[MCPE-20109] Gravity blocks - Falling Entities (eg Sand) Break and Drop as Items Unexpectedly

^{Update by}@unknown^:
Summary:
Falling blocks such as sand will break even when landing on blocks that have a full height hitbox, such as hoppers, upturned stairs, or top-half slabs.

Steps to Reproduce:

Place sand a few blocks above an upturned stair block

Observed Results:
The sand will break and drop as an item as it hits the stair block.

Expected Results:
I expected the sand to fall and land as a block, not drop as an item.

Screenshots/Videos attached: Yes

Notes:
List of blocks that cause the falling entity to break, that do not in Java:

Hoppers
Stair blocks (any orientation)
Top-half slabs
Cauldron
Composter
Shulker Box
Iron Bars
Glass Pane
Trapdoors (iron and wooden)
Normal Glass ✔
Stained Glass
Leaves ✔
Ice (not packed ice)✔

✔ =Fixed in 1.16

(Also happens on the following, but for a different reason: These blocks have collision box heights that are > 1 block, which would cause the gravity block to become a stuck falling block if they didn't break. Thanks to yusufulus for pointing this out.)

Fences
Cobblestone (and other) walls

Additional info by @unknown:
"Gravity block" as used here means any of the following blocks:

Anvil
Concrete Powder
Dragon Egg
Gravel
Red Sand
Sand

Although Scaffolding and Top Snow also fall under the influence of gravity, they behave very differently from the above and are reported in other tickets.

Original Description:
Gravity blocks are broken when they are falling on non-full blocks (wooden fences, slabs, stairs, cobblestone walls (mossy and regular) daylight sensors, end portal frame, cake, enchanting table, grasspath, hoppers, cauldrons, and hoppers). Galaxy tab 4

Linked issues

is duplicated by 5

MCPE-29374 la arena se rompe al caer sobre un bloque que no conduce electricidad Resolved

MCPE-53594 Falling blocks break on upper facing slabs Resolved

MCPE-64362 Sand breaks when falling on glass Resolved

MCPE-95926 Sand breaking on upside down stairs Resolved

MCPE-119434 Sand gets destroyed on fence instead of landing on it Resolved

relates to 3

MCPE-18900 Sand, gravel, and concrete powder will drop as an item on certain blocks that it shouldn't such as pistons. Resolved

MCPE-95785 Sand disappears when torch is placed under it Resolved

MCPE-134644 Falling blocks can break when landing on each other Resolved

Attachments

ScaffoldingOnTopSlab.mp4

Comments 19

Ariel Diaz 2017-02-20T07:18:56Z

Just tested it;

Aside from fences, it seems that stairs, slabs, grass paths, chests, hoppers, cauldrons, enchantment table, daylight-sensors, end portal frames, cake, and cobblestone/mossy cobblestone walls are affected as well.

Specialistol 2017-02-20T08:23:04Z

Wiki says it will drop as an item when it falls onto a non-solid block. As I understand it, all of the above qualify as non-solid, so this seems like the intended behavior.

PHO 2017-02-20T09:21:13Z

@unknown: No. Non-solid blocks are blocks that have no collision box, like torches, redstone dust, vines, signs, etc. It's not WAI.

rboxman 2017-02-22T01:19:03Z

Looks like this is related to MCPE-18900 but this bug is more general as more than just pistons are causing bad behavior.

BlazingBeam 2017-08-23T15:06:21Z

I'm pretty sure it's not a bug, it was designed this way, the wiki clearly states that falling blocks will turn to dropped items as soon as they fall into non-solid blocks/transparent blocks. For example cake, it does not cover a whole box. That's why it is known as a non-solid block/entity or a transparent block/entity.

9 more comments

[Mojang] Mega_Spud (Jay) 2017-08-23T15:47:37Z

Added a comparison image showing which blocks sand will land on with or without breaking, Bedrock vs Java:

[media]

You can see in the Bedrock version, they all break sand.

KopperXP 2017-08-23T16:19:45Z

This is part of Minecraft Java, but it is very useful in some situations. Let the block stay in infinite drop even in Minecraft PC! Please. 😉

muzikbike 2018-02-15T11:03:31Z

This no longer seems to happen with leaves, but other blocks still exhibit this.

Gabriel Matte 2018-04-09T19:53:03Z

I think it's all transparent blocks. There's some differences from Java to Bedrock and you just need to learn how to deal with them

Transparent blocks have some advantages like they are spawn proof and are teleport proof for enderman... Well they where I didn't check this update yet.

Jeffrey 2018-06-29T04:22:25Z

@Gabriel Matte

That's not the issue. The problem is that all gravity blocks (sand,concrete,etc.) break when falling on almost all transparent blocks even on the top half of a slab. It is not about the transparent blocks but about gravity blocks breaking on them.

Phillip A. Cox 2020-03-31T05:22:44Z

in the beta they have it where the sand, gravel, etc. dont break when they land on a glass block or scaffolding. they still break on top slabs, stairs, stained color glass.

PikaBlu 2020-03-31T07:25:29Z

iPad Pro 12.9” Gen 1 on iPadOS 13.4 with Minecraft 1.14.30.

I have tested all the blocks listed and some new blocks not listed and found some changes. Sand no longer breaks falling onto leaves as described on the list in the post. All other blocks there do still cause the falling block to break. There is also one new block missing from that list, that being the composter. It too breaks falling blocks when landed on which is not intended.

Vratislav Filler 2020-06-24T10:37:29Z

Sterted to happening after 1.16 update on two-layer piston gravity door when pistons are retracted. One layer of sand breaks into items after falling (not 100% sure if upper one, but seems so, because items remains on the top of remaining sand layer).

[Mod] OcelotOnesie 2020-06-24T10:50:16Z

@unknown, we're tracking that issue at MCPE-81106.

Skaijie 2020-09-29T13:08:37Z

Affects 1.16.40
Also why is there a stray recursion link to this page in the repro steps?

CrampedSpider72 2020-09-29T14:08:04Z

Updated: Sand doesn't break on ice

Auldrick 2020-11-27T04:45:08Z

The reported fix version of 1.15.0.51 Beta appears to be incorrect, as the changelog identifies the issue that was fixed as the one mentioned above in a comment by Vratislav Filler, which was redirected to MCPE-81106. Unfortunately, I am no longer able to remove that fix version. Please disregard it.

I have re-tested all the gravity blocks against all the blocks they fall on and verified that the chart in the description still accurately describes the current state of this issue.

Auldrick 2021-07-19T11:23:24Z

Re-tested in 1.17 using sand as the falling entity. Results were the same as for 1.16.

CrampedSpider72 2021-07-19T18:14:22Z

Yes, but it was fixed in the newest Beta. Tested it myself.