Vanilla RTX v1.21.100 - February Release

Howdy everyone! Welcome to the first update post of 2025!
Do you happen to own a house in a swamp? I don't, but I still like my swamps swampy. This is mainly a maintenance update to get things back in order for the release of Minecraft 1.21.60.

Vanilla RTX & Vanilla RTX Normals v1.21.100 / Release Notes:

• Added support for Dormant Creaking Heart block state introduced in Minecraft 1.21.60

• Fog Overhaul: Swamp, Swamp Hills and Mangrove Swamp, Pale Garden

Pale Garden water has been adjusted to be reminiscent of vanilla game colors with a natural transition between water and air.
Previously the bright blue colors clashed with the dark, dead atmosphere of the pale garden

- Water in all swamps is no longer crystal clear, now appears darker and murky, with colors now matching vanilla game colors.

- Air fog has been revamped to uniquely fit each three of the swamp biomes, giving them a fresh atmosphere.

- Vision underwater in these biomes is now limited. Depths now significantly affect darkness similar to vanilla game. This will apply to more biomes going forward.

• Performed full parity check with the vanilla resources (Feb 2025) this brings over some missing features and fixes others to work with the latest available versions of the game.
- Fixed the missing Nether dimension ambient sounds.
- Updated all client biomes for data parity with the vanilla game
Note: Unfortunately missing properties are not inherited from vanilla resources, which can cause issues without notice. This will be ongoing and will require constant updates until Mojang improves the client biome solution.

• Other changes:
- Adjusted command block normal maps to avoid seams when command blocks are placed near each other in different orientations.
- Updated seagrass and kelp heightmaps, with the new ones having no height variation near edges of each stage, this previous caused seams in blocks like tall seagrass.
- Minor improvements to various textures, such as withered rose, barrel heightmaps, and more.
- Removed unnecessary Eyeblossom texture.
Note: Inventory-only textures should not be included in Vanilla RTX unless necessary.

• Vanilla RTX's new minimum supported version is Minecraft 1.21.60 ⚠️

▣ Enhanced Option Updates:

• Fixed tropical fish patterns not being composited properly if the fish's base layer is transparent. (i.e. causing fish fins to go invisible with ray tracing)

• Adjusted various particles
- Added six of the missing particle adjustments for ray tracing and updated some outdated particle definitions
- Fixed a typo in one of particle file names.

• Fixed an issue where cats' collars would always appear grey without ray tracing.

• Reverted frogspawn inventory texture to the vanilla one.

• Added a universal workaround for rendering errors of cross-shaped blocks, foliage and crops (MCPE-189266)

- This applies to almost every block as follows:
All sapling types & mangrove propagule
All flowers and flower types, mushrooms, fungi and similar
All grass types and shapes, bushes, ferns or similar
Hanging roots, pale moss, and similar
Sugarcane
All corals and dead corals
Wheat, potatoes, carrot crops, nether warts and similar
All amethyst bud sizes and amethyst cluster
- Removed previous workarounds for dripstone and cave vines until a better solution is found.

⚠️ This issue will persist for the following blocks:
Glowberry vines, Pitcher plant, Kelp, Pointed dripstone, Weeping vines, Twisting vines, Seagrass, Sweet berry bush

Note: This bug doesn't affect some items in 1.21.60, but with the changes Mojang is making in 1.21.70 and later updates, it unfortunately will.
This is as future-proof as it can get.

Future updates will attempt to fully resolve this issue. In any case please consider dropping a vote for the bug later once Mojira is back online:
https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MCPE-189266

Development Notes:
In many ways, this update was a prelude to the next few leading to Minecraft's spring game drop.

Speaking of which, Mojang going over older biomes to improve their ambience has perfectly coincided with my plans for Vanilla RTX updates that are going to transform the RTX ambience of each and every biome this year, i.e. continuation of Fog Overhaul.
It started with doing swamp biomes justice.

On the Delays...
This update was supposed to arrive early in January, then a severe case of flu had me down for two whole weeks, getting my life back together to be able to get back to working on Vanilla RTX took a while more. I'm still coughing. Hopefully no more hiccups though! Let the fifth year begin.

At the beginning of 2024, I laid out a plan to keep the project on track towards completion. Doing the same today, this year will be about keeping up with 'Game Drops' as Mojang calls it, there is going to be four of them with the first one coming in the next couple of months.
More importantly however in 2025, every biome stands to get the same makeover—just as swamps did in this update.

I will also continue to refine what I can, where I can. Traditional texture improvements and bug fixes for Minecraft aren't going anywhere, there are still plenty of blocks that need a redo. But at this stage, biome ambience and keeping up with Minecraft updates take priority, which explains why there is few of them in this update.
By the end, Vanilla RTX will have transformed into something far above and beyond what I ever imagined for anyone, for even Mojang to produce for vanilla Minecraft with RTX. It'll be a dream come true, and I can't be happier to share it with you, all of you.

Somewhere down the road this year, once Fog Overhaul is further along, a permanent public Vanilla RTX Minecraft server will open—unlike the last two, which I swiftly sent to the grave. The plan? Once my Vanilla RTX workload lightens, I'll join in—maybe to tend to a humble farm, or to round up villagers for unethical forced labor, haven't done that in a long while... maybe beneath a mountain this time, or on top of it...

Well, that is it for this post. Thanks everyone for sticking around—I'll see you with the next update. Till then, take care!