Build Tip: Use original Minecraft Textures

Having put all the groundwork into the blog since signing up to the Google Blog system, I can now get into the fun stuff I wanted to do when opening this blog.

To start with; delaying the series of posts I have planned (check out the spoiler on previous posts if still curious) I will talk more about the tip to use vanilla textures in more detail.

Following posts will be some more detailed entries of the other basic build tips; that I shall demonstrate while constructing from scratch a simple build design that will be both practical and functional. When finished, you should be able to use it on most servers and your own single player maps, while the tips along the way may be of benefit to some readers.


Humble Ramble.
To try and make myself not appear to be a god among the blocks with this blog entry; I do occasionally get lazy on the amount of detail I put into a build. A goal with this blog is that it will make myself more accountable to my builds, hopefully cutting back on the slack to improve my build skills in this voxel sandbox.

Now onward with the Build Tip: Use original Minecraft Textures.

Yes I do find it awesome when people come up with some marvelous designs, outlines and build ideas to work with; but a problem that arises on occasion is that some builders forget that custom textures are on occasion well beyond the norm on vanilla textures.

These builds may look impressive in the texture pack used by the builder can be very confusing to other players; using with vanilla textures, packs close to vanilla textures, or are a complete opposite of the pack used by the builder.

Occasionally, especially where other peoples builds rely heavily on a specific texture pack or even shaders, such builds that do appear to have good depth may turn out underwhelming and uninteresting to other players (cobblestone with loads of shading is much more appealing than the humble block in vanilla textures being the most common example).

As an example, I have downloaded a texture pack called RedCreeperzPack (link below) which does sit close to the original texture pack in some areas but in a few others is different enough for the purposes of this blog entry.

How to install texture packs:

1. Download the texture pack you want to use
2. Copy the zip/rar file downloaded into your .Minecraft/resourcepacks/ directory
3. Run minecraft,
4. On the starting screen go to "Options...", then clink on "Resource Packs...",
5. Click the texture pack you put into your resource packs folder on the left column so it goes into the right column,
   Note: left column is a library of inactive resourcepacks in your resource packs folder, right column are all the active resource packs.
6. Click "Done", returning to the starting screen, then play Minecraft as normal.

Pending any bugs in the pack, Minecraft should be up and running and looking different in appearance.

All that out of the way; I'll start off with a simple cube shaped house, using the textures in this pack to show a brief demonstration of how a nice looking build in a texture pack can turn out to be different then otherwise intended.

While overall the packs I chose look OK when I whipped up the basic house structure; for a specific design build with a theme in use these materials may not blend as well as intended with your designs. The cobblestone wall does look bland in vanilla textures but here in the RedCreeperzPack the texture uses a brick appearance that makes use of cobblestone here more economical in comparison.

Overall the rough demonstration I've compiled doesn't look that bad with this texture pack but a little off with the vanilla textures (that Lapis ore block looks much nicer with this pack).

To demonstrate how a different texture pack affects the appearance of a build. I also used the other texture packs listed at the end of this blog entry with handy links to find them. You can find comparison images and save game file I made for this blog entry in the links below.

Beside the demonstration builds is a basic x feature made of cyan stained clay, netherbrick stairs and acacia wood. It is a predominant feature tiled several times on a build I am making on the server currently; with the default clay texture in vanilla textures being both economical (given it is not in a creative map) and the closest vanilla texture to an painted iron/steel structure.

Overall only packs that did not touch the clay were passable for the project in progress with this tiled x feature. The Mineout pack was no good for the above since it made the clay look like a water/pool lining block.

This quick and super rough demonstration of a few texture packs, and the differences these introduce in appearance on the same build, I hope may help to explain why I prefer to stick to the default texture pack.
I do suggest you look at the files I have provided in the below links to see for yourself, again done to save time on waiting for images to load on this blog entry.

Alt Tip: Sign post your texture pack.
If you do build with a specific texture pack, be sure to note what it is and sign post it somewhere on or around your build so that other players may view it in the way you intend to present them.
In this case I stuck with RedstoneCreeperz Pack and sign posted as such in the save game file.


Why vanilla, crypto?
Knowing most other people will see builds the way I intended with the default texture pack ensures the widest possible compatibility. As opposed to using some texture packs that simply won't work on some machines. I had one pack that was too high quality to run on the laptop; so omitted mention of it in this blog entry because I could not run it properly.

A minor concern is if new texture methods are adopted by Mojang and the old pack I was using doesn't get updated to suit I'm left needing to start from scratch or replace blocks to try and keep the appearance I was working (or in the worst case scenario need to start a build all over again).

Maybe one day I will even make a texture pack, but for now I'll concentrate on developing builds in this voxel environment the way Mojang wanted it to be played.

Texture packs I used for this blog entry:
RedCreeperzPack
Skyrim Resource Pack
Nerevar Rising (Morrowind)
Mineout: The Fallout franchise texture-pack
    note: Pre 1.7 pack download file was used.

Screenshots and save game files here.
You can extract the file with 7-zip

Disclaimer; CoinURL shortener was used on my uploaded file link.

Comments:
Have some demonstration ideas of your own? Feel free to comment.

Please be patient for me to mod and submit comments and/or respond to your comments as I am an infrequent blogger.