Minecraft initially had a design geared towards developing people’s creativity. Because that aspect is expanding in full force, perhaps, that is the reason that Minecraft is the second best selling digital game in history, after Tetris. If you are new to this game, you can take a look at how to play it for free, without downloading it here (https://appamatix.com/minecraft-online-free-no-download/). Over several years since its release date in 2011, it’s become a lot more versatile and much more customizable. And largely so, this happened because of its users, who create and openly share additional modifications to your Minecraft world. Below, you’ll find Minecraft resource packs guides and tips, which are complimentary ways that some of these modifications can be applied to your game.
What Are Resource Packs ?
Resource packs are additional, user-produced features that you can download for free from many sources on the internet. You then add it to your Minecraft world in order to apply it. They have the capacity to change textures of the surfaces and environment in the world that you apply it in, change mobs (which are mobile entities), change objects, text, animations and sounds. Resource packs can also be created yourself. They take a bit of time and skill to create on your own, but it’s not rocket science. If you understand the programming system of API, which resource packs are in, then for you, it’s a piece of cake. And if you don’t, there are a lot of simplistic guides on the internet on how to do that. So here is a useful guide and a few tips for resource packs in Minecraft.
Resource Packs Vs. Texture Packs.
Essentially, texture packs are the same as resource packs. But here are a few things you need to know.
- Resource packs have sound customizations, texture packs don’t
- Resource packs were introduced in 1.6 Minecraft version and replaced texture packs
- Texture packs cannot be used anymore, they are no longer supported (in versions that followed 1.6)
- But there is a free software made by Mojang (the creator behind Minecraft) which offers an automatic conversion of texture packs into resource packs (https://mojang.com/2013/06/minecraft-snapshot-13w24a/)
3 Ways To Get Resource Packs
- Download Full Packs Free Online
Minecraft community is a pretty large world-wide community, and, luckily, a very generous one.
Although some resource packs take up extensive amounts of time to create, they are shared by their creators for free online. As a rule, you can find the most liked resource packs on user forums, where users discuss which ones they like and why. But there is a separate site www.resourcepack.net, where you can search hundreds of resource packs in a dozen+ categories.
Some of the more well known, and most downloaded resource packs are:
- Realistic Adventure
- Equanimity
- Faithful
- John Smith Legacy
- Soartex Fanver
- Pixel Perfection
- Invictus
- Xray Ultimate
- BackyardCraft
- Full of Life
Once you’ve downloaded the resource pack, you wan to make sure it’s in a folder or in a zip file. This zip or folder with the new resource pack, needs to be placed as a subfolder of resourcepacks, that you will find in .minecraft folder on your computer. Once you’ve done this, go into your game and in options look for “Available Resource Pack”, and apply the one you’ve downloaded and put in the required folder, as described above.
- Download a Customizable Resource Pack Online
There are resource packs out there that partially allow you to customize the yourself before you download it and apply it to your Minecraft world. For example there is Zori3D pack, which lets you choose the kinds of weapons that you want to replace yours with. You can create your own set from the options given, before you download the pack.
Further, there is a pack which allows you a much larger scope of customization before you download the pack. It’s called the Painterly Pack. It has over 9000 options for you to create your own pack. It features over 5000 textures, graphics and entities. There is a ton of room to unleash your creative side here.
The technical process of downloading it into your computer and applying in the Minecraft world is described above.
- Making a Resource Pack Yourself
If you are the kind of person who comes up with great ideas and likes to implement them, especially when it comes to graphics, then you can create a resource pack yourself. If you need to choose an original name, and want tips, here is a list of usernames that you may look at for inspiration (https://appamatix.com/minecraft-online-play-free-pc-mac/ ).
In order to make your resource pack and get the textures and sounds within it in the correct format, you may need to add some software to your arsenal. Here are a few that you might find helpful:
Image Editing (All images need to be in .png format)
- Paint
- GIMP
- Photoshop
Text and Font Editing (Required format is .txt)
- Notepad
- Notepad2
- Minecraft Font Converter
Sound Editing (needs to be in .ogg)
- VLC Media Player
- Audacity
- Converter (if you record sound, you can convert it to the required format with this software)
Mob Skin Showers and Makers
- Minecraft Skin Viewer
- McSkins3D
- Nova Skin (includes a large gallery of skins)
Once you’ve got your required textures, images, text, sounds, and skins in the right format, you have to follow the following procedure.
- Create a folder that will enclose your resource pack.
- In a plain text format (in a program such as Notepad), insert the following meta code:
For versions of Minecraft 1.8 and earlier
{ “pack” : { “pack_format” : 1, “description” : “My Resource Pack” } }
And for Minecraft 1.9+
{ “pack” : { “pack_format” : 2, “description” : “My Resource Pack” } }
- Save the plain text file. When saving the code in the plain text format, make sure there are not extensions, such as .txt at the end of the file name. This file has to be saved under the name pack.mcmeta in the folder you created in step 1. 4. If you would like the resource pack to have a header, create the image and place it into the enclosing resource pack folder in .png format.
- Go into .minecraft folder and in this folder find a folder named versions. Choose the version of your Minecraft, open it, and you should find a .jar file for your version in there. You have to open it either by unarchiving it, or find a method to do that online.
- Once you’ve opened the .jar file, find a folder called assets and copy it to your clipboard.
- Paste this folder from clipboard into the folder you’ve created in step 1.
- Go into the newly pasted folder and start editing the filed inside the enclosing folders. You can replace the .png files for photos, or edit them as you like. Same goes for text, splashes, sounds, etc. You are saving new files under the existing file names in those folders.
For a tutorial that will walk you through all of this visually, you can look at this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTu4tp03bfU), or find another one that suits you better.
The beauty about Minecraft is that there are pretty much infinite things you can do with your world. You can modify, customize, choose what mode you play in, fight, gain achievements, gather diamonds, and the list goes on and on. Resource packs are a great way to experiment with what else you can do in the game. As described above, you can use other people’s creations, or get crafty with it yourself. The game continues to improve from the side of its creators, and from the side of its users. If you are up for a new challenge in the world-building game, you can also try Terraria.
The Minecraft resource packs guides and tips described above apply to users that play on their PC’s or MAC’s. If you’re still playing on your phone or your pocket game, and you are thinking of switching over, here is a guide on how to play the game online (https://appamatix.com/minecraft-online-play-free-pc-mac/). Aside from resource packs, Minecraft is full of surprises, shortcuts, and user-made materials, such as custom maps (which you can combine with resource packs). For a couple of hidden secrets in the game that you will absolutely love, you can read up on here (https://appamatix.com/minecraft-secrets-tips-tricks/). Hidden gems, new discoveries, new maps, new resource packs and new abilities with graphics, these are all the reasons Minecraft game keeps people excited and occupied with further inventions. This excitement and creativity are the prompts behind technological growth. So keep it up ! No-one knows what’s next, and you could be behind the next invention.
What are your thoughts on Minecraft resource packs? Do you have any tips or tricks you’d like to share? Also, share this post with your friends and fellow Minecraft players on Facebook and Twitter. As this topic continues to evolve we will try to continue to update this post with new tips and tricks for you to use while playing Minecraft, no matter if it’s on your iPad, Android, iPhone or on your computer.
