Invisible blocks

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Reason:

• Major changes have been made in 2023^{[what version?]} to these blocks and their particle behavior

Certain blocks in the game are designed to be invisible.

Intentionally invisible blocks

• Air
• Cave Air‌^{[Java Edition only]}
• Void Air‌^{[Java Edition only]}
• Light Block
• Barrier
• Invisible Bedrock‌^{[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]}
• Structure Void
• client_request_placeholder_block‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Properties

Block	Solid?	Blocks third-person view?	Visible when held?	Shown by structure blocks?
Java Edition
Air	No	No	N/A[note 1]	Yes: [1]
Cave Air	No	No	N/A[note 1]	Yes: [1]
Void Air	No	No	N/A[note 1]	Yes: [1]
Light Block	No	No	Yes:	Yes:
Barrier	Yes	Yes[2]	Yes:	Yes:
Structure Void	No	No	No[3]	Yes:
Bedrock Edition
Air	No	No	N/A[note 1]	No such functionality
Light Block	No	No	Yes:
Barrier	Yes	Yes[4]	Yes:
Invisible Bedrock	Yes	No	No
Structure Void	No	No	Yes:
client_request_placeholder_block	​	​	​

Visibility

Invisible blocks are intended to never be directly visible to those not directly manipulating them, due to being intended for mapmaking and other such purposes. Despite this, there are cases where they can actually be seen, directly contradicting their intended invisibility.

Block	Shown when targeted?		Block particles?
	Highlight	Outline	When brushed	When breaking	When broken	When sprinted on	When fallen on	When walked on by an iron golem	When dug through by a warden	When dug through by a sniffer
Java Edition
Air	No such functionality	Never	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Cave Air		Never	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Void Air		Never	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Light Block		Only when held	No	No	No	No	Yes[5]	Yes[6]	No	No
Barrier		Always[7]	No	No	No	No	Yes[8]	Yes[9]	No	No
Structure Void		Always[10]	No	No	No	No	Yes[8]	Yes[11]	No	No
Bedrock Edition
Air	Never	Never	​	No	No	No	No	No such functionality	​	​
Light Block	Yes		Yes[12]	Yes	​	No	No		​	​
Barrier	Never[13]	Always	​	No	Yes[14]	No	No		​	​
Invisible Bedrock	Cannot be targeted		Yes	Cannot be targeted	​	No	No		​	​
Structure Void	Always	Never[15]	​	Yes[16]	Yes[17]	No	No		​	​
client_request_placeholder_block	​	​	​	​	​	​	​		​	​

Other invisible blocks

The following blocks can also be invisible under certain circumstances:

• Walls, if all states false
• Moving Piston

References