I agree with everything in the OP, but especially this. Upscaled default + pattern filter seems all the rage right now. You see review after review on these packs stating 10/10 and "unique", when there are hundreds of these packs, all creating the same effect, some better than others.
It's mostly disappointing because there's actually demand for packs like these. The effort and time it takes to create an original pack is uncountably longer and more difficult next to a patterned/tiled upscaled default pack.
I must agree with this. What also irritates me are the people who do this and end up just making the world look like a huge chunk of colored plastic. Even most stylistic packs are better than this -- the end user can still imagine themselves in a real world with real stones, real grass, real trees, and the like. But when you make everything rough and plastic-y, this becomes very hard to achieve.
MYTH:
If a texture pack is 16x, there is no need at all to use MCpatcher!
Fact: While this is partially true, Minecraft can run 16x natively with no issues, more and more packs these days rely on MCPatcher to improve the pack in many many ways. MCPatcher allows packs to enable custom water and lava textures and animations, HD fonts, custom fire and portal animations. But on top of all that, MCPatcher is allowing users to take advantage of some great visual mods such as RandomMobs, animated blocks, and color changes for hardcoded colors! It is ALWAYS a good idea to HD patch with MCPatcher no matter what resolution you are using. (Note: While OptiFine also provides support for HD textures, it will not give you RandomMobs or the ability for texture packs to change hardcoded colors as of version D3)
Also, thank you so much 42, this thread should really help the community of the forums realize these myths, and the truths!
*EDIT*
I just thought of another one!
MYTH: Does this pack work with *insert version # here*?
Fact: Texture packs are compatible with the version clearly marked in the name, and any versions prior. The only difficulty you could possibly run into is if a pack deleted the (now obsolete) chest textures from the terrain.png which would make it not compatible with anything prior to 1.8. But seriously, why would you still be playing 1.7.3?!
Wow, I'm a noob at texturing. And most of the stuff you said seemed like common sense to me! Are there really people out there who are that dumb?
glad I'm not them.
I have a question: When a pack is say, 128x128, does that mean each block is 128x128 or the entire file is downgraded from 256x256? Id assume the first, but just making sure.
I have a question: When a pack is say, 128x128, does that mean each block is 128x128 or the entire file is downgraded from 256x256? Id assume the first, but just making sure.
The first. 256x256 is referring to a single tile on the terrain.png. The whole terrain png would be 4096x4096.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Look, I don't care if your 8 or 20. If you can't take criticism or opinions, then get off the internet." -Stronghold257
I just want to add a word as a person who decided on a whim to make a texture pack. I had no experience using any editing software, though I had Gimp on my machine for a long time (to resize pictures, can you believe it? :P). I thought, "how hard can making a pack really be?" Well...I found out in a hurry.
I first looked at the original terrain.png and thought that 16x would be easy enough. Then I realized I'm no artist and that drawing each block in a unique way that actually looks good was going to be impossible for me. I decided to go with 128x since I could use various pictures and whatnot. Then came tiling issues...lots of tiling issues. Also, what's a transparency and how does it work? What are layers? My lord, look at all the things I can edit! I have an enormous amount of respect (tinged with some awe) for those that have made beautiful low-res packs.
For anyone deciding to make their first pack, make sure you become familiar with your editing software. Read any and all guides that you think may possibly apply to things you'd want to do to create. Don't learn on the fly, the hard way, like I did. Also, be prepared to spend hours...and hours...and hours on your pack. I've probably logged 90+ hours on the terrain.png ALONE. That's not counting the hours I spent on the few other things I've edited (like icons/items, learning to animate water/lava/portal, etc).
Also, people are correct when they say packs are probably always a WIP. Even when I finished my terrain.png entirely, I still saw little things in game that, while they didn't actually detract from the flow of my pack, still bothered me as a creator. Even if you think something is finished, you'll still find improvements to make, especially as you become more familiar with creating or learn new tricks to making things look awesome. I still have a boatload of .png files to edit, and there aren't guides for every single one of them. You should be fully ready to experiment and get used to reloading Minecraft over and over. Every single texture must be tested, and I recommend doing them individually. You don't want to create a bunch of new blocks and test them all at once, unless you keep paper handy and like writing down all the mistakes for each block so you can remember what to fix.
Texture creating is a slow and very involving process. Don't think you can pop out an entire original pack in one day if you're new to the process.
I just want to add a word as a person who decided on a whim to make a texture pack. I had no experience using any editing software, though I had Gimp on my machine for a long time (to resize pictures, can you believe it? :P). I thought, "how hard can making a pack really be?" Well...I found out in a hurry.
I first looked at the original terrain.png and thought that 16x would be easy enough. Then I realized I'm no artist and that drawing each block in a unique way that actually looks good was going to be impossible for me. I decided to go with 128x since I could use various pictures and whatnot. Then came tiling issues...lots of tiling issues. Also, what's a transparency and how does it work? What are layers? My lord, look at all the things I can edit! I have an enormous amount of respect (tinged with some awe) for those that have made beautiful low-res packs.
For anyone deciding to make their first pack, make sure you become familiar with your editing software. Read any and all guides that you think may possibly apply to things you'd want to do to create. Don't learn on the fly, the hard way, like I did. Also, be prepared to spend hours...and hours...and hours on your pack. I've probably logged 90+ hours on the terrain.png ALONE. That's not counting the hours I spent on the few other things I've edited (like icons/items, learning to animate water/lava/portal, etc).
Also, people are correct when they say packs are probably always a WIP. Even when I finished my terrain.png entirely, I still saw little things in game that, while they didn't actually detract from the flow of my pack, still bothered me as a creator. Even if you think something is finished, you'll still find improvements to make, especially as you become more familiar with creating or learn new tricks to making things look awesome. I still have a boatload of .png files to edit, and there aren't guides for every single one of them. You should be fully ready to experiment and get used to reloading Minecraft over and over. Every single texture must be tested, and I recommend doing them individually. You don't want to create a bunch of new blocks and test them all at once, unless you keep paper handy and like writing down all the mistakes for each block so you can remember what to fix.
Texture creating is a slow and very involving process. Don't think you can pop out an entire original pack in one day if you're new to the process.
...sorry for the huge rant.
This. Every part of this. Thank you for writing my rant for me.
"I'm an outsider by choice, but not truly.
It’s the unpleasantness of the system that keeps me out.
I’d rather be in, in a good system. That’s where my discontent comes from:
being forced to choose to stay outside.
My advice: Just keep movin’ straight ahead.
Every now and then you find yourself in a different place."
-George Carlin
"sometimes, wizards are so awesome, it hurts"
Thank you
MYTH:
If a texture pack is 16x, there is no need at all to use MCpatcher!
Fact: While this is partially true, Minecraft can run 16x natively with no issues, more and more packs these days rely on MCPatcher to improve the pack in many many ways. MCPatcher allows packs to enable custom water and lava textures and animations, HD fonts, custom fire and portal animations. But on top of all that, MCPatcher is allowing users to take advantage of some great visual mods such as RandomMobs, animated blocks, and color changes for hardcoded colors! It is ALWAYS a good idea to HD patch with MCPatcher no matter what resolution you are using. (Note: While OptiFine also provides support for HD textures, it will not give you RandomMobs or the ability for texture packs to change hardcoded colors as of version D3)
Also, thank you so much 42, this thread should really help the community of the forums realize these myths, and the truths!
*EDIT*
I just thought of another one!
MYTH:
Does this pack work with *insert version # here*?
Fact: Texture packs are compatible with the version clearly marked in the name, and any versions prior. The only difficulty you could possibly run into is if a pack deleted the (now obsolete) chest textures from the terrain.png which would make it not compatible with anything prior to 1.8. But seriously, why would you still be playing 1.7.3?!
lot of information for the noobs(i.e. peaple like me)
"It's easy to convert any pack into a different resolution, so I should bug the creator for a 16x/32x/1028x version!"
Net_Bastard's Epic Low-res! As much awesomeness that you can cram into a 5x5 texture pack, and then some!
So was I when I first wrote this. I had to rewrite a lot of them in order to get this pinned.
A note, I will update this tomorrow with the submitted myths. :smile.gif:
glad I'm not them.
The first. 256x256 is referring to a single tile on the terrain.png. The whole terrain png would be 4096x4096.
I first looked at the original terrain.png and thought that 16x would be easy enough. Then I realized I'm no artist and that drawing each block in a unique way that actually looks good was going to be impossible for me. I decided to go with 128x since I could use various pictures and whatnot. Then came tiling issues...lots of tiling issues. Also, what's a transparency and how does it work? What are layers? My lord, look at all the things I can edit! I have an enormous amount of respect (tinged with some awe) for those that have made beautiful low-res packs.
For anyone deciding to make their first pack, make sure you become familiar with your editing software. Read any and all guides that you think may possibly apply to things you'd want to do to create. Don't learn on the fly, the hard way, like I did. Also, be prepared to spend hours...and hours...and hours on your pack. I've probably logged 90+ hours on the terrain.png ALONE. That's not counting the hours I spent on the few other things I've edited (like icons/items, learning to animate water/lava/portal, etc).
Also, people are correct when they say packs are probably always a WIP. Even when I finished my terrain.png entirely, I still saw little things in game that, while they didn't actually detract from the flow of my pack, still bothered me as a creator. Even if you think something is finished, you'll still find improvements to make, especially as you become more familiar with creating or learn new tricks to making things look awesome. I still have a boatload of .png files to edit, and there aren't guides for every single one of them. You should be fully ready to experiment and get used to reloading Minecraft over and over. Every single texture must be tested, and I recommend doing them individually. You don't want to create a bunch of new blocks and test them all at once, unless you keep paper handy and like writing down all the mistakes for each block so you can remember what to fix.
Texture creating is a slow and very involving process. Don't think you can pop out an entire original pack in one day if you're new to the process.
...sorry for the huge rant.
This. Every part of this. Thank you for writing my rant for me.
because I pretty much left the forums for a but. Chalarie's server brought me back into minecraft however.
@42&19 Who's butt did you leave for? How was it?
Interesting reading, btw
Donate to help me buy people Minecraft accounts!
Seems like I see a question about why the transparent textures suddenly have a white background about once a day these days.
Donate to help me buy people Minecraft accounts!
that use adf.ly links
"I'm an outsider by choice, but not truly.
It’s the unpleasantness of the system that keeps me out.
I’d rather be in, in a good system. That’s where my discontent comes from:
being forced to choose to stay outside.
My advice: Just keep movin’ straight ahead.
Every now and then you find yourself in a different place."
-George Carlin