[MCPE-124841] Render distance of partially transparent blocks is about half of render distance setting

Many partially transparent blocks stop rendering at about 1/2 of render distance on land in the overworld. In particular, this affects blocks that apply transparency to portions of the block’s collision box. It seems that beyond the threshold distance the entire texture of the block gets replaced by transparency.

Note: blocks that overlay a texture based on tile entity data, such as beds, chests, and pistons, behave differently. Tile entities seem to follow the entity render distance of 70 regardless of the render distance selected in settings. That behavior is not the subject of this report.

Steps to reproduce

On land in the overworld, place blocks that have partially transparent textures, such as flowers, iron bars, ladders, etc. (Do not use blocks with tile entity textures like beds and chests—see note above.)
Move away from the blocks.

Expected result

All blocks render up to render distance.

Observed result

The partially transparent blocks disappear at around 1/2 of render distance.

Affected Blocks	Notes
Grass, ferns, flowers
Sugarcane	Does not disappear, but normally transparent part becomes solid green.
Crops
Berries
Mushrooms
Nether sprouts and roots
Saplings
Leaves	Do not disappear, but lose their transparency (as if fancy leaves is disabled).
Vines (all types)
Dripleaf
Dripstone
Spore blossom
Glow lichen
Amethyst clusters
Bamboo
Cactus	Does not disappear, but solid beige spine color covers the corners.
Dead bush
Lily pad
Corals
Seagrass
Sea pickles
Kelp	Does not disappear, but normally transparent part becomes solid green. MCPE-32737
Cobweb
Doors
Trapdoors
Ladder
Iron bars	MCPE-30028
Anvil
Lanterns
Brewing stand
Composter
Stonecutter
Rails (all types)
Tripwire hook
Lever
Repeater
Comparator
Redstone torch	Does not disappear, but normally transparent part becomes solid black.
Soul torch	Does not disappear, but normally transparent part becomes solid black.
Campfires	Does not disappear, but normally transparent part becomes solid black.
Hopper
Chain
Monster spawner
Beacon
Flower pot
Fire
Mangrove roots
Scaffolding

Linked issues

is duplicated by 14

MCPE-131759 Blocks can be seen through trapdoors Resolved

MCPE-139443 Grass and flowers stop rendering 150 blocks away Resolved

MCPE-139567 Door and trapdoor does not render beyond a certain distance Resolved

MCPE-156087 Mangrove roots are not displayed when viewed from a distance Resolved

MCPE-167013 Specific chunks out of fov not rendering correctly Resolved

9 more links

relates to 6

MCPE-126338 Blocks losing transparency and shape when looking from afar with a spyglass Open

MCPE-127565 Powder snow becomes invisible when viewed from a distance Resolved

MCPE-158051 Mangrove roots disappear when viewed from afar Open

MCPE-169834 Blocks at a distance change brightness Reopened

MCPE-32737 Kelp looks solid from a distance Resolved

1 more links

Comments 14

GoldenHelmet 2021-04-12T17:10:28Z

Please provide the actual numbers. What is your maximum render distance? How far away are flowers and mobs disappearing?

Entities do have their own render distance limitation of around 70 blocks, which cannot be changed.

ChrisPpp 2021-04-13T07:37:10Z

My render distance is 22 chunks which is the max. Things starts disappearing 165 blocks

Simulation distance chunks is 10 max

ChrisPpp 2021-04-13T07:51:24Z

Oh my bad I think it's 161 or 160 blocks away from me when things start disappearing

v-baslod 2021-07-28T15:25:34Z

Thank you for your report!

However, this issue has been temporarily closed as Awaiting Response.

Is this still an issue in the latest version? If yes, can you please add it to the affected versions (or mention it if you are not the reporter)?

This ticket will automatically reopen when you reply.

Quick Links:
📓 Issue Guidelines – 💬 Mojang Support – 📧 Suggestions – 📖 Minecraft Wiki

GoldenHelmet 2021-07-29T15:41:17Z

Behavior still occurs. I have updated the report to clarify.

The reported behavior creates a special problem with iron bars in the end, which has been tracked separately at MCPE-30028.

For some reason the behavior applies to powder snow too, even though powder snow is not partially transparent. (MCPE-127565)

The same blocks that stop rendering at 1/2 of render distance on land stop rendering underwater when their chunk is 32 blocks from the player. (MCPE-34794)

4 more comments

user-85a28 2021-08-03T20:31:14Z

Isn't this intended as a way of saving resources? Like a LOD type system where unimportant objects such as grass are unrendered and animated textures stop being animated. I agree that it is quite jarring and blocks such as powdered snow should not be unrendered but the feature itself isn't a bug

GoldenHelmet 2021-09-01T21:50:27Z

This issue also applies to custom blocks (see e.g. MCPE-140364), which suggests to me it may actually be triggered by the "render_method": "alpha_test" inside "material_instances".

I agree the feature itself makes sense for optimization for some blocks like grass and flowers, but I think it does not make sense for it to be based on simplistic criteria (render distance + render method). It ought to have a minimum threshold (like entities do) so things don't disappear too close on low-end devices or for users using low render distance to get better performance. For example, on my iPhone I can set render distance as low as 6 chunks, and that makes affected blocks disappear when > 48 blocks away. It might be even better to have it be adjustable separate to some extent from render distance.

It also does not make much sense for light-emitting blocks like fire and glow lichen, because you can see the light from far away but not the source. And for a block like lily pads, not being able to see it from high up in the air before you jump could mean you die from falling instead of landing safely in the water.

user-85a28 2021-09-02T04:03:19Z

Over 12 chunk render distance this doesn't occur in the nether. Seems weird for specifically it working fine in the nether but the lower render distance underwater having sea grass and other transparent blocks disappearing as if the render distance slider was set to 4

GoldenHelmet 2021-09-02T17:15:29Z

The behavior is the same in the nether, but the nether fog makes it impossible to test anything higher than 12 chunk render distance because you can only see about 100 blocks in the least foggy biomes. I think the nether may also have its own render distance limit of 12 chunks, meaning a higher setting doesn't let you see any farther than 12 chunks even if you remove the fog. The affected blocks should still disappear at 1/2 of whatever you set your render distance to.

ChrisPpp 2021-09-02T17:18:00Z

Well my bad for taking it as a bug but it looks weird.. Minecraft Console edition doesn't make grass or flowers disappear.

GoldenHelmet 2021-09-02T21:07:32Z

Nicolas crawford: the report is still open, confirmed, and tracked internally by Mojang, so we just have to wait and see how they handle it. They might say it's all working as intended, they might adjust the threshold distance, they might tweak which blocks are affected, they might eliminate it entirely, or do something totally different. It wasn't wrong for you to report the issue. I just took the opportunity to investigate and try to bring out the full scope of how it's currently working.

user-85a28 2021-09-12T06:33:35Z

I'd say if this issue would be addressed the way I would prefer it to is to add a sort of "foliage distance%" slider like how Java has a entity distance% slider and bedrock used to have one for particles but was mysteriously removed

Natthan 2021-09-17T13:53:45Z

Affects 1.17.40.20

BobzBlue 2024-07-25T21:38:35Z

With mipmaps set to 4, compared to 0, leaves loose transparency in a similar manner at a shorter distance. Modded shaders seam to be able to resolve both leave transparency issues. At one point I seem to have somehow accidentally disabled the non-mip related loss of transparency without shaders active by toggling though shaders... this doesn't get rid of the mipmap loss of transparency but that is more likely caused by no alpha channel being mipped, with the leaves texture using a all or nothing method of transparency. I don't know how shaders allow transparency though mips, perhaps by blending the mip levels?