Vanilla RTX v1.21.90: Through Pale Horizons

The pale garden awakens, its creaking heart beats brighter, and a new Vanilla RTX update finalizes ray tracing support for Minecraft 1.21.50!
Bringing a new atmosphere, updated textures for parity, and more.

Vanilla RTX & Vanilla RTX Normals v1.21.90 / Release Notes:

• Redefined all materials of the Resin block family for a more coherent look. - Active creaking heart and open Eyeblossom now glow brighter.
- Inverted resin clumps' heightmaps and normal maps due to the plane/model being unintentionally flipped in the vanilla game.

• Introducing unique Pale Garden biome atmosphere
- Sky atmosphere now appears much darker with a greyish tone upon entering the Pale Garden.
- Fog and sky, and water colors now match the vanilla game or promotional renders!

• Revised anvil heightmaps and normal maps.

• Revamped all command block heightmaps and normal maps for a more refined appearance.

• Resource Parity Check (Dec 2024):
- Updated all PBR textures according to 1.21.50.29 and 1.21.60 texture changes. Affected blocks include: brick, chiseled nether bricks, chiseled resin bricks, cracked nether bricks, nether brick, red nether brick, resin bricks, and lit powered exposed copper bulb.
- Updated some leaves textures that were silently altered in recent previews, likely for consistency with other leaves (mostly affects alpha channels; PBR textures remain unaffected).
- Included PBR support for the opaque mangrove leaves variant introduced in a recent preview.

• Other changes:
- Resolved some disparities between leaves textures and their opaque variants.
- Updated various heightmaps and normal maps for blocks with flipbook textures to use a single stage for consistency and to prevent sudden height changes when a texture heightmap reaches the end of the flipbook, where the generated normal often differs slightly.

• Updated description translations for better accuracy across all languages.
• New pack icon and cover image!
• Minimum required Minecraft version is now 1.21.51


▣ Enhanced (Option) Changes:
• Updated workaround for creaking. Invisible creaking eyes now remain visible, similar to Endermen and Spiders. (MCPE-188259)
- Creaking eyes now appear significantly brighter with a new bloom effect!

Note: This invisibility behavior, though absent from Garden Awakens at launch, was later possible in the Minecraft 1.21.60 Preview for parity with Java Edition. This will take effect with the release of Minecraft +1.21.60

• Updated Magmacube glowing enhancement based on a recent model change from the vanilla game. (MCPE-188547)

• Increased vibrancy of glowing entity parts for select entities previously affected by the glowing enhancement, including Magma Cubes' lava core

• Added texture fix for the creaking spawn egg in ray tracing. (MCPE-178563)

• Updated various other Enhanced resources based on the latest Minecraft release for parity.
- Revised some particles for ray tracing and added color-corrected pale oak door texture for ray tracing. (MCPE-121412)
Note: Due to the bright colors of the door texture, excessive offsetting is not possible, so this workaround has a minimal effect.

Known Issue:
Hanging Pale Moss textures are currently rendered incorrectly, similar issue to Dripstone and Cave Vines.

Bad news, the upcoming Minecraft update (1.21.60) will extend this bug to every other cross-shaped block.
Good news, the next Vanilla RTX update will provide a universal fix for this issue. Hang tight!

Closing Notes: 
With the Pale Garden now complete, plans for the next update are shaping up similarly to 1.21.50, focusing on enhancements and issue resolution.
Also, back in early November, I announced the Vanilla RTX Tuner app. This is to let everyone know I haven’t forgotten! Development is ongoing—the idea evolved as I moved forward, decided to let it bake a while longer.
More imminently however, expect a Vanilla PBR update for Deferred Lighting, see you all then!