Fog

Fog is a rendering feature intended for obscuring the player's view distance, usually for atmospheric effect or for seamlessly occluding sharp boundaries such as unloaded chunks. While traditionally referring to render distance, there are many other types of fog that can be encountered in-game under specific circumstances.

Java Edition

Fog types

There are three fog types, one that serves to cover chunk borders, one that renders in chunks and is more intense in far-away chunks, and one that is used in special cases.

Render distance fog

This refers to fog that is rendered on the edge of the render distance to cover chunk borders. This type of fog changes with render distance.

The sight distance in the render distance fog is equal to the render distance, and the shape is a cylinder. Its color depends mainly on the biome the camera is in, and is affected by:

the current day-time, and the effect the dimension uses
- For the Overworld effect, the brightness of the color changes with day time.
- For the Nether effect, the brightness of the color is not affected by day time.
- For the End effect, the brightness of the color does not change with day time, but is 15% of the biome fog color.
the current sky color, and the render distance
- The smaller the render distance, the closer the color of the fog is adjusted to the sky color.
- When the render distance is 32, the color of the fog is not affected by the sky color.
the direction the player is facing during a sunrise or sunset if the render distance is not less than 4
the current weather

Environmental fog

This refers to fog that renders ambiently inside chunks, and grows in strength in chunks that are far away from the player. Also, it is only used in the Overworld. This type of fog does not change with render distance.

Rain fog

Environmental fog grows in strength during rain and thunderstorms. Rain-based fog becomes weaker when the player is not exposed to as much sky light (sky light is always the same regardless of the weather or daylight cycle). This creates the effect of the fog getting weaker when the player is not in the rain.

Special fog

This section is named by the community.

An official name has not been given. Please update the name if confirmed by reliable sources.

This refers to fog used in special cases when inside certain blocks. This type of fog does not change with render distance.

Water fog

When the camera is in water, a dedicated fog in the shape of a cylinder is applied to simulate this. Underwater fog progressively recedes with time spent underwater. The color depends on the biome the camera is in. The color of the water fog changes gradually for 5 seconds when the camera traveled in water into another biome. Notably, swamps and mangrove swamps have a thicker fog than most other biomes, which is controlled by the biome tag has_closer_water_fog.

Lava fog

When the camera is in lava, an even thicker fog in the shape of a sphere is applied. Its color is RGB(0.6,0.1,0.0). With this fog, normally the player can see only 1 block away. The Fire Resistance effect can mitigate the fog so that the sight distance becomes 3 blocks. In Spectator mode, the fog is even less opaque to reveal objects located within up to half the render distance.

Powder snow fog

Being beneath powder snow imparts another fog in the shape of a sphere. Its color is RGB(0.623, 0.734, 0.785). With this fog, normally the player can see only 2 blocks away. In Spectator mode, the fog becomes thinner so that things within half of the render distance are visible.

Fog modifiers

Height

If the world is not a superflat world, and the camera is not in lava and not in powder snow, the brightness becomes power(clamp((y-minY)*0.03125,0.0,1.0)) of the original, which means that the color changes to pure black gradually from minY+32 to minY.

Blindness and darkness

Blindness and Darkness set the color to pure black. The sight distance with Blindness is 5 blocks, while the sight distance with Darkness is 15 blocks. Also, the shape of the fog becomes a sphere.

A difference between the two is that Darkness has fade-in and fade-out, while Blindness has only fade-out.

Blindness has a higher priority than Darkness. The two effects do not work if the camera is in lava or powder snow.

Wither

If there is a wither boss event, the color becomes darker and slightly redder.

Night Vision

If the camera is not in water, and the entity has no Darkness effect, Night Vision makes the color brighter.

Nether and ender dragon

If the entity has no Blindness or Darkness, in a dimension with the Nether effect, or a dimension where there's an ender dragon boss event, the sight distance in the render distance fog (not water, lava, powder snow fog) is half of the rendering distance, and the maximum sight distance is 96 blocks. The shape becomes a sphere.

Objects unaffected by fog

Most things in the world are affected by fog. There are exceptions, most to all of which are presumably unintended:

The world border^[1]
- Render distance fog is not used for the world border. It uses its own draw distance algorithm, which introduces inconsistencies.^[2] It being unaffected by fog is mainly visible via water, lava, powder fog, blindness and darkness fog.
Chunk border lines^[3]
- The core shader used for rendering these differs only from the normal shader used for translucent blocks in that it ignores fog. It is unknown if this was done intentionally, or is an oversight.
Charged creeper armor^[4]
Wither anti-projectile armor^[5]

In addition, the beams emitted by beacons and end gateways use an outdated spherical fog boundary, rather than the modern cylinder shape.^[6] The intended behaviour may be for beacon beams to be unaffected by fog, at least of certain types and in some directions.^[7]

Removed

Void fog

This section describes content that has been removed from the game.

This feature was present in earlier versions of Java Edition, but has since been removed.

In prior versions of Java Edition (specifically Beta 1.8 Pre-release through 14w34b inclusive, up to its removal in 14w34c), a thick black fog was introduced. As the player descended below Y=26, this fog would start to appear. As the player traveled deeper, the fog at the edge of the render distance would become closer until the player reached the first layers of bedrock, where visibility was reduced to just a few blocks, beyond which was complete darkness similar to the Blindness effect. The gray void particles started appearing below Y=7, as well as in the void.

The existence of this fog depended on a lack of sky lighting. If vent holes were opened up to allow skylight to enter an otherwise secluded underground space, void fog would no longer be present, so long as the player kept near this skylight source.

Void fog was removed late into 1.8's development for performance reasons and general community distaste.^[8]

A player's view limit would decrease with depth.

Bedrock Edition

In Bedrock Edition, fogs have six types used in six different circumstances:

air: When the camera is in air
water: When the camera is in water
lava: When the camera is in lava, and the player has no Fire Resistance
lava resistance: When the camera is in lava, and the player has Fire Resistance
weather: When in air and it's raining
powder snow: When the camera is in powder snow

In a fog setting file in a resource pack, one or more of above types can be specified. Active fog settings are determined from three aspects:

Custom fog stack (from /fog command)
Fog settings for the current biome
Default fog setting

Whenever the game needs to get the current fog, it checks the fog settings from these three aspects from the top (the newest fog setting in the fog stack from the command) to the bottom (default fog setting) in order, until it finds a fog definition for the current fog type. If it finds no matching setting, the game uses the hardcoded default setting of the Bedrock Engine.

In other words, this is equivalent to that all fog settings from the three aspects are applied one by one from the bottom (default fog setting) to the top (the newest fog setting in the fog stack from the command) in order. The fogs in a fog setting applied later overrides that of earlier fog settings. Each fog type works independently. Hardcoded default setting of the game engine is applied before settings from these three aspects.

See also this official document: Fog Documentation - Introduction to Fogs | Microsoft Learn (archived 20 September 2022).

Vanilla fog settings

Here are all the fog setting IDs that are currently in the vanilla game.

minecraft:fog_bamboo_jungle
minecraft:fog_bamboo_jungle_hills
minecraft:fog_basalt_deltas
minecraft:fog_beach
minecraft:fog_birch_forest
minecraft:fog_birch_forest_hills
minecraft:fog_cold_beach
minecraft:fog_freezing_ocean
minecraft:fog_cold_taiga
minecraft:fog_cold_taiga_hills
minecraft:fog_cold_taiga_mutated
minecraft:fog_crimson_forest
minecraft:fog_deep_cold_ocean
minecraft:fog_deep_frozen_ocean
minecraft:fog_deep_lukewarm_ocean
minecraft:fog_deep_cold_ocean
minecraft:fog_deep_warm_ocean
minecraft:fog_default
minecraft:fog_desert
minecraft:fog_desert_hills
minecraft:fog_extreme_hills
minecraft:fog_extreme_hills_edge
minecraft:fog_extreme_hills_mutated
minecraft:fog_extreme_hills_plus_trees
minecraft:fog_extreme_hills_plus_trees_mutated
minecraft:fog_flower_forest
minecraft:fog_forest
minecraft:fog_forest_hills
minecraft:fog_frozen_ocean
minecraft:fog_frozen_river
minecraft:fog_hell
minecraft:fog_ice_mountains
minecraft:fog_ice_plains
minecraft:fog_ice_plains_spikes
minecraft:fog_jungle
minecraft:fog_jungle_edge
minecraft:fog_jungle_hills
minecraft:fog_jungle_mutated
minecraft:fog_lukewarm_ocean
minecraft:fog_mangrove_swamp
minecraft:fog_mega_spruce_taiga
minecraft:fog_mega_spruse_taiga_mutated
minecraft:fog_mega_taiga
minecraft:fog_mega_taiga_hills
minecraft:fog_mega_taiga_mutated
minecraft:fog_mesa
minecraft:fog_mesa_bryce
minecraft:fog_mesa_mutated
minecraft:fog_mesa_plateau
minecraft:fog_mesa_plateau_stone
minecraft:fog_mushroom_island
minecraft:fog_mushroom_island_shore
minecraft:fog_ocean
minecraft:fog_pale_garden
minecraft:fog_plains
minecraft:fog_powder_snow
minecraft:fog_river
minecraft:fog_roofed_forest
minecraft:fog_savanna
minecraft:fog_savanna_mutated
minecraft:fog_savanna_plateau
minecraft:fog_soulsand_valley
minecraft:fog_stone_beach
minecraft:fog_sunflower_plains
minecraft:fog_swampland
minecraft:fog_swampland_mutated
minecraft:fog_taiga
minecraft:fog_taiga_hills
minecraft:fog_taiga_mutated
minecraft:fog_the_end
minecraft:fog_warm_ocean
minecraft:fog_warped_forest

History

Java Edition Classic
0.0.12a							Added water and lava fog.
0.0.12a							Lava fog in this version is similar to water fog, except orange in color.
0.0.13a							Lava fog is now redder and appears much closer to the player.
0.0.14a							Implemented render distance fog. It appears only for lit surfaces. Initially, it is blue in color.
0.0.14a_08							Render distance fog is now white in color.
Java Edition Indev
0.31			20100107-1851				Level themes have been added, which feature different fog colors.
			20100107-1851				The fog color in Hell-themed worlds is #100400.
			20100122				The color of fog, clouds and the sky can now be configured via map editing.
20100214							The fog color in Paradise-themed worlds is #C6DEFF by default.
20100214							The fog color in Woods-themed worlds is #4D5A5B by default.
Java Edition Infdev
20100227-1414							With the deprecation of indev worlds, fog color is no longer customizable.
20100227-1414							Fog color has been changed to #B0D0FF.
20100618							Fog color has been changed to #C0D8FF.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.2.0							The fog color in the Nether is #330808.
Java Edition Beta
1.8			Pre-release				Added void fog.
1.8			Pre-release 2 ;)				Many of void fog's effects can be circumvented by having sky access.
Java Edition
1.0.0			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2				Added blindness fog.
1.0.0			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4				The fog color in the End is #131318.
1.1			11w48a				Players in creative mode can no longer see void fog.
1.2.1			12w03a				Added nether fog.
1.3.1			12w25a				The fog color in the End has been changed to #181318.
1.7.2			13w36a				The distance where fog starts has been doubled.
			13w38a				Re-adjusted fog to appear near the render distance limit again, reverting changes made in 13w36a.
			13w38a				Fog now covers 25% of the render distance, compared to 75% before 13w36a.
1.8			14w34c				Removed void fog and its associated particles.
1.13			18w08b				Water now appears fully fogged when entered, and gradually becomes clearer over time.
			18w08b				The Respiration enchantment and Water Breathing effect no longer have an effect on water fog.
			18w10a				Water fog now varies per biome.
			18w10a				Water fog no longer takes time to clear in Spectator mode.
1.16			20w06a				Fog color is now based on the current biome, rather than the dimension.
							The End biomes are coded with a fog color of #A080A0.
							The End dimension darkens every biome's fog color by 85%.
			20w09a				Fog color no longer changes abruptly when switching biomes.^[9]
			Pre-release 3				The Fire Resistance effect now makes under-lava fog slightly less harsh.
1.16.2			20w28a				Fog color is now something that can be changed by custom biomes.
1.16.2			Pre-release 1				Added dimension effects, allowing for nether fog to be applied to any custom dimension.
1.17			20w46a				Added powder snow, which has its own dedicated fog effect.
			20w48a				How submerged the player has to be in lava to see the fog effect has now changed.^[10]
			21w10a				Render distance fog is now spherical, and no longer changes based on the view angle.^[11]^[12]
			21w11a				Underwater fog is now far less intense when in Spectator mode. However, it is still present.^[13]
							Lava fog is now far less intense when in Spectator mode.^[14] However, it is still present.^[15]
							Powder snow fog is now far less intense when in Spectator mode.^[16] However, it is still present.^[17]
1.18.1			Pre-release 1				World fog now starts further away from the player, to make distant terrain more visible.
1.18.1			Pre-release 1				Instead of applying fog as a spherical volume, it is now applied as a cylindrical volume, making it easier to see into the distance when standing on tall mountains.
?							End portals and end gateways are now affected by fog in the manner that all other blocks are.
1.21.6			25w19a				Added environmental fog.
			25w20a				Fog is now applied to 3d HUD elements such as first person player hands and items in hands.
							Rain and thunder weather is somewhat less foggy now.
							Rain fog affects interiors less.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.1.0							Added distance, water, and lava fog.
v0.1.0							All fog types are a flat plane based on the camera angle. Render distance fog starts at 50% of the render distance and becomes fully opaque at the render distance limit. Water and lava fog both start at the camera and become fully opaque at 32 blocks and 3 blocks, respectively.
v0.5.0							Render distance fog now covers 10% of the render distance.
v0.6.0							Render distance fog now covers 40% of the render distance and is now blue instead of gray.
v0.8.0			build 1				Render distance fog now covers 30% of the render distance.
			build 1				Due to changes made to chunk rendering in this version, fog is now visible only on chunks that are far enough away from the player. This can cause sharp borders between areas with and without render distance fog, especially on lower render distance settings. This also means that water and lava fog are no longer visible since this version made it so that far chunks do not render while water or lava fog is active.
			build 4				Water and lava fog are once again visible in rendered chunks.
v0.9.0			build 1				Render distance fog now covers $100 [x - (x / 2 + 8)] / x$ % of the render distance, with $x$ being the player's render distance in blocks.
							This version also added a minimum start distance of 72 blocks to render distance fog, resulting in glitchy behavior if the player sets their render distance to 4 chunks.
							In particular, setting the render distance to 4 chunks would cause water to become colored with the fog color, making it indistinguishable from the fog, and cause mobs to lose their textures and become colored with the fog color as well.
			build 2				The glitchy low render distance fog behavior in the previous build was fixed by adding a minimum distance of 4 blocks between the render distance limit and the start of the fog area, preventing render distance values lower than the minimum available through the settings from being used.
v0.10.0			build 1				Render distance fog now covers $100 [x - (x / 3.2 + 30)] / x$ % of the render distance, with $x$ being the player's render distance in blocks.
							Render distance fog now becomes fully opaque at 20% of the distance between the player and the render distance limit.
							The 72 block minimum start distance for render distance fog has been removed.
							Water fog now becomes fully opaque 8 blocks away from the camera.
							Lava fog now becomes fully opaque 1 block away from the camera.
							Sky coloring is now visible through water and lava fog if the "Beautiful skies" toggle is enabled.
			build 2				All fog is now spherical and no longer changes based on the camera angle when fancy graphics is on.
							Render distance fog now covers $100 [x - (x / 2 + 32)] / x$ % of the render distance, with $x$ being the player's render distance in blocks.
							Render distance fog once again becomes fully opaque at the render distance limit.
v0.12.1			build 1				Added weather fog.
v0.14.2							Render distance fog now covers $100 [x - (x / 2 + 12)] / x$ % of the render distance, with $x$ being the player's render distance in blocks.
v0.14.2							Render distance fog now becomes fully opaque 16 blocks under the render distance limit.
Bedrock Edition
1.16.0			beta 1.16.0.51				Added lava resistance fog.
1.16.200 Experiment Caves and Cliffs			beta 1.16.200.52				Added powder snow fog.
Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU5	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	patch 1	1.0.1	Added Bedrock fog.
TU6	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	patch 1	1.0.1	Added a toggle to turn Void fog on and off. Fog is disabled by default. Void fog is dependent on the game hosts's settings.

Issues

Issues relating to "Fog" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Gallery

Screenshots

The void, covered in void fog.
Fancy fog setting.
Fast fog setting.

References

↑ MC-223566
↑ MC-279571
↑ MC-220523, MC-221254
↑ MC-279051
↑ MC-279052
↑ MC-279049, MC-279050
↑ MC-231123
↑ "Removed void fog today. Now we don't need to tick air blocks (seriously, WTH?), and honestly, who actually *liked* the void fog?" – @TheMogMiner (Ryan Holtz) on X (formerly Twitter), August 19, 2014
↑ MC-170879
↑ MC-3615 (did the other listed fix version change anything?)
↑ MC-32452
↑
This type of fog was previously available only for users of Nvidia GPUs, as it depended on the
```
GL_NV_fog_distance
```
OpenGL extension.
↑ MC-214186
↑ MC-71530
↑ MC-219893
↑ MC-213743
↑ MC-219894

Navigation

[1] MC-223566

[2] MC-279571

[3] MC-220523, MC-221254

[4] MC-279051

[5] MC-279052

[6] MC-279049, MC-279050

[7] MC-231123

[8] "Removed void fog today. Now we don't need to tick air blocks (seriously, WTH?), and honestly, who actually *liked* the void fog?" – @TheMogMiner (Ryan Holtz) on X (formerly Twitter), August 19, 2014

[9] MC-170879

[10] MC-3615 (did the other listed fix version change anything?)

[11] MC-32452

[12] This type of fog was previously available only for users of Nvidia GPUs, as it depended on the
GL_NV_fog_distance
OpenGL extension.

[13] MC-214186

[14] MC-71530

[15] MC-219893

[16] MC-213743

[17] MC-219894

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

v t e Dimension effects
Effects	`minecraft:overworld` `minecraft:the_nether` `minecraft:the_end`
Aspects	Cloud‌ End sky Moon Star Sun