Vanilla Minecraft isn’t the prettiest game in the world by any means. While it does have a nostalgic, endearing aesthetic, by default it’s far from realistic or beautiful.
Installing texture packs is a super easy way to completely overhaul Minecraft’s graphics. This selection of realistic texture packs offers some of the most breathtaking, delightful textures to give your version of Minecraft a fresh new look.
We’ll also explain how to install texture packs! Now, let’s set your graphics card on fire…
The Most Realistic Texture Packs in Minecraft
Look at these texture packs! Beautiful!
Note, some of these packs require the Optifine mod to be running, as this expands the graphical capabilities of Minecraft.
Parallax PBR is one of the most popular texture packs when it comes to realism. This will make your Minecraft world look almost like reality thanks to the photorealistic textures.
All of the high-resolution textures are PBR (physically based rendering) compatible, meaning they are primed for pristine light, shadow, and reflection simulation. Metallic blocks reflect the surrounding world.
The textures are also capable of working with parallax occlusion mapping, which gives the graphics a 3D, textured feel. You can see the ridges and grooves really pop, adding more depth to the typically flat surfaces of Minecraft blocks.
This reworks all textures in the game and provides a higher resolution for all versions up to the current 1.19 Minecraft release.
The Amberstone resource pack incorporates both modern and traditional styles and offers some of the most realistic-looking foliage we’ve seen in Minecraft.
This is more than just a standard texture pack and gives you a selection of over 1000 additional 3D objects and decorative elements which can be placed around your Minecraft world.
After installing, you will discover an incredibly detailed and interesting set of textures that create a deep level of realism in Minecraftia.
Because the Amberstone pack is so deep, the installation is a little more complicated than standard texture packs – but it’s completely worth the time and effort.
Optimum realism is one of the more realistic texture packs out there. The free version comes at 128x resolution, but Patreon members can access the higher resolution 512x and 2048x versions.
These realistic textures revolutionize Minecraft’s original textures and have a satisfying richness to them thanks to the bump mapping and shaders.
This pack focuses more on indoor textures than outdoor, but the level of detail is all round fantastic
If you’ve been playing Minecraft for a while, you’ll understand how basic some of the nature textures are – particularly the grass, trees, and plants. LB Photorealism brings a range of new lifelike graphics for every block in Minecraft v1.19.
With incredibly well-defined organic materials, this will leave Minecraft players in awe of the natural world. Pair this with some extra nature sounds and you might even forget that you’re playing a game.
When talking about pixel perfection, the Clarity resource pack hits the nail on the head. A key feature of this pack is that its core is a 32x design, which makes it suitable for low-powered machines, and minimizes strain on your graphics card.
It’s definitely not as realistic as other texture packs on this list, but it’s a great pack for updating Minecraft’s visuals without slowing down the gameplay.
When used with the Optifine mod, it brings ultra-realistic skies both during the day or at night. It also includes a total overhaul of the menus, buttons, and title screen, which is no doubt a refreshing addition.
The Realism Mats texture pack brings reworked graphics for every block and texture in Minecraft, including the GUI, items, particles, terrain, models, and more.
With an absolutely on-point graphical theme and next-level resolution, this might push your graphics card over the edge. As one commenter states “the smoke coming out of my computer is incredibly realistic”.
The creator has designed this pack to work with Seus PTGI Shader or BSL Shader for increased graphical fidelity. This means the texture pack supports Raytracing and RTX features.
Out of all the games in the world, Minecraft is definitely the most customizable and flexible. NAPP uses this flexibility to its full advantage, by giving you a super realistic Minecraft texture pack, with bright and clear graphics.
Of course, you get the idea – you’re going to need a chunky GPU to be able to achieve the maximum level of detail with this realistic texture pack. But if you have the power, the NAPP resource packs give Minecraft a totally fresh look.
With a highly pleasing aesthetic, this realistic texture pack turns blocky old Minecraft into a lush paradise. You’ll need to use Optifine to get the most out of this texture pack, but it’s worth a bit extra effort for stunning results.
The CMR Extreme Realistic Minecraft texture packs are fun and free. They mix modern shader technology with rustic but crisp graphics to turn those stuffy old Minecraft blocks into something tasty and new.
With a fresh cartoonish feel, this is still one of the more realistic texture packs out there and offers a high level of detail and resolution. If you play the game with the URBAN texture pack you’ll feel like you’ve gone into a Minecraft world of the future.
We really like how this isn’t overly photorealistic, but still has much more realism than the standard version of the game. The foliage and trees look particularly nice too!
Unlike many realistic texture packs, this pack upgrades rather than replaces the vanilla textures. This leaves you with the familiarity and theme of the original game blocks but lets you play the game with more eye candy.
The lava and water are super sweet too, we just wish the original textures were this popping!
With a focus on architecture and realism, the Modernarch Realism Minecraft texture pack is one of the crispiest-looking skins out there. Thanks to the shader power and PBR compatibility, this pack has some awesome-looking metallic textures that shine and reflect like real metal.
Everyone should download this ultra-realistic Minecraft texture kit if they have the GPU to handle it. We will warn you, the resolution of this pack is so realistic that it might turn your computer into a toaster…
Ultimate Immersion Archviz is a total game changer. This is more than just a realistic texture pack and includes an additional mod that updates the game rendering functionality to provide a more realistic and smooth architecture.
Gone are the days of the square, blocky roofs, and edges. You can say hello to a new sophisticated Minecraft which looks better than most games out there.
The Realistico Minecraft texture pack features parallax occlusion mapping to enhance the detail and 3D feeling of blocks and surfaces. It makes Minecraft look like a completely different game – we can’t believe this is free!
Download this realistic pack now for a uniquely detailed and satisfying visual upgrade for Minecraft.
Of all the Minecraft realistic texture packs on this list, this probably has one of the most appealing and softest aesthetics. Unlike a lot of packs on this list, this particular download has been optimized for performance, meaning you can play survival without the game lagging out.
It works with a bunch of different shader plugins, including SEUS, or Renewed, so if you like to tinker with deeper modifications, this can yield very impressive results.
How to Install Minecraft Texture Packs
Installing new resource/texture packs into Minecraft is quick and easy. All you need to do is follow these steps:
Download the resource pack you want to use, it needs to be in a .zip file format.
In your computer’s browser (explorer/finder) navigate to the folder where you downloaded the resource pack.
Select and copy the pack (cmd/ctrl+c).
Open Minecraft and head to the main menu.
Open the Options.
From the options menu, click “Resource Packs”.
Click the button labeled “Open resource pack folder”.
Now paste your chosen resource pack into Minecraft’s pack folder.
Now jump back to the Minecraft Resource Pack menu, and you should see your new pack added to the list.
(If it doesn’t show, try backing out, and re-entering the resource pack menu.)
Check out this guide for details on more advanced installation methods.
Other Tools and Mods for Making Minecraft Look more Realistic
Texture packs aren’t the only way to soup up the appearance of Minecraft. Check out the following techniques and mods to upgrade your visuals!
Shaders – these upgrade the rendering engine of Minecraft to allow for deeper and more controlled visuals. This is an easy way to upgrade the lighting, shadows, and reflections.
Mods – There are tonnes of mods out there for improving Minecraft’s visuals. Some even let you create round blocks and surfaces!
Optifine– this is essential for tweaking and customizing the graphical performance of Minecraft.
Conclusion: Don’t Fry Your GPU!
Once you’ve installed some of these, you won’t want to go back to Minecraft’s old look. Hopefully, your PC can handle the extra performance required to run these – if not, at least you can use it as a toaster!
Dane started off gaming at the tender age of 3 with the first Atari console. His favorite video game genres are turn-based RPGs (can I get a shout out for Tactics Ogre?) and fighting games. Read more...
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