You can check out all of the game's latest patch notes after the jump, including patches 1.6.1 through 1.6.4. We suggest reading them in order, like a short story that was really, really frustrating for the author to write.
Update 1.6
New features:
- Added Nether support to multiplayer
- The client will ask minecraft.net if the current login is valid. If the server says "no", a warning message appears in the client. You can still play the game even if this happens.
- Added craftable maps
- Added hatches
- Added tall grass in some biomes
- Mushrooms now spreads (very) slowly
- Added server property view-distance. Sets the radius of terrain updates (in chunks) to send to the players. Range 3-15, default 10.
- Added dead shrubs in deserts
- Added allow-nether (set to true or false) in server.properties
- Blocks destroyed by other players in multiplayer now shows the breaking block particle effect
- Doors make sound for other players in multiplayer
- The record player now supports more than 15 different songs (you can't get the records yet, though)
- Activated dispensers make sounds and trigger particles in multiplayer
- Players stuck in walls will slide towards the nearest gap if there is one
Changes:
- Disabled Advanced OpenGL until we can fix some bugs with it
- It's no longer possible to build solid blocks on the top layer of the maps (sorry!)
- Made booster tracks speedier
- Severely nerfed fire so it spread slower, and doesn't spread infinitely
- Seeds are now found in tall grass, using a hoe on the ground no longer works
- Compressed network traffic more agressively
- Blocks that don't change appearance when the data changes don't send block updates when their data changes now
- Arrows shot by players can now be picked up by all players
- Nothing riding anything or being ridden by anything can enter portals
Bugfixes:
- Fixed running out of memory corrupting the current level
- Fixed the side textures of grass getting extra dark when mining them
- Fixed anaglyph 3d rendering mode having severe visual bugs
- Fixed the crash screen vanishing immediately
- Fixed not being able to target blocks when at x or z pos 1000
- Fixed the achievements screen messing up the sky color
- Fixed saving while sneaking dropping the player through the ground
- Fixed a system clock change messing up the game speed
- Fixed rain sounds not playing with fast graphics enabled
- Fixed hair and cloaks being rendered in the wrong locations on sneaking players
- Fixed the attack/swing animation not being applied to the armor layer
- Fixed player rotation not being loaded correctly when loading a saved game
- Fixed arrow physics, making them not get stuck midair when you open a door
- Fixed arrows hitting reeds, portals, and other non-solid blocks
- Fixed keybindings not getting saved properly under certain conditions
- Fixed the player not being able to sneak off lowered blocks like cacti
- Fixed a bug where the player could mine without swinging their arm
- Fixed boats placed on snow being placed too far up
- Fixed submerged boats rising very very fast
- Fixed sand dropping onto boats getting stuck in a falling animation
- Fixed a game crash when riding a vehicle or animal into the nether
- Fixed falling while riding not dealing damage to the rider
- Fixed buttons and levers too close to the player being impossible to use
- Fixed dispensers shooting through walls
- Fixed fire hurting through wall corners
- Fixed entities reaching water through wall corners
- Fixed placing doors next to cacti creating half-doors
- Fixed buttons and levers being placeable on leaves in "fast graphics" mode
- Fixed furnaces and dispensers not dropping their contents when destroyed
- Fixed dispensers biasing later slots
- Fixed farmland taking too long to dig
- Fixed tilling below some blocks being possible
- Fixed tilling the underside of blocks somehow working
- Fixed fences and stairs sometimes becoming invisible
- Fixed walking on top of fences not producing step sounds
- Fixed fire sometimes existing mid-air as an invisible block of pain
- Fixed fences and wooden stairs not being flammable
- Fixed fire effect on burning entities sometimes getting rendered in the wrong location
- Fixed fishing rod rendering being a bit lacking
- Fixed fishing rods being stackable
- Fixed mining glass hiding the clouds behind the glass
- Fixed rain falling through liquids
- Fixed items in glass blocks not getting ejected properly
- Fixed water interacting strangely with glass
- Fixed glass not blocking rain sound
- Fixed fences and signs preventing grass from growing
- Fixed rain and snow being incorrectly lit
- Fixed grass staying alive below stair blocks
- Fixed the achievement screen not pausing the game
- Fixed some screens breaking the sky tint color
- Fixed fullscreen mode switching causing mouse issues and screen closes
- Fixed chat messages surviving through game switches
- Fixed ice so it regenerates regardless of whether it's snowing or not
- Fixed rain falling too slowly
- Fixed levers being placeable on weird locations
- Fixed floor levers sometimes not delivering a signal downwards
- Fixed floor levers sometimes not being removed when the floor is removed
- Fixed rail tiles sometimes not properly connecting to a new neighbor
- Fixed minecarts next to each other causing extreme velocities (sorry!)
- Fixed wolves not following their owner if the name has different caps
- Fixed creepers retaining charge level when they can't see their target
- Fixed dying in the nether spawning new portals
- "Fixed" beds in the nether
- Fixed inventory acting weird when portaling by making the portal close all screens
- Fixed wooden pressure plates being mined with pickaxes
- Fixed redstone repeaters having the wrong particles
- Fixed saplings being plantable through snow onto non-grass blocks
- Fixed ore density varying per quadrant from the center of the world
- Fixed dispenser graphics being one pixel off. ONE PIXEL!!!
- Fixed mushrooms spawning everywhere during nights
- Fixed animals only spawning near light during the night
- Fixed the multiplayer join screen input field being too short
- Fixed IPv6 addresses being parsed wrongly. To connect to a specific port in IPv6, use the format [1234:567::1]:25565
- Fixed network packets being sent unbuffered, causing huge amounts of packets being sent
- Fixed entity positions going out of synch sometimes. They get re-synched every 20 seconds now.
- Fixed inventory icons not animating after being picked up in multiplayer
- Fixed mushroom soup not leaving a bowl in multiplayer
- Fixed entities above the map height limit becoming invisible
- Fixed healing not flashing the health bar in multiplayer
- Fixed arrows being animated really strangely in multiplayer
- Fixed arrows triggering too many entity move updates in multiplayer
- Fixed the compass not pointing at the spawn location in multiplayer
- Fixed fires being impossible to put out in multiplayer
- Fixed record players spawning client-side fake records in multiplayer
- Fixed records not playing for other players in multiplayer
- Fixed players spawning in the wrong location and quickly lerping to the correct location
- Fixed monsters not being visible for players with their difficulty set to peaceful
- Fixed pigs getting hit by lightning in multiplayer spawning client-side zombie pigmen
- Fixed loads of exploding tnt generating way too many particles, possibly crashing the client
- Fixed bonemeal use in multiplayer sometimes spawning fake client-side trees
- Fixed saplings sometimes spawning trees client-side in multiplayer
- Fixed weather sometimes changing client-side in multiplayer
- Fixed grasscolor.png and foliagecolor.png not being read from texture packs
- Fixed stats getting saved to different files in offline mode if the caps in the player name differ from the true spelling
- Fixed fireballs not being visible in multiplayer
- Fixed ghasts' fireing animation not being visible in multiplayer
- Fixed receiving more items than the maximum stack size sometimes causing an oversized stack in the inventory
Update 1.6.1
- Fixed a visual item duplication bug when trying to pick up items while the inventory is full
- Fixed an ACTUAL item duplication bug while picking up some items
- The renderer is now capped at 100 fps while there are chunks to be generated. The excess time will be spent generating chunks instead of rendering frames
- The "limit framerate" option now limits the game to 40 fps and will spend at least 10 ms per frame sleeping
- The "limit framerate" option has been reset to "off" for all players, enable it again if you want it
- Fixed some block updates not updating lighting properly under some circumstances by reverting the "don't always send block data" fix in 1.6
- Fixed a major CPU load issue in the server where a very tight loop would starve all other threads
- Fixed furnaces dropping/duplicating their contents when they change state from lit to unlit or back
Update 1.6.4
- Fixed 1.6.3 using more CPU despite it claiming to use less
- Totally professional
