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 reimplementation of Minecraft Java Edition 26.3, checked against vanilla by differential harnesses.
Vanilla parity: 100% of what the harnesses compare. Every subsystem in the README's table now matches vanilla in all 281 harnesses. Parity is declared complete only after a from-scratch audit on Linux and macOS and launch checks on these packaged builds, which come next.
What's new since 2026.10.12
- Dedicated server:
horizon-client --dedicated --noguiruns a server vanilla clients can join (offline mode), with vanilla's server.properties, status ping, chat, recipes, advancements and command tree. LAN discovery matches vanilla. - Worlds from 1.8 onwards open and are upgraded as vanilla does, superflat worlds included, along with old options.txt and creative hotbars.
- Mob AI matches vanilla tick by tick in 92 scenarios: villager breeding and gossip, the warden and the sculk shrieker summoning it, ghastlings, copper golems sorting chests.
- Spawned mobs' gear and enchantments match vanilla.
- Screens: the resource pack screen, the open chat (input, history, command suggestions), the recipe book (drawing, search, ingredient placement), the loom's banner preview, End gateway beams, and player-list heads drawn from players' skins.
- Render distance 2 now loads.
- macOS gives vanilla's results in every harness.
Known differences
Online-mode servers aren't supported; skins served over https show the default skin unless already cached; pack icons show the unknown-pack texture in game; the creative hotbar keys (C/X) aren't wired up; item tooltips lack attribute lines.
See PLAY.txt in each archive to prepare the game's resources from your own copy of Minecraft.