Best Minecraft Texture Packs: the best stylised, realistic, and PvP texture packs
The very best Minecraft Texture Packs for 2024
Want to know where to download the best Minecraft texture packs? Minecraft has a very familiar and distinctive default look. Every single face of every single block in the game is made up of 256 pixels of varying colours, and over 10 years of mining and exploring, we players can get very used to those textures. But there are so many other options out there once you start to introduce texture packs into your game.
There's a stunning variety of Minecraft texture packs out there nowadays. Some packs update every single block in the game to look different, while others only change one or two block types. Some aim to make Minecraft's textures as realistic and high resolution as possible, while others opt for a more stylised, thematic approach.
Below we've listed the best texture packs for Minecraft in 2024. They range from extremely realistic and high resolution (512x) all the way down to 8x and less, and we've included a section at the top of the list explaining how to install a Minecraft texture pack, for those who are just now looking to try out their first texture pack. Some of these packs require an older version of Minecraft to run properly, so we've also listed the required version of Minecraft right by the download link.
Best Minecraft texture packs
- Sapixcraft
- Dark Renaissance
- LB Photo Realism Reload
- Misa's Realistic
- Epic Adventures
- Mythic
- Faithful
- Wanderlust
- Bloom
- Retro NES
- Jicklus
- Jolicraft
- Quadral
- Bytecraft
- Ultra FPS Booster
- Xray Ultimate
- Visible Ores
Note: if you don't use Java Edition, check out our list of the best free Minecraft Bedrock texture packs instead!
The best Minecraft Texture Packs for Java Edition
How to install Minecraft texture packs for Java Edition
Here's how to install a Minecraft texture pack for Java Edition:
- Download your chosen texture pack. It will appear in your Downloads folder as a ZIP file.
- Open up a new window of Windows Explorer and type into the address bar: "%appdata%\.minecraft" and hit Enter. You'll be brought to your Minecraft directory.
- Click on the "resourcepacks" folder to open it.
- Move the ZIP file of your downloaded texture pack into this "resourcepacks" folder.
- Launch Minecraft. In the Settings menu, click on "Resource Packs", find your downloaded texture pack in the left column and click the arrow icon that appears when you hover over it. Then click Done and start playing!
Note that most of the texture packs below require Optifine to use.
Best Minecraft texture packs and download links
Sapixcraft
Texture Pack resolution: 512x-16x
Download link: Sapixcraft (1.20.1)
Sapixcraft texture packs stand out from the rest in a couple of ways. Firstly, there are lots of packs to choose from, each at a different resolution ranging from 16x all the way up to a staggering 512x so you can pick the right pack for your machine.
Secondly, Sapixcraft, while available at very high resolutions, doesn't go for the hyper-realistic route with its textures. Instead, everything is more colourful and cartoon-like, making your worlds very easy on the eyes, and the perfect counterpart to a good Minecraft shader pack.
Dark Renaissance
Texture Pack resolution: 256x
Download link: Dark Renaissance (1.19.4)
Dark Renaissance is an extremely high-fidelity texture pack based on another long-extinct pack inspired by the Dark Souls series of games. As such, installing Dark Renaissance will instantly give your worlds and builds a darker, more mysterious atmosphere. That could be ideal for a moody Dracula-themed castle.
The foliage on this texture pack is absolutely top-notch as well, and really makes you feel like you're discovering a Minecraft landscape for the first time again. It's a great pack to use when you've got a Minecraft map to fill out and lots of exploring to do.
LB Photo Realism Reload
Texture Pack resolution: 128x
Download link: LB Photo Realism(1.20.4)
LB Photo Realism is a very popular realistic texture pack, with the particular lure of not straying too far from the default Minecraft textures.
Instead, it just ramps up the resolution and quality, giving any Minecraft vista an instant and effective makeover. Everything from naturally-spawning Villages to your own custom house will look fantastic with this texture pack enabled.
Misa's Realistic
Texture Pack resolution: 64x
Download link: Misa's Realistic (1.20.3)
Misa's Realistic texture pack walks a fine line between realistic, high-res textures and performance. The tones of Misa's pack are just a little desaturated, making it easier to play Minecraft for extended periods; but its bold style, particularly with building blocks, still allows you to pick out the little details even at a distance.
Epic Adventures
Texture Pack resolution: 32x
Download link: Epic Adventures (1.20.3)
Epic Adventures is a lovely 32x texture pack which stays very true to the default Minecraft look, despite the added pixel density. Of particular note here is the wonderful fluffiness of both the clouds and the leaves on trees, so you should build a tower that stretches to the sky to check them out. A lovely pack for gandering about forests searching for bees or other forest-dwelling Minecraft mobs.
Mythic
Texture Pack resolution: 32x
Download link: Mythic (1.20.4)
Mythic is another texture pack that gives your Minecraft game a darker veneer that reminds me of a 2000s-era CRPG like Morrowind. This is most noticeable when it comes to the reskinned mobs - the villagers look significantly serious and rugged, for instance, while the zombies and other creatures are all more frightful. At times, the semi-serious look of the reskinned NPCs comes across as unintentionally goofy (as seen in the screenshot above - hello Yoda-esque villager), but if the normally bright vibes of Minecraft aren't your style (or if you're setting up a dark fantasy server) then Mythic is a fun pack to install.
Faithful
Texture Pack resolution: 32x
Download link: Faithful(1.20.4)
I remember using Faithful what feels like (and could well have been) nearly a decade ago. It's one of the longest-standing texture packs, and it rose to stardom by remaining - you guessed it - incredibly faithful to the vanilla textures. It's all very unintimidating, familiar, and easy to get used to. If default Minecraft had 32x32 textures, it would look like this.
Wanderlust
Texture Pack resolution: 32x
Download link: Wanderlust (1.18.1)
Wanderlust is many things, but in particular it's a great texture pack for underground spaces like the ravine shown in the above screenshot. Just look at the cragginess of those rocks. It just makes you want to run your hand over them.
Wanderlust takes Minecraft's textures in a slightly murkier direction but keeps everything looking rich and beautiful in the process.
Bloom
Texture Pack resolution: 16x
Download link: Bloom (1.19)
Bloom is as vibrant as any texture pack on this list, but it also manages to somehow strike a balance between familiarity and cartooniness with its charming repeating textures. The world looks great but the items are where Bloom really shines, looking like they've been plucked out of an SNES game. It makes me much more excited about working my way up to powerful items like Potions and Enchanted tools.
Retro NES
Texture Pack resolution: 16x
Download link: Retro NES (1.20)
Speaking of old Nintendo visuals, if you want to go full-on reminiscent of Mario and his friends, then install the Retro NES texture pack for a wonderful trip back to yesteryear. You'll be greeted by those nostalgic hills with eyes from Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, and that's just the start of the throwback visuals here. Expect to see colours inspired by the NES' limited-but-potent palette, though if you combine this pack with a powerful Minecraft shader (which we've done in the above screenshot, using BSL Shaders), it'll feel like you're playing a beautiful NES game in the way that you remember it, not necessarily in the way it actually was!
Jicklus
Texture Pack resolution: 16x
Download link: Jicklus (1.20.1)
Jicklus certainly achieves its author's goal of creating a more rustic look for Minecraft without resorting to higher resolutions. All the textures in this pack look bucolic and organic, and the sides of mountains and cliffs in particular look wonderful as a result. It's a great texture pack to try out for a splash of originality in your Minecraft world without upping the resolution beyond vanilla.
Jolicraft
Texture Pack resolution: 16x
Download link: Jolicraft (1.20)
Jolicraft is an interesting mix of vibrant colours and more muted pastel colours. This mix adds a very powerful and bold look to any Minecraft landscape. I particularly love the new textures for the different Minecraft mobs, both passive and hostile. The Endermen are wonderful.
Quadral
Texture Pack resolution: 16x
Download link: Quadral (1.20.2)
Quadral gives Minecraft players a wonderfully crisp and punchy look, making great use of patterns to create interesting landscapes that eschew realism in favour of character. Whether you're atop a mountain, deep underground, or in the Nether searching for Netherite, Quadral's impact on the textures around you will make you feel like you're playing a different game altogether.
Bytecraft
Texture Pack resolution: 8x
Download link: Bytecraft (1.17.1)
Bytecraft accomplishes an awful lot considering it's using only half the resolution of default Minecraft for each texture. With Bytecraft each vista looks just as detailed and characterful as vanilla, but you'll likely find you can run Minecraft much more easily on lower-end machines with Bytecraft installed.
Ultra FPS Booster
Texture Pack resolution: 1x
Download link: Ultra FPS Booster (1.20.4)
Ultra FPS Booster pushes PvP texture packs to the extreme with its so called 1x1 texture resolutions. That's right, almost every block in the game is a single flat colour, including ores.
It will take a while to get used to this pack, but there's no denying its power both as a tool for clarity and as a way of dramatically increasing your frame rate while playing Minecraft. A great pack to use on various PvP Minecraft servers - as long as those servers permit the use of such texture packs.
Xray Ultimate
Texture Pack resolution: 16x
Download link: Xray Ultimate (1.20.3)
Xray Ultimate is a solid example of a Minecraft X-Ray pack for Java Edition. These packs are infamous for their cheaty method of making absolutely every block invisible except for ores, allowing you to see straight through the world and find out where all the ores are.
There are plenty of legitimate uses for X-Ray packs, but I must warn you that if you're trying to use this pack on a server to gain an advantage over other players, you'll likely be found and banned from the server. If you're having that much trouble finding Diamonds, be sure to check out our guide on how to find Diamonds in Minecraft.
Visible Ores
Texture Pack resolution: 16x
Download link: Visible Ores (1.20.2)
Visible Ores is far less ethically questionable than an X-Ray pack. It doesn't expose ores that you couldn't already see: it just gives every ore block an outline and emissive light to help you see them more easily. If you find yourself repeatedly missing ores the first time you head through a cave, then Visible Ores might be the best texture pack for you. With this texture pack, you won't miss a single piece of ore, so you'll be ready to fight the Wither in no time.
That brings our list of the best Minecraft texture packs to a close for now. If you're open to exploring other avenues to make your Minecraft world more interesting, check out our list of the best Minecraft mods. Or, if it's time to turn inwards and give your own character a visual makeover, be sure to consult our compendium of best Minecraft skins.