Pixel Reality is a realistic pixelated resource pack. That might sound weird, but it makes sense once you try it, and when you read the creators explanation. He wanted a good looking, relaxing, warm, and realistic pack that was easy to share. This proved harder to find than it seemed, and those that fit the criteria were either too dark, or too light, too JRPGish, or too cartony. So he simply decided to create his own!
Pixel Reality stays at the default resolution of vanilla Minecraft (16×16), and from then on tries to make the game as realistic looking as possible, which it does a surprisingly good job of, especially compared to default Minecraft. As you might have gathered, it has an emphasis on looking nice and relaxing, keeping a realistic style, and to do so without becoming too minimalistic or too cartoony.
A lot of the textures are made by a mix of real photos, some retouching by hand, and then tweaking the contrast, saturation and brightness. This has resulted in a rather unique style and look, one you will be hard pressed to find anywhere else. The lighting and coloring are also unique, but to get the full effect of this, you will need MCPatcher or OptiFine.
The creator has also decided to change certain blocks and different textures in various but specific ways, for reasons explained here:
- Banner decorations appear only on the front so you can have two different colors between the back and front. Patterns have no “antialiasing” transparencies, because the creator didn’t like how colors looked like they were bleeding, however this breaks designs that make use of mixed transparencies.
- Stained glass is more opaque than the vanilla counterpart, and lacks a frame. This is done to make it more realistic looking, and to make it look better on big structures.
- Stained hardened clay looks like sedimented clay rock, in order to make it look more natural in canyon biomes. All colors are now reddish, so its not too good for buildings or pixel art, but alternatives are being worked on.
- Coal blocks look like natural anthracite to make players able to use it as an alternative block for rock formations.
- Hay bales looks like straw, and their strings have been removed. This is done to make it more viable for roofing, without looking bad.
- Glass is now clear to remove fake reflections, only the frame is visible.
- Gravel looks similar to the old vanilla textures, so it looks like it is made by tiny pebbles rather than visible rocks.
- Iron blocks are now bolted to make them look better and more suitable for buildings, gold blocks remain unbolted for aesthetic reasons.
- Cut tree sections are round.
- Diamond and emerald blocks are now made of more smaller gems rather than being one solid block of gemstone, to make it look more realistic.
- Furnaces, dispensers, and pistons are textured like cobblestone, to allow players to “hide” them in cobblestones if they want.
- Blocks and materials found in the Nether look more “organic”, in order to better resemble a hellish landscape. This includes netherracks and glowstone.
- Rails have fewer but bigger planks than their default counterpart, to make them look less like ladders.
- Pumpkins have gotten a makeover and now have more of an Halloween-shape.
- Many other blocks have gotten makeovers in order to make them more realistic, such as the TNT no longer having a fuse as it is not lit by one, or powered rails being made completely of gold as iron isn’t part of their recipe. Changes like that are prominent, another one is that cake now only has one cherry/strawberry on top, purely for decoration and to easily see where the middle is, as no fruits are part of the recipe.
Pixel Reality is quite a impressive resource pack, that does the most with what it has, and it offers something unique to players who may want realism without being photo-realistic. It also bases looks off realism and sense, so if it isn’t part of the recipe, it probably won’t show on the model (such as powered rails now being made completely out of gold, as iron isn’t part of the recipe). This is a different way of approaching texturing, and I find it quite awesome.
Other than that, the pack looks pretty great, it has a cozy, warm, and relaxing feel to it, and it doesn’t stray into cartoon or RPG territory. All in all, a great pack that offers something new that a lot of people are sure to enjoy.
Here is a comparison between the Pixel Reality Resource Pack and default Minecraft:
How to install the Pixel Reality Resource Pack for Minecraft:
- Download the Resource Pack.
- Optional: Download and install MCPatcher.
- Start Minecraft.
- Press Esc and go to options.
- Click on “Resource Packs”.
- Click on “Open resource pack folder”.
- Put the .zip file that you downloaded into the resource pack folder.
- The resource pack should now appear in Minecraft, now choose the resource pack and click “Done”.
- That’s it! Pixel Reality should now be installed and ready, so enjoy and have fun!