Mojang Studios released Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 5 on October 20, adding Packed Ice Bricks, a new advancement for killing a Frostbite with an Ice Ball, and an experimental Windows video setting called “Prefer DXGI Present.” The snapshot also adds ambient sounds for regular Ice blocks, changes how mobs can damage certain blocks in adventure mode, and updates the game’s data, resource and network formats.
Packed Ice Bricks expand the frozen block set
The main block addition in Snapshot 5 is Packed Ice Bricks. Mojang says they are crafted from 2×2 Packed Ice and come with slab, stair, wall and chiseled variants. The slab, stair, wall and chiseled forms can also be crafted in a Stonecutter, so builders do not need to rely only on the crafting grid.
Mojang also placed Packed Ice Bricks and Chiseled Packed Ice in the Fast Sliding Sulfur Cube archetype. That lines up with the broader cold-themed work Minecraft has been testing across the 26.4 snapshots, which already introduced Brittle Ice in Snapshot 4 and ice caves and Frostbite in Snapshot 3.
The visual side of the update is covered too. Mojang added new block textures for block/chiseled_packed_ice.png and block/packed_ice_bricks.png, giving the new set its own look in inventories and in the world.
New Frostbite advancement and projectile changes
Snapshot 5 adds a new Adventure advancement called “What Goes Around Comes Around”. Mojang says it is earned by killing a Frostbite with an Ice Ball. It is a simple goal, but it ties the new reward directly to one of the frozen biome enemies Minecraft has been building around in recent test versions.
The update also changes how mobs interact with some blocks in adventure mode worlds. According to Mojang, mobs can now break Decorated Pots, Chorus Flowers and Speleothem blocks with projectiles in adventure mode, unless the mob_griefing gamerule is set to false.
That change sits alongside several related bug fixes. Mojang says it fixed a regression where projectiles shot by mobs could no longer break decorated pots, chorus flowers, pointed dripstone, sulfur spikes or icicles. The bug list also includes a fix for Frostbites spawning naturally in normal caves under cold biomes, and another for zombies, husks, drowned, strays and Frostbites being affected by Poison and Regeneration.
Ice blocks now have ambient sounds
Regular Ice blocks now have ambient sound behavior. Mojang says an Ice block has a chance to emit a sound when it is surrounded by at least 8 Ice blocks in all horizontal directions — east, west, north and south — with one Air block above and one Water block below.
The announcement does not describe the sound as guaranteed, only that the block has a chance to make one when those conditions are met. That makes the effect more of an environmental audio detail than a constant trigger.
Several fixes in the snapshot also clean up ice-related visuals. Mojang corrected the bottom face of icicles on the floor being rotated 180 degrees, fixed the icicle in the Creative mode inventory being placed in the wrong spot, and addressed a bug where icicle models used the deprecated shade field. Another fix renames the icicle template models so they are prefixed with template_.
Windows gets an experimental DXGI present option
For Windows users, Mojang added a new “Prefer DXGI Present” video setting. The studio says it is a way to attempt to use DirectX to present the game. The option is off by default, and Mojang labels it experimental, noting that it may not work for everyone and that not all hardware supports it.
When enabled, Mojang says the setting may improve IME support, Variable Refresh Rate support and faster alt-tabbing while playing in fullscreen mode. It is a small toggle, but one that targets a common pain point for fullscreen PC players.
The snapshot also raises the Data Pack version to 125.0 and the Resource Pack version to 100.2. Those version bumps come with broader technical adjustments that affect server login behavior, data components, world generation and tags.
- Login protocol: encryption and compression must now be explicitly applied by the server using packets that carry connection options.
- Client acknowledgement: the client must confirm the change with a matching packet before later packets use the new settings.
- Protocol packets: the packets that can carry options are minecraft:login_finished, minecraft:login_acknowledged, minecraft:apply_options and minecraft:options_applied.
- World generation: blocks discarded because of air exposure in ore and scattered_ore will no longer fall through to the next replacement rule.
- Density functions: interpolated has been renamed to upscale, with several sampling modes listed in the notes.
- Tags: Mojang added and renamed biome and entity tags, including new immunity tags for poison, regeneration, freezing, wither and weakness.
Mojang says the login change is meant to avoid malformed packets, since the old system applied encryption and compression immediately on both sides. The new approach forces the server to send the connection options first, then waits for the client to acknowledge them before the rest of the connection uses the updated settings.
On the data component side, three fields are now fully optional: the sound field for minecraft:consumable, and the equip_sound and shearing_sound fields for minecraft:equippable. Mojang also added the new biome tag #spawns_ice_variants_underground and renamed #spawns_strays_without_powder_snow to #spawns_cold_variants_underground.
Bug fixes cover servers, mobs, structures and menus
Snapshot 5’s bug list is long, and several fixes line up with recent snapshot features. Mojang fixed a race condition in the dedicated server’s compression setup, corrected a crash when rendering hidden tooltips for music discs in jukebox playlists, and fixed another crash triggered by a negative playlist_position value.
Structure and world-generation fixes also stand out. Mojang fixed the snowy_shepherds_house_1 village structure never generating, restored ruined portals in ice caves, and corrected ice caves not being part of the #stronghold_biased_to biome tag. A separate fix addresses the bug where red and brown mushrooms spread incorrectly.
Other fixes affect menus and interaction rules. Mojang says any mouse button can now be used to select entries in the statistics menu, open links on the death screen and close the friends and other players menus when clicking outside them. The snapshot also fixes paintings breaking outside the world border and repairs the issue where mobs can spawn on honey blocks.
Several dispenser and sound issues are fixed as well, including dispensers filling glass bottles without playing the bottle-filling sound, dispensers equipping chests on donkeys, mules or llamas without the chest-equipping sound, and flint and steel or fire charges failing to make a sound when igniting sulfur cubes holding TNT. Mojang also fixed dispensers consuming flint and steel durability and playing their clicking sound when there was nothing to ignite.
Finally, the snapshot cleans up a handful of tag and immunity issues. Mojang fixed mobs with multiple entity type tags corresponding to effect immunity only respecting one tag, replaced #ignores_poison_and_regen with separate #immune_to_poison and #immune_to_regeneration tags, renamed #freeze_immune_entity_types to #immune_to_freezing, and added #immune_to_wither and #immune_to_weakness.
the DXGI toggle is the only thing here that feels like a real pc fix. packed ice bricks are nice, but if it smooths fullscreen alt-tab and vrr that’s the actual win for a lot of people
does DXGI actually help?
on my end these experimental video options are hit or miss, but when they work they usually make fullscreen less annoying. i had one game that alt-tabbed way cleaner after a similar toggle, though ime stuff can still be weird if your setup is fussy. worth trying if you hate the usual hitch when switching out, just do not expect magic on every pc.