Back in October, during Mojang’s Minecraft Live event, it was revealed that the next update—1.17—was going to be called “Caves and Cliffs.” Since that time, we have learned a lot about what to expect with the new update. One thing that will be missing, though, is colored lights.
Minecraft players have wanted different colored lighting options for several years, but there hasn’t been much to satiate that desire. There are several light sources available in the game—with more on the way. However, there still isn’t much color to play with. Unfortunately, 1.17 isn’t going to change the situation.
Since October, we have learned that there will be more light sources—in the form of glow berries, candles, glow squid, and glow lichen—but it has been confirmed that there will be no colored lights to play with. Around the same time that 1.17 was announced, several prominent Minecraft YouTubers were allowed to test out raytracing on Bedrock Edition. Those previews showed off how the new lighting mechanics would change how the game looks—and included colored light sources.
You could be forgiven, then, for thinking that there would be colored light sources coming in vanilla Minecraft. However, one of Minecraft’s lead developers (who goes by Ulraf on Twitter) denied the idea of colored lights in 1.17 during a round table with community leaders.
He said, “I would love to have colored lights, but unfortunately, it’s probably not going to happen. Probably. Not for this update.” He continued to explain, saying that light is, “one of the most complicated and intensive things in the game.” From a development standpoint, it sounds like lighting is an element that slows down performance, which Mojang wants to address before adding color.
“You know, lighting’s causing so much lag on the game already,” Ulraf said. “So, doing this adds a lot of complexity. It’s a very hard problem to solve technically.” However, Ulraf gave us a small glimmer of hope by saying that he loves the idea and would want to see colored lights added to the game.
With everything else coming with the Caves and Cliffs update, there is plenty to sink your teeth into already. Though, colored lights will still be on the wish list.
The Wolf's Gameboard 