The launcher installs and updates the game — no need to grab these archives by hand. You need your own Minecraft: Java Edition.
Horizon is a Rust rewrite of Minecraft: Java Edition 26.3, checked against the game itself. Java parity: 88% (270 differential harnesses pass; see the README's Project status).
Not an official Minecraft product. Not approved by or associated with Mojang or Microsoft. These builds contain no Minecraft code, assets or data: you need your own copy of Minecraft: Java Edition 26.3, and the first start prepares the resources from it.
Downloads
| Platform | File |
|---|---|
| Linux x86-64 (glibc 2.39+: Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 13, Fedora 40 or newer; Vulkan) | horizon-linux-x86_64.tar.gz |
| macOS, Apple Silicon | horizon-macos-arm64.zip |
| Windows x64 (Vulkan) | horizon-windows-x64.zip |
Each folder holds the game, the resource preparation tool and a PLAY.txt with the steps: Python 3.10+, JDK 25, your launcher's 26.3 install and the 26.3 server jar you download yourself, then python3 tools/prepare_native_client.py --prepare --server-jar PATH once, then run horizon-client from the folder. The macOS build is not notarized: right-click > Open the first time.
What's new
- Mob AI matches vanilla, tick by tick in 72 scenarios, with villagers on a port of vanilla's brain.
- New mobs: the breeze and wind charges, the creaking and the creaking heart, the sniffer, the happy ghast and ghastlings, llamas and trader llamas, and the copper golem; the warden's model, animations and emissive layers.
- Raids and pillager patrols.
- Dispensers, crafters, the loom and the recipe book; containers spill their items when their block is replaced.
- Every command runs as vanilla, including /item modify, /spectate, /waypoint, /dialog and /place.
- Scoreboards and teams in gameplay, the player list, subtitles, every HUD overlay, block entity animations, and End portals and gateways with vanilla's shader.
- Worlds from 1.17 onwards are upgraded as vanilla does.
- Builds for Linux, macOS and Windows.
Known gaps
The warden's brain and the sculk shrieker summoning it, villager breeding and gossip, spawned mob gear enchantments, the resource pack screen, a dedicated server mode, and worlds older than 1.17.
Known issues
- With the render distance at 2 chunks, a world stays on "Loading terrain…". Use a render distance of 3 or more (Options > Video, or
--render-distance 12).