Minecraft: Java Edition

Although this product has been released, it remains under active development - information may change frequently and could be outdated or irrelevant.

This page is for the Java Edition. For the "Windows 10 version", see Minecraft: Bedrock Edition.

Minecraft: Java Edition

Developers
	Mojang
	Microsoft Studios
Publishers
	Microsoft Studios
Engines
	LWJGL
	Java
Release dates
Windows	November 18, 2011
macOS (OS X)	November 18, 2011
Linux	November 18, 2011
Reception
Metacritic	93
IGDB	84
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Subscription gaming service
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Perspectives	First-person, Third-person
Genres	Survival, Open world, Exploration, Sandbox
Art styles	Voxel art
Series	Minecraft

Minecraft
Minecraft: Java Edition	2011
Minecraft: Pi Edition	2013
Minecraft: Story Mode (series)
Minecraft: Education Edition	2016
Minecraft: Bedrock Edition	2016
Minecraft Dungeons (series)
Minecraft Legends	2023

Minecraft, later known as Minecraft Java Edition, is a first-person survival sandbox game developed by Mojang and Microsoft Studios and published by Microsoft Studios, released on November 18, 2011 for Windows, OS X and Linux.

The game has an active and dedicated modding scene, responsible for many fixes, tools and additional content. Without said mods, the game is likely to perform worse than the Bedrock Edition.

General information

Official Bug Tracker

Minecraft Help Center

Unofficial Wiki

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Official website
Microsoft Store		Included in Xbox Game Pass for PC
Amazon.com (unavailable)
Amazon.co.uk (unavailable)

All versions require a Microsoft account.

Purchase includes access to Minecraft: Bedrock Edition.

Free trial

A free trial is available.

The demo consists of a single world that can be played for five in-game days (1 hour and 40 minutes total). It is possible to keep playing by restarting.

The demo save transfers to the full version.

Essential improvements

Launchers

While the official launcher is sufficient for vanilla players, some users may want to separate their Minecraft instances, each of which can have its own mods, texture packs, saves, etc.

• MultiMC - a custom, lightweight and intuitive open source launcher.
• Prism Launcher - a fork of MultiMC with a built-in mod downloader and updater and installer for Modrinth and CurseForge mods, Quilt support, better linux packaging, proper Microsoft Account support on linux, and more community-centric.

Performance

It is recommended to use performance mods to improve the performance.

Game data

General settings

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\.minecraft\options.txt
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/minecraft/options.txt
Linux	$HOME/.minecraft/options.txt

launcher_profiles.json contains stored user profiles.

This game does not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\.minecraft\saves
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves
Linux	$HOME/.minecraft/saves

The server save is stored in world in the root directory of the server.

Saves are not compatible with Minecraft: Bedrock Edition.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Xbox Cloud

Worlds hosted on the Realms service are stored on cloud and attached to your Minecraft account. They can not be accessed from Minecraft: Bedrock Edition.

Video

Video settings

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor			Can be stretched to any window size.
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Limited to 30-110°. Can be set to any value by editing the configuration files. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		Set in options or toggle with F11.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Native support since version 1.13. For older versions, use Borderless Gaming with regex: Minecraft (\d+\.\d+\.\d+|\d+w\d+\w).
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Added in 1.21.11. Use OptiFine for earlier versions.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Custom resource packs can be used when Fabulous graphics is enabled. Alternatively, use a shader pack, which can be done with Iris or OptiFine.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Frame rate cap is fully configurable.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)		Requires shader mods, see Ray tracing.
Color blind mode		Custom resource packs can be used.

Field of view (FOV)

Dynamic FOV can be disabled in Minecraft 1.16+ in Accessibility Settings.

Set custom FOV[citation needed]
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Edit options.txt. Find fov and modify its value. Notes 1.0 = 110° FOV, 1.25 = 120°, 1.5 = 130°, 1.75 = 140°, 2.0 = 150°.

Ray tracing

Some shaders make use of software ray tracing techniques.

Hardware accelerated ray tracing is available in some experimental mods, such as below.

This method makes use of the Vulkanite mod, which itself relies on Vulkan OpenGL interoperability. This may cause severe graphical issues depending on your hardware and driver.

This mod is still under heavy development and bugs are to be expected.

This mod requires a GPU with ray tracing support (NVIDIA RTX 2000 and newer/AMD RX 6000 and newer; Intel ARC cards not supported).

Install mods
Download the Sodium, Iris and Vulkanite mods, and install them using Fabric modloader. Download and install the Vulkanite's demo shaderpack into the shaderpack folder. Launch the game and load the shaderpack installed.

Input

Key map settings

Mouse settings

Java Edition lacks the native controller and touchscreen controls which Minecraft: Bedrock Edition has. See Controller, Touchscreen and eye tracking for mods that add the functionality to Java Edition.

Keyboard, mouse, and touch	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse acceleration		Support for Raw Input was added in 1.14. Also see Mouse acceleration.
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Touchscreen support		Touchscreen Mode only applies to inventory menu. Minecraft: Bedrock Edition has full support. See Controller, Touchscreen and eye tracking.
Controller
Controller support		See Controller, Touchscreen and eye tracking.
Full controller support		See Controller, Touchscreen and eye tracking.
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

DirectInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Nintendo controllers

Other controller(s)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Mouse acceleration

Disable Windows mouse acceleration

Minecraft uses a Windows function to control mouse movement, which can be modified. Modifying the function affects any software that relies on it (not just Minecraft). Download the MarkC Mouse Acceleration Fix. Extract its contents to a new folder. Open the Start menu and open the Control panel. Select Display from the list. Check the PC's text size (100%, 125%, 150%) in the display settings. Open the folder created in step 1. Open the sub-folder that fits the operating system. Double-click the .reg file that corresponds with the text display percentage. Confirm the changes to registry. Reboot the PC.

Controller, Touchscreen and eye tracking

Two mods are available to implement controller support into the game - however, both have some features the other doesn't.

Use MidnightControls
Notes Requires Fabric/Quilt 1.18+. Aims for parity with Minecraft: Bedrock Edition. Allows to use controllers, touchscreen and eye trackers. Allows playing multiple instances of the game on the same PC, allowing for local co-op play.

Use Controllable
Notes Requires Forge/NeoForge 1.12+ or Fabric/Quilt 1.19+. Fabric version available here. Allows to use controllers. Allows playing multiple instances of the game on the same PC, allowing for local co-op play.

Audio

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Detailed separate volume sliders
Surround sound		Up to 7.0 output.
Subtitles		No spoken dialog. Subtitles option in older game versions actually refers to closed captions.
Closed captions		Most sounds have their own individual captions, which are displayed as text along with the directions they come from.
Mute on focus lost		Automatically pauses on focus lost, except in multiplayer.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Localization is done by the community via Crowdin. An up-to-date page of all localizations can be found here, however some of them—especially ones with low completion percentage—may be unavailable in the game for a long period of time until the devs will add them.

Translation completion status is written in brackets then there are several language variants listed in a note. An absence of percentage means the translation is complete.

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				Includes localizations for Australia, Canada, UK, USA and New Zealand
Afrikaans				97% translated
Albanian
Arabic				Limited support of the writing system Use the fan fix for better experience
Armenian
Asturian				65% translated
Azerbaijani				87% translated
Bashkir				84% translated
Basque				98% translated
Belarusian				Available in both Cyrillic and Latin scripts
Bosnian				87% translated
Breton
Bulgarian				Bulgarian Cyrillic font is available as a resource pack. Download
Cantonese
Catalan
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Cornish				81% translated
Croatian				98% translated
Czech
Danish
Dutch				Includes localizations for Netherlands, Belgium (99%), and Brabant (59%)
Elfdalian				74% translated
Esperanto				99% translated
Estonian
Faroese				73% translated
Filipino				98% translated
Finnish
French
Canadian French
Frisian				82% translated
Galician				96% translated
Georgian
German				Includes localizations for Austria (99%), Germany, Switzerland (97%), Bavaria (91%), East Central Germany (Upper Saxon; 70%), Franconia (62%), and Northern Germany (Low German; 67%)
Greek
Hawaiian				92% translated
Hebrew
Hindi				85% translated
Hungarian
Icelandic				96% translated
Ido				81% translated
Igbo				64% translated
Indonesian				Available in modern and pre-reform orthography
Interslavic				86% translated Written in Latin script.
Irish				99% translated
Italian				Available in variants: Standard Italian, Lombardian (70%), Friulian, and Venetian (88%)
Japanese
Kannada				69% translated
Kazakh				94% translated Cyrillic script
Korean
Kyrgyz				95% translated
Lao				78% translated
Latin
Latvian
Limburgish				75% translated
Lithuanian				99% translated
Luxembourgish				94% translated
Macedonian				72% translated
Malay				Available in Latin and Jawi scripts Limited Jawi writing support. Use the fan fix for better experience
Maltese				82% translated
Mongolian				92% translated Cyrillic script
Nahuatl
Northern Sami				96% translated
Norwegian				Available in variants: Bokmål, Nynorsk (90%) and Høgnorsk (98%)
Occitan				87% translated
Persian				Limited support of the writing system Use the fan fix for better experience
Polish
Popoloca
Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Ripuarian				55% translated
Romanian
Russian				Available in modern and pre-reform orthography
Scottish Gaelic				79% translated
Serbian				Available in both Cyrillic (89%) and Latin (90%) scripts
Silesian
Slovak
Slovenian				97% translated
Somali				70% translated
Spanish				Standard Spanish, Andalusian and Cantabrian (80%)
Latin American Spanish				Includes localizations for Argentina, Mexico (98%), Uruguay, Venezuela (99%), and Ecuador (93%)
Swedish
Tagalog				70% translated
Tamil				68% translated
Tatar				91% translated Cyrillic script
Thai
Turkish
Tzotzil
Ukrainian				Available in Standard Ukrainian and Halychian
Ukrainian				Rusyn
Valencian
Vietnamese
Welsh				96% translated
Yakut				93% translated
Yiddish				82% translated
Yoruba				76% translated

The game is also localized into:
Constructed languages: Anglish, Klingon (Latin script; 82%), Lojban (47%), Quenya (Latin script; 64%), Toki Pona (99%), Viossa (88%)
Historical languages: Classical Chinese, Early Modern English (Shakespearean English; 92%)
Joke languages: LolSpeak (LOLCAT), Pirate English.

Network

Chat settings

Multiplayer is not compatible with Minecraft: Bedrock Edition unless the server uses Geyser.

No Chat Reports removes the cryptographic signatures that have been appended to every message sent in chat since 1.19. The reason for using this mod is that the reporting system can be heavily exploited and get your Microsoft account banned from multiplayer games even if you have not violated any rules.

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		2147483647	See Controller, Touchscreen and eye tracking.
LAN play		8	Maximum 8 players
Online play		2147483647	Max players is capped to the max integer size in Java.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	25565

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Native 3D		Dual-View Rendering Anaglyph Red/Cyan removed in 1.13. Restore using Anaglyph Resource Pack in 1.20.1. For Side-by-Side use Stereopsis in 1.21.3.
Nvidia 3D Vision		See Helix Mod: Minecraft 1.7.10 in 3D Vision.

Headsets
SteamVR		Use Vivecraft or Minecrift Vive.
Oculus VR (LibOVR)		Can also use Vivecraft or Minecrift.
Windows Mixed Reality		Use Vivecraft or Minecrift Vive.
OSVR

Devices
Tracked motion controllers		Use Vivecraft or Minecraft Scanerio or Minecrift Vive. See Input for details.
Traditional controller		See Input for details.
Keyboard/Mouse

Play area
Seated
Standing
Room-scale		Use Vivecraft or Minecrift Vive.

Steam Deck

Minecraft is not available through SteamOS, but can be installed manually. Minecraft can be played through a launcher such as Prism Launcher (a fork of MultiMC).

Install Minecraft using Prism Launcher
Press Power then select Switch to Desktop Open Discover Search for and install Prism Launcher Log into Minecraft account (Mojang or Microsoft) Within Prism Launcher, open Settings → Minecraft, enable Close Prism Launcher after game window opens Within Steam, click Games → Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library, add Prism Launcher Return to Gaming Mode → Library → Non-Steam and launch Prism Launcher

Issues fixed

Mojang has created an Official Bug Tracker that can be used to find or report bugs.

Graphical issues

Black borders on Blocks[1]
Disable forced anisotropic filtering in the graphics card options menu, and only use the in-game Mip Maps settings.

Memory issues

See the RAM allocation section.

Performance issues

See the Mods section.

Text rendering issues

The default in-game font doesn't support various writing systems or parts of it, therefore auto-generated "Unicode font" is used for these instances, which doesn't follow original art style and lacks readability.
Some scripts require features such as letters forms and combining diacritics, which are not supported by the game's default font engine, but Minecraft supports TTF/OTF fonts since version 1.13

Arabic script

Install Rooyin font

Works for Minecraft 1.13 and higher. Download Rooyin font resource pack. Put the zip file into <path-to-game>/resourcepacks folder. In the menu go to Options > Resource Packs. Move Rooyin-Font pack to Selected area and press Done. For the better chat readability go to Options > Chat Settings and set Line Spacing to 45%. If This pack was made for an older version of Minecraft and may not work correctly. warning occurs, ignore it and press Yes.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
OpenGL	2.1, 3.2, 3.3	2.1 up to 1.16.5. 3.2 from 1.17 - 1.21.8. 3.3 since 1.21.9.
Vulkan		Unofficial. Use VulkanMod with the Fabric or Quilt mod loaders to enable it. Incompatible with Sodium or any other mod that relies on OpenGL rendering.

Executable	PPC	32-bit	64-bit	ARM	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)					Native ARM64 support since 1.19. Earlier versions require the Prism Launcher. PowerPC support up to 1.5.2, due to Java ≥6 not having PowerPC versions.
Linux					ARM requires Optifine. PowerPC support for recent Minecraft versions require the MultiMC or Prism Launcher launchers.

32-bit systems are not supported starting from game version 1.20.5 and onwards.

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	OpenAL Soft	1.21.1
Input	GLFW	3.4

Java

The Windows version of Minecraft includes Java (used for Minecraft only). Installing Java manually is not necessary.

Using 64-bit Java on 64-bit operating systems is strongly recommended.

Additionally, 32-bit Java is not supported starting from game version 1.20.5 and onwards.

Recommendations for manual in-depth configuration of runtime arguments can be found here.

Modifications

Modpacks

Modpacks can be installed using MultiMC-based Launchers by pressing Add Instance, going to the Modrinth tab, searching for the desired modpack and pressing Ok.

Best performance

• Simply Optimized is a modpack that strictly contains only optimization mods in their best configuration, without any quality-of-life or visual enhancements, providing the best possible performance. Extras can still be added if the user wishes.
• Adrenaline is an alternative modpack to Simply Optimized which could be considered more stable due to using less experimental optimizations

OptiFine alternatives

• Fabulously Optimized is a modpack that aims to be an alternative to OptiFine, providing many of its graphical and performance features. It is inspired by LambdAurora's list of OptiFine alternatives
• Additive is an alternative modpack to Fabulously Optimized which, in some cases, may provide better performance

Graphics mods

• Nvidium is a replacement rendering backend for Sodium that uses Nvidia-only OpenGL extensions to heavily-improve performance and majorly increase the rendering distance with minimal performance compromises. Requires an Nvidia GPU with mesh shader support (16-series and higher) and Fabric/Quilt 1.19.4+
• Iris introduces shader support for Fabric-based instances (already included in OptiFine alternatives modpacks). Shaders can modify all kinds of visual features, including but not limited to: shadows, reflections, anti-aliasing, volumetric effects, dynamic and colored lighting, water waves and more. One of the most popular shaderpacks is Complementary Shaders. Requires Fabric/Quilt 1.16.5+
  • Oculus is an unofficial fork of Iris for Forge 1.16.5 to 1.20.1 and NeoForge 1.20.1+

Modding

Mod Loaders

Mod Loaders can be automatically installed using Launchers.

Only one mod loader can be installed at a time.

• Fabric is required for many mods for Minecraft 1.14 and above
  • Quilt is a hard-fork of Fabric, focusing on being more community-centric. Supports most of the mods made for Fabric
• Forge may be required for some specific or big overhaul mods
  • NeoForge is a hard-fork of Forge created by the original main Forge development team. Recommended instead of Forge for 1.20.1+

Modlists

• Useful Mods is the biggest list of every notable performance, bugfix and quality of life mods available for every notable version separately.
• Simply Optimized provides a list of the current best optimization mods to use together.

Optimization mods (Forge/NeoForge)

The mods below are an alternative to the Simply Optimized mod list for use with Forge instead, and are for the latest Minecraft version, which is 1.20 at the time of this writing. If you are looking for mods for older versions, see the list above instead.

• Embeddium, unofficial port of Sodium for Forge 1.16.5 to 1.20.2 and NeoForge 1.20.2+
• Canary, unofficial hard-fork of Lithium for Forge 1.18.2+
• Radium, unofficial port of Lithium for Forge 1.20.1, more performant than Canary in some cases
• Noisium heavily improves world generation performance. Requires Forge/NeoForge/Fabric/Quilt 1.20+
• BadOptimizations is a collection of micro optimizations that add up together. Requires Forge or Fabric/Quilt 1.19.1+.
• Entity Culling stops the rendering of enemies behind blocks, considerably improving performance. Requires Forge 1.6.3+ or Fabric/Quilt 1.16+
• ImmediatelyFast heavily optimizes general rendering. Requires Forge 1.19 to 1.20.2, NeoForge 1.20.2+ or Fabric/Quilt 1.19+
• ModernFix improves performance, reduces memory usage and fixes bugs. Requires Forge 1.16.5 to 1.20.2, NeoForge 1.20.2+ or Fabric 1.16.4+
• Very Many Players improves multiplayer performance. Requires Forge 1.19.2+
• OptiFine is a proprietary optimization mod, which also adds support for HD textures, shader packs, and graphical improvements. Requires Forge. Incompatible with Sodium (and its ports) and may conflict with other mods - more info here

RAM allocation

Recommendations for setting the allocation can be found here.

The official launcher and third-party Launchers allow to easily allocate RAM and set other Java arguments. The manual methods are detailed below.

OS X memory allocation[citation needed]
Right-click on Minecraft.app in Finder and choose Show Package Contents. Go to Contents and open info.plist using TextEdit. Modify -Xms ### MB - replace ### with the minimum amount of memory Minecraft can use (in megabytes). Modify -Xmx $$$ MB - replace $$$ with the maximum amount of memory Minecraft can use (in megabytes).

Linux memory allocation[citation needed]
Go to the location of Minecraft.jar. Run the command java -jar Xms###MB -Xmx$$$MB Minecraft.jar Replace ### with the minimum amount of memory Minecraft can use (in megabytes). Replace $$$ with the maximum amount of memory Minecraft can use (in megabytes).

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10		11
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i3-3210 3.2 GHz (may even run on older Intel Core like 1st gen i3, not officially supported) AMD A8-7600 3.1 GHz		Intel Core i5-4690 3.5 GHz AMD A10-7800 3.5 GHz
System memory (RAM)	2 GB		4 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	2 GB
Video card (GPU)	AMD Radeon R5 series Intel HD Graphics 4000 OpenGL 4.4 compatible		Nvidia GeForce 700 series AMD Radeon Rx 200 series OpenGL 4.5 compatible

Official support for operating systems predating Windows 10 was retired in March 2025.

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.15
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i3-3210 3.2 GHz AMD A8-7600 3.1 GHz Apple M1		Intel Core i5-4690 3.5 GHz AMD A10-7800 3.5 GHz
System memory (RAM)	2 GB		4 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	1 GB		4 GB
Video card (GPU)	AMD Radeon R5 series Intel HD Graphics 4000 OpenGL 4.4 compatible		Nvidia GeForce 700 series AMD Radeon Rx 200 series OpenGL 4.5 compatible

Official support for operating systems predating macOS 10.15 was retired in March 2025.

Support for macOS 10.14.4 and earlier was retired with version 1.18.

Support for PowerPC was retired with version 1.6.

Linux
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	3.0		5.0
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i3-3210 3.2 GHz AMD A8-7600 3.1 GHz		Intel Core i5-4690 3.5 GHz AMD A10-7800 3.5 GHz
System memory (RAM)	2 GB		4 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	1 GB		4 GB
Video card (GPU)	AMD Radeon R5 series Intel HD Graphics 4000 OpenGL 4.4 compatible		Nvidia GeForce 700 series AMD Radeon Rx 200 series OpenGL 4.5 compatible
Other	Any modern distro		Up to date version of OpenJDK or Oracle Java

A 64-bit operating system is required.

Official system requirements