Java Edition 16w04a

16w04a is the fifty-first snapshot for Java Edition 1.9, released on January 28, 2016.^[1]

General

• Running "Searge" as the command in a command block (without a preceding "/", also case insensitive) now sets #itzlipofutzli to the previous output.

Enchanting

• Added a sound for taking damage from thorns.

Weather

• Rain sounds are now more ambient/less loud and sound more realistic.

Lily pads

• Bounding box changed again, now ³⁄₃₂ block tall and inset ¹⁄₁₆ from all sides (since 15w49a, was ¹⁵⁄₂₅₆ block tall and only three of the four edges were inset).

Boats

• Now move forward and backwards using the forward and backwards key, and steer left and right using the left and right keys respectively.
  • The boat stays in one place when pressing the left and right keys at the same time, but the paddles are moving.
• Now faster and stay at a consistent speed, unlike previous snapshots.
• Now sink when underwater, or within flowing water of any depth.
• Crafting recipe no longer requires wooden shovel.
• Riding a boat no longer subjects water-sensitive mobs to being damaged by water, and no longer protects sunlight-sensitive mobs from being damaged by sunlight.
• The player now is dismounted onto land if possible.
• Now break lily pads, instead of passing right through them.
• Now no longer pick up mobs larger than the boat

Minecarts

• Players no longer board minecarts when used while crouching.

31 issues fixed

From released versions before 1.9

• MC-47636 – Boats appear to be sunken in water.
• MC-54486 – Glass panes and iron bars don't connect to solid, graphically transparent blocks (slime block, end portal frame, and spawner).
• MC-88427 – Endermen & blazes get 'wet' and take damage in boats.
• MC-90052 – Dismounting from a boat drops the player in the water.
• MC-90272 – Zombies/skeletons in boats do not burn from sunlight.

From the 1.9 development versions

• MC-84632 – A chorus flower placed at or growing to Y=255 turns to chorus plant.
• MC-89766 – Items on top of lily pads dance and jump from pad to pad
• MC-89948 – Shulkers spin endlessly when riding in boats.
• MC-89963 – Horse hitbox is larger than boat hitbox.
• MC-89978 – Small mobs drown in boats.
• MC-89985 – Squids ride in the boat when riding over them.
• MC-89987 – An off-hand item is still shown when moving in a boat.
• MC-90011 – Boats point the direction opposite from the direction a player places it.
• MC-90085 – Boats do not break lily pads.
• MC-90124 – Reopening a world when riding an entity/boat dismounts the player for some seconds.
• MC-90175 – The game crashes when boats are summoned as passengers of a living entity.
• MC-90307 – Boats don't lose any speed if directly above air.
• MC-90352 – Placing boats on slime blocks and mounting it propels player & boat up hundreds of blocks.
• MC-90909 – Boat auto-corrects position and overcompensates the angle when making short turns.
• MC-91008 – When changing hand in boats, the item being swapped is still visually in the other hand.
• MC-91446 – Pressure Plate keeps activated if a player disconnect while pressed the same.
• MC-91524 – Entities disappear from boats (are removed, not invisible).
• MC-91857 – Passengers might be broken (the game removes and adds the riding entity from the ridden entity every five seconds).
• MC-92171 – Flicker when standing on boat/falling through boat.
• MC-92346 – The world does not render for passengers of boats or riders of horses.
• MC-92439 – Player facing is awkward when entering a boat from the front.
• MC-92536 – Mobs do not properly fit in the passenger seat of a boat.
• MC-92555 – Boat "lid" rendering entities partially invisible.
• MC-93855 – Skeleton shoot backwards when are on boats.
• MC-95598 – Giving invalid blockstate items by /give only creates error for anvil.
• MC-95599 – Invalid damage property error message is not red.

• Unlike most of the first-of-the-week snapshots, this was released on a Thursday instead of Wednesday, similar to the snapshots before 14w26a.
• 16w04a was previously removed from the launcher for some time, but was added back in September 2018.
• This is the last Java Edition version to have a server .exe file.