Unfortunately, unlike Nvidia or AMD, Intel (at least for Mac) does not freely offer its updates on the website. My driver is updated via the Mac bundle update/software update, which I run every week.
Java is version 8, update 31. I've run a manual update check and the prompt says I'm running the recommended version. However, I'm unsure whether the Java icon that appears in my System Preferences screen is exclusive to media in my internet browser, exclusive to apps run on my computer, or usable in both circumstances.
Another post in this forum has mentioned similar problems I have experienced in the game world itself (ie. static tiles). Perhaps this is not an isolated problem - mac, windows, or otherwise.