Fog and clouds darken when indoors or under trees (<16 Chunk Render Distance)

@Ezekiel: Why, and for which reason should clouds turn grey in this case?

I guess your right, ok. Confirmed.

@Ezekiel:
If it would be an intended feature, it would be the stupidest visual effect ever added to Minecraft. But it really looks like they simply messed up the fog render code to wrongly show the "rainy weather" effect.

Correction: Stormy and rainy weather have more bluish fog, it actually looks more like there's something like bedrock fog in the distance. Whatever, it looks horrible and needs to be fixed.

Confirmed.

@snyyped:
Don't forget to upvote this 🙂

Confirmed. Seems to be related to the light level: if you got into a dark cave but can still see the horizon, the fog becomes completly black. It is also noted as a feature of 1.7 on the wiki, which is weird. I hope it's not, because it sure is ugly!

@Marco:
Definitely related to light level. For everyone who wants to try that:
Just dig a long hole in the side of a large mountain, you should still be able to see the ugly dark sky/fog from inside. Then place a torch next to yourself. The torch causes the fog outside to get much brighter. Walking along a long hole with alternating torch light and darkness whilst being able to see the fog outside makes a pretty weird appearance.

Confirmed for 13w39a/b !

I don't suppose this is also for water being pitch-black even when you're only at the bottom of a river, and not say.... an abyss?

If not, if there is an issue for this could someone direct me to it. Even if it's not the same issue, it could be related, they are both fog and they cropped up at the same time.

I'm kinda thinking this is intended. I know we aren't supposed to reference the upcoming feature of the Wiki page but it does state:

"The Sky
■Now darkens when inside"

Not sure who runs the wiki though as the page is locked from editing by normal people (guessing admin only changes)

@Th3F4114n0n3:
The wiki is wrong with this:
1.) The fog darkens, not the sky !
2.) It doesn't only darken when inside, the fog brightness changes everywhere depending on the light level of the block you're currently standing on, even underwater or under trees, ...
3.) Why the hell should the fog brightness change depending on the light level of the block you're currently standing on? That's just stupid. As I said before: If this would be a feature, it would be the most stupid feature they ever added to Minecraft.

@Th3F4114n0n3
The wiki page http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Upcoming_features is not locked.

The reasoning behind this, I believe, is to fix the bright light at the far end of giant caves and chasms when one is underground.

♫ ♪ "Sun is shining, the weather is sweet,,," ♫ ♪
Yet in Minecraft, if you cross under a tree, all of a sudden magic before your eyes; the sky darkens, here comes the thunderstorm. One step further and the sky is clear again!
If this is the result of trying to fix another bug, then I hope Mojang keep up their effort in doing so. If this is an intended behavior then I feel compelled to express my opinion. This effect looks very bad, it is not artistic and it is not useful, thus unwanted. In this case I seriously hope they revert the changes back to Minecraft 1.6.4

@ Zombie hunter - I don't think its bock your on but block your under (i.e. in a cave or under a tree) but agreed, it is dumb and was probably just an atempt to make the game feel a bit different.

@ Kamasasa - Odd, I swear that page was locked the other day.

I had feared that this was an intended "feature", but the feature page confirms it. Please, Mojang, remove this. It makes absolutely no sense. Why are you darkening bright things when you're in a dark place? If anything, bright things should look even brighter when you're in the dark. It was just fine before! It is a game-breaker when I build a house with huge glass windows, look out on a clear day, and it looks like a storm is coming. Please, please, please, this is unacceptable!

@Zi Ye:
You mean the feature page on the wiki? It confirms nothing, it's not an official feature list. Besides, I already explained that the wiki is wrong (The fog darkens, not the sky !) and why this can't be a feature.

I attached 2 screenshots showing how torch light changes the fog brightness. You can try this with a redstone lamp + lever under every tree, turning it off and on gives a pretty stupid appearance ...
Even weirder: When your head is INSIDE the hitbox of the lever, the fog brightens without the lamp being turned on!

This bugs me. I keep thinking that night is starting to fall when i happen to walk under some shade.

@zombie hunter:
Thanks for the clarification! The lever thing is interesting. Perhaps there's a confusion between "powered block" and "block with powered redstone dust on it" somewhere in the code. Powered redstone dust does emit a small amount of light, and so in the context of this (broken) algorithm, it makes "sense".

Confirmed for 13w41b !

@zombie hunter:
By confirmed, do you mean it's a confirmed feature, or do you mean it's confirmed as in it will be fixed? :O

@Zi Ye:
"Still affects 13w41b !" Clear now? 🙂

Oh no! D:

As broken as this is, I'm pretty certain this was intentional. Something like this can't just sneak itself into the code. It shows a very clear connection between fog brightness and block brightness. I really hope they see this and change their minds, though.

I think like @Sebastian Romu that it's for fixing the fog when underground, but they didn't think it through very much and didn't notice it affected above-ground fog as well.
I actually find that the bright fog underground was a good thing, it gave some kind of mystical side to those caves, so this "fix" in itself wasn't a good idea to begin with...

Wait & see.

I agree Marco... The mystical foggy caves that turned dark as you wandered them was kinda fun.

The old behavior in caves may have been unrealistic – but it was useful. It gave you a glimpse of what waited beyond in the dark. It is a lot easier to accept odd and unrealistic things in a game when they are advantageous.

I'd rather have:
unrealistic, but useful fog in caves, and realistic fog outside, than
realistic fog in caves, and unrealistic fog outside.

There are simply more plusses to the old way.
Now if they could make the fog realistic in both contexts, that would be even better IMHO, but i don't think that would be easy.

To clear up the WAI/Bug discussions: We did not intentionally change this in 1.7. The new behaviour is a bug.

That's a relief! Thanks for clearing that up, Dinnerbone. =)

@Dinnerbone: is being in shallow water looking like an abyss and black horizons in superflat worlds related to this bug?

This is still an issue in 13w42a, please update affected versions.

... aaand 13w42b !

Confirmed for 13w43a !

This terrible bug is still not fixed in 1.7 ... 😞

Still not fixed in 1.7.1 😞

Wohoo, finally fixed 🙂
Ok, Dinnerbone, what about MC-31622 ?
And please revert the fix of MC-34649, after you added all the ugly backface culling stuff we can't even see the water surface anymore (seen from underwater)!

Hmm, I can confirm issue for 1.7.2.

jow Dinnerbone, it's not fixed for me :/

Confirmed for 1.7.2 - this is not fixed.

Hmm, fixed for me. And take a look at this please MC-31622, this issue is even on 64-bit java

Totally fixed for me ... check your MC installation everyone (should be 1.7.2 !!!), if it really happens in 1.7.2 for you, press F3 and post a screenshot here, also some description where and when it happens.

It says 1.7.2 in the launcher, the title bar, the F3 panel, and the version folder of .minecraft. In addition, other bugs present in 1.7.1 but fixed in 1.7.2 are fixed in this version. I closed the launcher, restarted it, and restarted 1.7.2.

You don't get more 1.7.2 than this.

Completely fixed for me.

@Gerrard Lukacs:
Your environment (Java, OS, ...), please ...
I just tried it on both my own and my brothers computer (NVidia Graphics, Win7, Java 7_u40 64-bit) it's definitely fixed.

EDIT:
Also tested normal world and some superflat presets, the fog stays white all the time.

nope I checked everything, check my screenshot. I get it on servers and singleplayer world's. I'm using the latest launcher and I'm using vanilla of course.

I could make a video if you don't believe me

I attached images displaying the bug in 1.7.2.

System: Windows 7 64-bit Professional
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 (integrated)
Java: 64-bit 1.7.0_45 jre7

Fancy Graphics, Maximum Smooth Lighting, Brightness: Bright, Particles: All, Render Distance: 12 chunks, Advanced OpenGL: On, Clouds: On, VSync: On, Mipmaps: 4, Anisotropic Filtering: OFF

Happens any time Sky light is less than 15, regardless of altitude or world type, from what I can tell. Is there any way for me to verify my Minecraft version? I don't see how it isn't 1.7.2, considering it's plastered all over it, and other bugs fixed in 1.7.2 actually are fixed for me.

GOT IT !!!
The render distance setting is the problem. Any setting below 16 still shows the bug, can anyone please reopen this and mention it in the description ?

Reopened and Confirmed.

Please reopen this!

It's been reopened.

Thanks, zombie hunter, for tracking that down, and thanks Ezekiel for reopening it!

yep good job zombie, when it's set to anything lower then 16 chunks it's there

I'm not exactly sure why you guys reopened this issue..... Dinnerbone marked it as fixed for "future version 1.8"..... look at the history.

It was reopened because the issue has not actually been fixed in its entirety. The developers aren't perfect at fixing bugs.

But the fix version was stated to be 1.8 and 1.8 isn't out yet! If it was stated as fixed for 1.7.2, I would agree, but it wasn't stated fixed for it.

Mojang changes the fix versions. 1.8 is just a placeholder for the next version.

Is this really a bug? Things get a tiny bit darker when you're not directly in the sun. I think it might just be lighting system tweaks that are making so many people whine about nothing when they were just more realistic.

It was stated as fixed for "Future Version - 1.8" because Dinnerbone fixed it before 1.7.2 came out. When it came out, the Fix Version updated to 1.7.2. It's just the way things work: it was marked as fixed for 1.7.2, not 1.8. This happens for pretty much every bug fixed after the first pre-release of any update: the JIRA doesn't know the official version number until it has been released.

EDIT: @Waffle: Dinnerbone already confirmed that this behavior is a bug, and they tried to fix it. It was reopened because the fix only applied when you're using a render distance of 16 chunks.

I wouldn't call it realistic for a storm to brew on the horizon when I take a step under my fully-lit porch awning.

hey guys, I know we're all buds here and you're doing a great job but can you please stop spamming comments?

it was confirmed by dinnerbone as a bug. the bug is not fixed, the devs know, the mods know. A discussion is pretty useless at this point 😛

What the hell? This is fixed for me on 1.7.2. I uploaded 2 screenshots, fixed_1.png and fixed_2.png
edit: Sorry I've just realized the fix only works with 16 chunks render distance setting (which is also bugged).

Still in 13w47a, but sky doesn't get dark, it only becomes gray, but there's no such color change with 16 chunk setting. So not fixed in 13w47a

After testing this in 13w47a/b/c/d/e, following result (the behavior changed):
At Render Distance = 16, no problems
At Render Distance = 13-15, this bug is barely visible anymore
At Render Distance <13, this bug is cleary noticeable, the lower the render distance, the worse is the effect

Still a problem in 13w48a/b

I still say that instead of it darkening when underneath something, the sky should brighten slightly when walking out from under an overhang of some sort.

No difference in 13w49a, 1.7.3 and 1.7.4, still not fixed !

Confirmed in 14w04b.

Still present in 14w06b, and it's very annoying.

This bug is present as early as Minecraft 1.6.4 (although it's not noticeable in that version unless you're specifically looking for it).

It is at its worst in 1.7.2, where it is blatantly obvious.
In 1.7.4, it has been improved, but is still very noticeable.
In 14w06b, it is the same as 1.7.4.

The attach screenshots form seems to not be working for me for some reason (probably something with java, since it redirects me to the oracle website), so I've uploaded them to imgur instead.

1.7.2: Outside: http://i.imgur.com/Edrs1ta.png
Inside: http://i.imgur.com/dyzEdp9.png

14w06b: Outside: http://i.imgur.com/oDgXmtu.png
Inside: http://i.imgur.com/td4wTO0.png

If anyone can get the screenshot submission thing to work, feel free to properly submit those.

Use "Attach Files" instead of "Attach Screenshot". I'm not exactly sure what the latter is even supposed to do – it doesn't work for me either, now that the tracker has moved servers, and I don't remember it being useful before. I think it's for attaching directly from the Windows clipboard, rather than from a file.

Still not fixed in 14w07a

Is this in w08a?

I can still reproduce this in 14w08a

Still an issue in 14w11a and 14w11b.

It's still a thing in 14w27b.

14w29b.
Also happens when your face is close to the top surface of the water (though we've already established the fact that underwater is darker too).

Still present in 14w30c. Also I have my render distance set to 16, so this bug occurs regardless of render distance setting.

in 14w31a

Also happens when in the water.

14w32b.

Why is this still an issue? Ya'd think that Mojang would've fixed things like this, the frailty of boats, and expense limits on anvils already!

Maybe because there's approximately 2937 other open issues all demanding their attention? They thought they had it fixed once, but it was apparently a more more complex issue than anticipated. They'll get back around to it, particularly now that they've given the rendering engine an overhaul, which should make this easier to fix.

14w34b.

Can confrim for 14w34c, But it strangely won't occur on max 32 render distance setting. Too bad I'm playing on 8 due to my PC. =3

Glas to see it is Assigned finnaly)))

And btw, before it was 16 max, and it wasn't happening on 16, now it's 32 and it's doesn't occur on 32 setting, but 16 now affected by this bug... Maybe something with render distance?

Also if you stand on soulsand you get this. In all versions before this post and 34d

And more, When I sit in boat and minecart, I get gray clouds.

That's MC-51150 (related to this issue).

You know what would be a great way to solve this problem? Use the default vignette when you're in a shadow. Neither of them make sense in their current contexts, but if you vignette the player's vision when he's in the dark, it might make more sense.

Confirmed in 1.8.1-pre4.

Probably related, this also occurs when swimming on the surface of water (not yet submerged)

@@unknown: This is MC-51150

Still in 1.8.7

affects 15w31a

Still in 1.8.8 and 15w38a

Confirmed for 15w44a.