Light (or lighting) in Minecraft is a game mechanic that affects visibility, mob spawning, and the growth of some plants. There are three aspects of Minecraft's lighting system: light level, internal light level, and rendered brightness.
The "Client Light" info line as seen in the left side of the debug screen.
Light levels can be found on the debug screen in Java Edition next to "Client Light" in parentheses. There exist two main types of light: sky light and block light. Other types of light, not present on the debug screen, are explained in the internal light level section. The term light level may be used to refer to the value of any of the light types.
There are 16 light levels, specified by an integer from 0 (the minimum) through 15 (the maximum).
The game sometimes uses the larger value of the two main light types currently at a block's location for some computations. This is what is known as client light, and its value, displayed after the words "Client Light" on the debug screen, is the number before the parentheses, which is calculated by the formula: max(sky light, block light).
The block light level decreases by one for each meter (block) of taxicab distance from the light source. This applies to each of the 3 coordinate axes. In other words, the light level decreases diagonally by the sum of the distances along each axis. For example:
If a torch with light level 14 is placed on the floor, the light level of the adjacent floor blocks in all four directions is 13, while the diagonal blocks in all four directions have a light level of 12 (14 minus 1 south, minus 1 east).
If a torch with light level 14 is placed on a wall one block above the floor, then the block on the floor that is one block southeast of and below the torch has a light level of 11 (14 - 1 (south) - 1 (east) - 1 (down)).
On a surface, this effect produces a diamond-shaped pattern of illumination around the light source. An image of this can be seen in the section § Light-emitting blocks.
In Java Edition, when calculating lighting, the shapes of some blocks are detected: pistons, daylight detectors, enchanting tables, farmland, lecterns, stonecutters, dirt paths, snow, end portal frames, slabs and stairs, so that the light passing through them can spread only in specific directions. For example, dirt paths prevent the light from propagating downward, but the light can propagate in other directions.
Sky light is a type of light that is spread by the sky. It's not a light source in the natural sense, as it is used mainly for the game's logic computations.
The sky light level for blocks vertically exposed to the sky is 15. Sky light cast onto blocks can spread to adjacent areas using a flood fill algorithm. Sky light is not reduced at night; rather, the spawning of mobs is determined by internal light values.
When sky light of a level of 15 spreads down through a transparent block, the level remains unchanged. When it spreads horizontally or upwards, it reduces its level by 1. However, when it spreads through a light-filtering block, it does not follow the above two rules and it attenuates by a certain number of light levels.
Sky light with a level less than 15 spreads in a similar way as block light does: when it propagates to adjacent (including top and bottom, six blocks in total) blocks, it is attenuated until it is 0.
In Java Edition, when calculating lighting, the shapes of some blocks are detected: piston, daylight detectors, enchanting table, farmland, lectern, stonecutter, grass path, snow, end portal frame, slabs, and stairs. They have directional opacity, so that the light passing through them can spread only in specific directions. For example, the dirt path prevents the light from propagating downward, but the light can propagate in other directions.
In Bedrock Edition, light-filtering blocks can reduce more levels of block or sky light. The following values are the amounts by which each block decreases the light level.
The internal light level is used for calculations within the game. The game uses the internal light level of a block to compute various aspects of the game, which include mob spawning, the growth of some plants, and daylight detector outputs.
In the Overworld, the internal light level is calculated as the maximum level of the block light and the internal sky light (formula: max(internal sky light, block light)).
In other dimensions, due to the lack of sky light in them, the internal sky light level is always 0, so the internal light level is simply equal to the level of block light.
In the Overworld, the game uses sky light, time, and weather to calculate an internal sky light value (also known as darkening sky light). This value is an integer with a maximum level of 15; it can also be negative.
As the Overworld becomes darker, the internal sky light gets lower. Rendered brightness is what dictates the illumination of the Overworld, not internal sky light.
Below there are two charts that explain how internal sky light is affected by the time and weather at sky light level 15. To obtain an internal sky light for a sky light level s less than 15, take the internal level L at 15 and subtract from it the difference between 15 and s: L−(15−s).
↑During thunderstorms, hostile mobs are allowed to spawn as if the internal sky light level were actually 5.
For comparison to real world times you can say:
6,000 Gametick to be Noon
12,000 Gametick to be Dusk
18,000 Gametick to be Midnight
24,000 Gametick to be Dawn
Internal sky light
Clear
Rain or snowfall
Thunder
Time ↓
Time ↑
Time ↓
Time ↑
Time ↓
Time ↑
4
13,670-22,330
8,660 GameTicks or 7 minute 13 seconds
13,670-22,330
8,660 GameTicks or 7 minute 13 seconds
13,670-22,330
8,660 GameTicks or 7 minute 13 seconds
5
22,331-22,491
160 GameTicks or 8 seconds
13,509-13,669
160 GameTicks or 8 seconds
22,331-22,565
13,436-13,669
22,331-22,671
13,330-13,669
6
22,492-22,652
160 GameTicks or 8 seconds
13,348-13,508
160 GameTicks or 8 seconds
22,566-22,798
13,203-13,435
22,672-23,010
12,990-13,329
7
22,653-22,812[JE only] 22,653-22,813[BE only] J: 159 GameTicks or 7.95 seconds B: 160 GameTicks or 8 seconds
13,188-13,347
159 GameTicks or 7.95 seconds
22,799-23,031
12,969-13,202
23,011-23,352
12,648-12,989
8
22,813-22,973[JE only] 22,814-22,973[BE only] J: 160 GameTicks or 8 seconds B: 159 GameTicks or 7.95 seconds
13,027-13,187
160 GameTicks or 8 seconds
23,032-23,266
12,734-12,968
23,353-23,700
12,300-12,647
9
22,974-23,134
160 GameTicks or 8 seconds
12,867-13,026
159 GameTicks or 7.95 seconds
23,267-23,504
12,497-12,733
23,701-59
240 GameTicks or 12 seconds
11,941-12,299[JE only] 11,942-12,299[BE only] J:358 GameTicks or 17.9 seconds B:357 GameTicks or 17.85 seconds
10
23,135-23,296
161 GameTicks or 8.05 seconds
12,705-12,866
161 GameTicks or 8.05 seconds
23,505-23,745
12,256-12,496
60-11,940[JE only] 60-11,941[BE only] J: 11,880 GameTicks or 9 minute 54 seconds B: 11,881 GameTicks or 9 minute 54 seconds
11
23,297-23,459
162 GameTicks or 8.1 seconds
12,542-12,704
162 GameTicks or 8.1 seconds
23,746-23,991
12,010-12,255
N or A
12
23,460-23,623[JE only] 23,460-23,624[BE only] J: 163 GameTicks or 8.15 seconds B: 164 or 8.2 seconds
12,377-12,541
164 GameTicks or 8.2 seconds
23,992-12,009
12,017 GameTicks or 10 minute 0.850 seconds
N or A
13
23,624-23,790[JE only] 23,625-23,790[BE only] J: 166 GameTicks or 8.3 seconds B: 165 GameTicks or 8.25 seconds
Light affects various things in the world: from crop growth, to mob spawning and behavior, and so on. Below, there are charts that depict the effects of light on various mobs and blocks.
Keep in mind that light level is only one of the considerations that apply to mob spawning and plant growth. Check the corresponding articles for more information.
Passive mobs, and some friendly neutral mobs can spawn at both day and night. However, they require a block light level of 9 or higher when the block is not exposed to the sky.[Java Edition only]. In Bedrock Edition, they can only spawn during the day as they require a light level of 7 or more.
Most hostile mobs spawn in the Overworld when it gets dark at night, thunderstorms, or in caves, but torches and other light-emitting blocks prevent the mobs' spawn. These mobs need a maximum internal sky light level of 7 (however, the smaller the value, the more successful spawn attempts happen) and a block light level of 0 to spawn.
Several undead mobs are set on fire for 8 seconds when hit by sunlight; these mobs try to avoid such areas and do not burn while in water, in the rain, wearing a helmet, or in the shade.
The following chart describes the spawning and behavior of various mobs in function of the block light, in different worlds.
↑The colored lighting of the block in Vibrant Visuals, when the "Render Dragon Features for Creators" experiment is enabled in Minecraft Preview. When no color is specified, it uses the default white instead.
In Java Edition, most types of plants can grow at night, even if not supplied sufficient light from a light-emitting block, as long as plants of certain types are receiving a sufficient sky light value. This is because those types use the client light formula. In other words, those types do not grow in extremely dark areas where the value of sky light that reaches them is not sufficient. Unlike internal sky light, regular sky light used by the client light formula does not change with the time of day or weather. In Bedrock Edition, more types of plants need a light-emitting block to grow throughout the night than the amount of types that need light at night in Java Edition.
In Java Edition, insufficiently illuminated crops break (uproot) in the next block update, and planting crops is not possible in such conditions. In Bedrock Edition, crops don't break and can always be planted due to a bug.[1]
Light level is checked at the block's position, even for crops and ice blocks. The block above is checked instead for bamboo, saplings, grass blocks, and mycelium.
Examples of the internal lightmap texture (the game's brightness setting is at the default of 50). Horizontal axis is block light, vertical is sky light.
In classic graphics modes, the game uses the light level (instead of internal light level), time, and weather to compute the rendered brightness of a given object in the world.[note 1] Light is completely monochromatic and cannot be truly colored.
As mentioned above, sky light is not reduced at night, instead, the brightness curve itself changes based on the time. Entities cast circular[Java Edition only] or tridecagonal[Bedrock Edition only] shadows (except on Simple graphics); however, these are unrelated to the rendering of blocks.
In general, lighting due to blocks results in a higher brightness, which is balanced by the fact that light due to blocks effectively starts at 14 (solid light source blocks emit a level of 15, but that applies to the light source block itself) while sky light brightness is 15 outdoors. Light due to blocks also tends toward orange in the middle ranges, while sky light in the Overworld daytime is white.
In the Overworld with the lowest brightness setting, full daylight reaches 98% brightness,[luma 1] while at night brightness is reduced to about 17% and is shaded blue. Full darkness is about 5% brightness. In Bedrock Edition, brightness during sunrise and sunset is dynamically tinted orange.
In the Nether, sky lighting doesn't play a role since there is no source of sky light (although if there were, it would reach about 99% brightness.) Full darkness with the lowest brightness setting is at about 25% brightness, slightly darker than a block light level of 7 and no sky light in the Overworld, and is shaded orange like block light.
In the End, sky lighting wouldn't play a role even if there were a source of sky light; this can also be seen if lightning is summoned in the End (there is no flash of brightness like there is in other dimensions). Full darkness in the End with the lowest brightness setting is about 28% brightness, and is shaded toward a bluish-green rather than the orange of the Nether and of block lighting. During End flashes in Java Edition, the lighting gets tinted purple.
Regardless of graphics settings, all top faces of a three-dimensional object are rendered with full brightness, the north/south sides are slightly darkened, and the bottom and east/west sides are more darkened. This is not applied to entities and objects on the HUD in Simple graphics.[BE only]
Light level of daylight/biome
Light level > Biome/time of day v
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Overworld (day)
Overworld (night, approximate)
↑An "object" here refers to any block, entity, particle, or player hand/item on the HUD. Other in-game objects such as the sky and clouds use their own brightness calculations.
↑Brightness here refers to ITU-R BT.601 luminance value (luma)
The difference between Smooth Lighting on and off.
Smooth lighting is a lighting effect that blends light levels across block faces and darkens corners using ambient occlusion to add semi-realistic shadows and glowing from light sources. Paintings, item frames[2] and water surfaces[3] are unaffected in Java Edition; paintings are unaffected in Bedrock Edition with Simple graphics.
Ambient occlusion darkens corners between blocks to mimic the real life effect where less light makes it into corners. This effect is based on the blocks placed diagonally in front of the shaded side of a block.
For each corner of a side, the game checks diagonally for full blocks and determines the corner's brightness based on the found full blocks, with no full blocks meaning full brightness and both sides diagonally being full blocks meaning the darkest level possible (ambient occlusion only darkens to an extent and does not turn textures fully black). The brightnesses of the four corners are then blurred across the whole side and are applied to the block's texture.
This table shows all different combinations of of ambient occlusion for the back corner of the top of the lower block:
The effects of light are greatly enhanced by Vibrant Visuals, with reflections, shadows and scattering effects.
Block lighting (considered "static lighting") is still rendered the same way.
However, enabling the "Render Dragon features for Creators" experiment in Minecraft Preview will color all light sources, and blend colors together when multiple colors light the same surface. For a full list of colors, see § Light-emitting blocks above.
Sunlight with Vibrant Visuals creating shadows and reflections.The main source of brightness are directional light sources. This includes the sun and moon in the Overworld, and End flashes in the End. They illuminate all objects (blocks, entities, items, clouds, particles) directly exposed to this light. Depending on the position of the light source in the sky, surfaces can be lit from above, or from the side, which can result in blocks being fully illuminated while still having a light level of 0 in caves. Other effects caused by directional lighting include:
Blocks, entities, and clouds create pixelated shadows in the opposite direction of the light source.
Water surfaces reflect directional lighting as a blurry, bright shining.
Underwater surfaces hit by directional lighting project water caustics. Objects blocking directional lighting block the water caustics, which appears as shadows.
Depending on the biome, in-game time, and weather, directional lighting has specific colors and strengths.
Light falling into a dark cave, where hostile mobs can still spawn.When directional lighting shines between blocks, light shafts are visible. This effect is strengthened by fog and the daylight cycle.
Various emissive pixels in a cave.Certain blocks, particles, and entities have emissive pixels in their textures. Depending on the color and brightness of the pixel, this creates a small light source, more noticeable in the dark. Unlike directional light sources, this doesn't create any shadows or other dynamic effects.
All textures have metallic or rough pixels, which affects how light is reflected on the surface. Rough pixels do not reflect any light, while smooth pixels reflect directional light sources. Metallic pixels reflect directional lighting with more detail, and also reflect emissive lights in a pixelated style.
Some blocks like leaves, are not metallic but can scatter directional lighting on the surface.
Ambient lighting, with a specified color, is always applied to prevent the scene from rendering pitch black. The strength depends on the dimension.
Sky lighting is applied to surfaces exposed to the sky, but not necessarily to directional lighting. It affects how dark shadows are in contrast to illuminated surfaces.
With the "Render Dragon Features for Creators" experiment, a set of blocks also has point lighting. This makes a central point of the block emit directional lighting, with the same dynamic effects from global directional light sources. The specified light color is applied to this point, and the strength depends on the block lighting.
All light sources, especially emissive pixels, have a smooth bloom effect on the edges.
Color grading is applied to make various light effects have rebalanced colors, based on how bright a part of the scene is lit. The temperature of the scene is also changed, which can make all colors look warmer or colder.
Various effects can be customized in the Vibrant Visuals options. The brightness can be adjusted with a separate "Gamma" option, which allows a larger range of brightness levels.
The lighting engine in Classic was simple, with only two light levels, bright and dark. Brightness of the "dark" level is about 40%. "Sunlight" is emitted by the top edge of the map and hits any block that is under it, regardless of distance. It passes through transparent blocks to light blocks underneath. Blocks that do not receive light are in a dim shadow that remains at the same level of brightness no matter how far they are from a light source.
Added 10 degrees of brightness, with a maximum of 9 for full daylight and a minimum of 0 for almost complete darkness. Brightness is a linear scale and represents its value divided by 8; for example 8 is 100% (8⁄8) and 7 is 87.5% (7⁄8).
Each brightness value below 15 is 80% as bright as the one above it. For example, 14 is 80% as bright as 15, and 13 is 64% as bright as 15.
Sunlight now has its own light array and optimizations to make dawn and dusk smoother. During dusk, nighttime, and dawn, a "darkness" value is subtracted from the sky to create the effects of different times of day.
Added the Nether, where light decreases by 10% each level, rather than the normal 20%.
Hostile mobs could spawn in higher light levels at lower depths, using the formula 16 − (Layer / 8). At level 8 and below, mobs could spawn even in sunlight.
Dinnerbone fixed black patches in world generation,[5] and began overhauling the lighting systems such as changing the lighting of blocks to allow for directional lighting.[6][7]
Wheat, carrots, potatoes, and beetroots now check for necessary light to grow and survive in the crop's block. Previously, growth was checked above the crop, and survivability in the crop itself.
In Minecraft's source code, the luminescences are defined using the floating point values in the third column. These floating point numbers are fractions of 16, but are multiplied by 15 to get the integer light value. This means that both 0/16 and 1/16 (0.0 and 0.0625) correspond to the integer light value 0.
There is a glitch in where when an entity's origin point enters a block, it becomes black. See the article "Black entities" for more info.
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There is a category for light-emitting blocks!
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Skeleton
Zombie
Zombie Horse
Drowned
Zombie Nautilus
Creeper
Witch
Husk
Camel Husk
Parched
Spider
Cave Spider
Enderman
Bat
Slime (slime chunk)
Phantom
Silverfish
Wither Skeleton
Blaze
Zombified Piglin
Ghast
Hoglin
Magma Cube
Piglin
Piglin Brute
Strider
Snow
Ice
Mushrooms
Pumpkin or melon stems
Bamboo[note 3]
Wheat
Carrots
Potatoes
Beetroots
Saplings[note 5]
Grass Block
Mycelium
Frosted ice
Daylight detector (inverted)
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Lighting, the wool block is exposed to sunlight ("Moody" brightness setting).
Lighting, the wool block is exposed to sunlight ("Bright" brightness setting).
Lighting in the void. Particles and entities are illuminated based on the light level at level 0.
Light being emitted from sea pickles, a sea lantern, and to a lesser extent, magma blocks.
Only the flowing water is lighted by a magma block.
Light rays in the void.
Ambient lighting on the Nether roof.
A comparison of the gamma set to 50%, 100%, and 150% in a dark cave.
A teaser from Notch showing the new lighting system for the Adventure Update.
Lighting during the day.
Lighting during the night.
Bugged light from a torch.
Bugged light creating stripes similar to the stripe lands.
Light underground.
Light underground.
