discuss or complain. This is not what the bug tracker is for.
This bug is marked as confirmed and was triaged by Mojang, so it will be fixed, just be patient.

To optimize the game, Mojang made particles not render at all if not directly visible. Perhaps they forgot about transparent pixels? If that's the case my suggested fix is to create a transparency map (like bedrock with the new RTX). 1 = black and 0 = white. Particles will render behind anything if the transparency value thing is beneath 1.
I am not a programmer or software engineer by any means. This is just a suggestion 🙂

After analysis of the code changes between snapshot 19w38b and snapshot 19w39a, I have observed the following changes to the code structure.

The snapshot in which this bug first appeared introduced a reordering of the render order found in the level renderer code. The following table was created based on the render profiler strings (used to keep track of rendering time and which indicates the order in which elements are drawn) between the last unaffected version and the first affected version.

The draw order found in 19w39a does not appear to have changed much in newer snapshots, at least following analysis of 20w20a which has the same draw order as 19w39a.

The table shows that the translucent layer was moved from being drawn after particles to now be drawn before particles.  This is problematic because any particles drawn behind the translucency will now be clipped by the depth test, which is what can be observed in this bug report.

As a test, I have recompiled snapshot 19w39a with the 4 lines of code that draw the translucent layer moved to be below the particle drawing code. As shown in the following screenshot, particles now render behind water again. This is a modified snapshot, and not reflective of the vanilla game.

It's fixed in 20w22a!! The true Gods have summoned 🙂

Was this bug re-introduced to fix MC-186075?
Bummer this bug returned but they fixed it once by just changing the rendering orders, so I have high hopes this will be patched for good later 🙂

This only occurs if the Graphics setting is set to "Fast" or "Fancy". However, they have introduced the new "Fabulous" Graphics setting, in which case particles CAN be seen through transparency. I take it this is 100% intentional. So no, this bug is not re-introduced.

Praise all of you.

I somehow doubt you're intended to need to slaughter your PC to see particles through transparent blocks.

It’s still fixed for me in 1.16 pre 1 when using the fabulous setting.

Gpu: GeForce gtx 1060

Just tested 1.16pre1 and this issue is NOT resolved. A quick test is build a wall placing white glass blocks and clear glass blocks. Build a solid block roof over yourself. Set weather to rain. You can see the rain particles (falling an bouncing rain) through the clear glass, but you can't see it at all though the white stained glass.

You must not have read my comment or @unknown 's comment; you NEED to have Graphics set to "Fabulous" in order to see them. See the fixed-ish.png file I attached; it's the quick test you mentioned, only with lime glass. You'll have to look super closely with the rain, but with something like splash potion particles, it'll be pretty obvious.

If anyone is upset how you have to turn on Fabulous graphics in order to remove this issue, that is understandable, but this is as good a compromise as I expect we'll get in a while. Sorry if this brings anybody's hopes down. Also, hope that a certain graphics mod comes out fairly soon after 1.16 is released, and maybe you'll get more adjustment features.

I fully understand that, but I still consider it broken. With Graphics:Fancy and Particles:All it used to be visible in all versions up to 1.14.2. All version after that, particles through stained glass is not visible. Now with the Fabulous setting - which kills my laptop performance - I can get it back. But that's more like a hack. Why with my video setting, it used to work in all 1.14.2 and prior versions. Mojang now wants you to enable a new setting to get back the same behaviour? Makes no sense.

See my post (link below) on how broken Minecraft performance currently is. It seems 1.16 is headed the same way as the performance drop between 1.12.2 and 1.13+. On my laptop, 1.13 ran at 43% the speed as what 1.12.2 used to run at! That's a 57% performance drop.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Mojira/comments/gx1plz/mc186075_bug_fps_tanked_fps_performance_bad_since/

Can someone reopen this ticket? It’s only the fast and fancy graphics that causes the particles to not show through transparent blocks or liquids. It does affect 1.16 pre-2

On the current 1.16 pre-release 5 this issue came back for me. Rendering Graphics Fancy no Particles of Mob Spawners can be seen through colored glass. On Mode Fabulous! it works as intendend. Unfortunately I have an Intel Iris 5200 and can't run Fabulous! Btw, on 1.16 pre-release 4 it was working it just stopped after updating my world.

This should not be marked as resolved. What we have is... hmm... like, say you lived on an island. There’s one bridge connecting the island to the mainland. During a storm, the bridge got knocked down. Instead of rebuilding the bridge, a new one was built way down on the other end of the island. I don’t know if this makes sense. Basically, the new Fabulous setting is fine, but don’t leave Fancy broken. It worked at one point. I get lower leveled graphic settings not looking as good as higher ones, but lower ones shouldn’t be broken or incomplete. This practically forces you to play on a higher setting just so things render properly. I feel like Fabulous was basically just “Instead of fixing these rendering issues, let’s just create another setting were they render correctly!” I’m not trying to be rude btw. Please, fix Fancy.

Unfortunately, I can't confirm that this was briefly fixed in 1.16 pre4, but it is present in 1.16 pre5.

Reading these comments, I see how people can't be satisfied with this being only fixed for the fabulous settings. I'm only just lucky I have computer(s) that can handle those graphics settings. But with that said, it hurts to see others who can't have the same resolution I do, and I do believe that everyone deserves the equal treatment of fixed particle rendering regardless of what computers they have. Here's where it gets depressing: as I said before, I think this is as good a compromise we'll get for a long long long time.

A little history about this issue: it was created back in a 1.15 snapshot 9 months ago (3/4 of an entire year) and for over 8 of those months, the only comment or feedback we got from a moderator or helper was to stop complaining and only add something new, except that all we were able to do was confirm it for every single version and snapshot released over the 8 months. There has been absolutely no assignee, and not one word of reassurance had been given from anyone until 20w22a released and reported that this impacting issue had finally been attended to. And then in the 1.15 pre-releases, the dissatisfaction resumes, only this time the status refuses to change as "Resolved" making us believe that this is exactly how it's meant to be.

Despite all this distraught, and I have no right to ask of this, but please do everything in your power to not complain, I know it's hard. But this is one of those issues where complaints, urges, and flawless reasoning will not help fix it, and far more time will be spent scanning/deleting these comments than fixing this issue. Sadly, I can't promise that this issue will ever be set-in-stone fixed, or if we'll get another mediocre compromise in the next 3/4 of a year (until about March 2021). But hang in there everyone.

I agree that this is far from fixed, it'd be the same if there was an issue with entities not rendering in fast/fancy settings and saying it's "fixed" because they do in fabulous, even if the higher settings work properly, the lower settings shouldn't be left broken. It makes sense that stuff looks different with different settings, but it shouldn't behave differently.
And since 1.16 has been fully released now, I can confirm this is still a bug in 1.16 and is in fact not fixed

Confirmed for 1.16.1, but why confirm? This issue's never going to be fixed.

Just played on a MacBook Pro with relatively high specs, and every time I try to turn on Fabulous Graphics, I get the message "Your GPU is not compatible with this setting and will NEVER be." and the game lags like crazy afterwards and the fan goes nuts. Translation: "You don't get to play with working particles and functionality because you're not playing on a spectacular PC." This is what's referred to as "bias", which is an evil concept that nobody should ever take pride in.

We all need to throw in the towel, they seem to have made up their mind, and they're only going to come back for complaints to delete. This comment will likely be deleted too, but I'm not good at stopping myself from fighting for a lost cause. They have the capability to fix this, and definitely the proof that it can be fixed, it's a shame that neither of these are good enough be in their interest.

Related to MC-192894?

I don't think it's related. If it is, it's fixed right now (20w30a) but exclusively for people with Fabulous! Graphics.

Frightfully, I think this is intended by Mojang for average computer owners to live with this bug. When hovering above the "Fast"/"Fancy" graphics option, it says that transparency will not work, as though it was on purpose. Image is attached. If anyone has an answer as to why this discrimination is happening, please let me know, Google is no help.

This bug is still in the game! (versions 1.16 and 1.16.1) which means it is not fixed fixed yet.

Mojang implemented a half working solution, the issue is resolved only for those who use fabulous graphics... in other words, we have to put up with Mojang being lazy.

Not lazy, just different priorities. They are using a GPU feature to fix the issue and some older GPUs just don't have that feature. Re-implementing the feature that is already included in most GPUs is not as important in their priorities as fixing bugs that affect everyone or adding new features for everyone. You could go even lower and implement everything for CPU only, for people who have no GPU, but at some point it's just way too much effort to be worth it, lazy or not.

That being said, if there is even a single computer that fulfils the official system requirements and cannot run "fabulous", then this is still a valid bug until it's re-implemented for those or the requirements are raised. If someone here has such a computer, please comment with your specs. Otherwise, please stop complaining.

They can't say that it's fixed.

its just horrible to see that a feature from 1.14 need more computing power to be usable in 1.16, now i hate Mojang, i sincerely hope that a mod can fix this.

Confirmed for 1.16.2.

Fabian, I understand that you're fed up with all the gripping about Mojang's bias, but you have to realize that not everyone sees everything your way. I can name several examples where this bug would be infuriating, happy to name some of them. Also nothing explains why Mojang can't just re-implement it with the way they did before, thus fixing the bug for everyone, not to mention keeping the same respective performance for each computer. Or rather, they could just do whatever they did in snapshot 20w22a, where the exact same scenario happened.

I do have another computer, an Alienware Aurora, which does run the Fabulous graphics just fine, yet cannot because Fabulous graphics are not compatible with Optifine shaders, but since Mojang cares even less about 3rd party mods than the poor souls on this page, I won't dive further. As for my fairly decent MacBook, given that particle rendering was working JUST FINE before gives no reason why it shouldn't now.

One thing I have to agree with you on is Mojang's priority skills, as they have been very poor. Fan requests like netherite beacons and slightly-more reasonable creative inventory sorting do seem to be far far far more important than gameplay-interfering bugs.

Yes, I know all of this does not help with fixing the bug, but what I am trying to do is tell you how difficult it is to rest with these unjust and unfair results of a bug fix.

Not fixed...tried to make a glass column in 1.16.2 and it's still wrong.

You have to set your graphics to Fabulous.

Vladimir, not everyone has that option, due to them not having a godlike computer that not every person on the planet can afford.

I don't know what message they want us to take from this. One could be cruel encouragement for people to buy a $1,500+ computer, but I think this is just their way to show Mojang's power and how they do what they want; choose which bugs on this website are ACTUAL BUGS or feature requests that the "reporters should be ashamed of". And of course, what bugs they want to make a slight effort to fix or not, despite clear display that it would be an absolute breeze.

Everyone and every group, no matter how big, can be a hypocrite at anytime in their lives, with me being no exception. But to take pride in it, let it have an horrific effect over a massive chunk of the Minecraft community, and think that it's ok to live and make decisions based on preference because of their massive greatness and/or size, that's hubris, and I hate that more than a lot of other people and ideas that were put onto this world. YouTube and Microsoft are playing inexplicable Gods as well, probably to a point where it's worse than this, but I know this isn't what this site is about, even though I have no clue what this site IS about anymore.

Still no luck looking for why a win-win-win (visible particles for everyone + good performance for everyone + compatibility for everyone) is not available as a fix for this bug, especially when pre-1.15-snapshot versions and 20w22a completely proved otherwise. Knowing almighty ignorant stuck-ups and the unstoppable force of a power trip, my hopes on this actually being fixed are no more, but I would still love to know why the fix from 20w22a just couldn't stay, other than Mojang being abusive of their power, I'd really like to believe there's an actually good-hearted reason.

Does not work with "Fabulous" and yes my computers are capable of it.

Please limit comments to new information relevant to the issue. This isn't the place to discuss it, nor the place to complain.

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Confirmed in 21w06a

Please reopen

Can confirm in 1.20.3 Release Candidate 1
also affects waterlogged barriers

The bug was fixed in 20w22a, but ig the fix was reverted somewhere between 20w22a and the current update

These rendering issues are only fixed for Fabulous graphics setting, that setting was added specifically to fix these issues. Them happening on Fast or Fancy is Won't Fix.

Just noticed this issue when trying to make a hot tub. Haven't made one since 1.13 came out, where bubble particles did show through translucent blocks (like glass & water). It seems that the issue was "fixed" just for the Fabulous graphics setting. I can't help but call out the flawed logic in locking this setting behind a "better" graphics option, when that graphics option doesn't even have shader support. I'm unable to see particles through translucent blocks unless I take my shaders off and change the setting to Fabulous? Seriously?