How To Install HD Minecraft Texture Packs (64 x 64)
Working with Minecraft 1.5 or above?
CLICK HERE to get the updated MC Patcher tool that fixes the problems associated with HD textures in more recent Minecraft versions.
Warning: The following information ONLY applies to Minecraft 1.4 and below. If you have Minecraft 1.5 or above, click the link above this text to be taken to the new tools for installing HD texture packs.
There's no denying that HD texture packs with 64 x 64 tiles as opposed to the standard 16 x 16 tiles add a heck of a lot of realism and additional graphical splendor to the game that is Minecraft. Up until recently however, installing HD texture packs has been a pain in the proverbial derriere.
This guide will show you how to quickly and cleanly upgrade your texture pack from stock standard to racing slick (or you know, any other analogy you feel comfortable with.)
The first tool you're going to need is Minecraft Patcher. This takes pretty much all the leg work out of installing HD texture packs.
Once you've downloaded Minecraft patcher you'll want to make sure that you have a clean Minecraft install. It is possible that you'll get conflict with mods and other addons, so its probably best for you to clean out your minecraft.jar and download a fresh one. This might be annoying for enthusiastic modders, but you can always add your mods again later, and removing them at the outset drastically reduces your chances of black screening.
Download the HD texture pack you want to use. MC patcher will add it later, but for now, you'll want to know where it is.
Once you have a clean Minecraft install to work with, open Minecraft and make sure that it is set to the default textures.
Open Minecraft patcher. You'll see a few lines labeled:
Original: Should contain the file path of your Minecraft files.
Backup: (This is an option, you can click the checkbox and make a backup of your Minecraft files before patching so that you can easily restore them later.)
Output: Should contain the file path that MC Patcher will output to.
Texture Pack: This will be another checkbox option. Check it and then use the pop up to navigate to the HD texture pack you downloaded earlier.
Close Minecraft before you take the next step.
Press 'PATCH' and the MC Patcher should work its magic, patch your game and upgrade you to shiny pretty HD graphics.
When you open your Minecraft game, you should immediately see a difference in the way it looks graphically. What this change is precisely will depend on the HD texture pack you're using. I started off using Misa's HD texture pack that comes with animated water and fire and lava and other good things.
It isn't possible to easily switch between HD texture packs without using the MC Patcher tool, but now you know how to do it, you should be able to switch between HD textures like a cow bounces about in the middle of the Minecraft ocean - with surprising ease.
Can I Use 64 x 64 and 16 x 16 texture packs?
No. Once you switch to an HD texture pack, trying to use 16 x 16 texture packs will probably result in you crashing the game. If you've gone and clicked on a 16 x 16 texture pack after upgrading to HD and your Minecraft game is now locked up tighter than Alcatraz, you can go into the .minecraft file, open the 'options' file and delete the skin there. That will reset your game to the default.
