5 best Minecraft resource packs for improved graphics

Though Minecraft's graphics are extremely basic, with pixelated and blocky textures, it is one of the most iconic visuals in the gaming industry. Nonetheless, players can sometimes get bored of the unclear textures and would want better graphics in the game.

There are certain performance and graphics mods like OptiFine and Sodium that improve the visuals with the help of shaders. However, players can also use resource packs to tweak the textures of the game.

There are loads of resource packs specifically designed to improve Minecraft's graphics. Here are a few of the best ones out there.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinion. There are many other great resource packs that enhance the graphics of the game.

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Faithful, Realistico, and three other great Minecraft resource packs to improve graphics

1) Faithful x64

Faithful texture pack increases the pixel density while maintaining the vanilla Minecraft experience (Image via CurseForge)

Faithful is one of the most famous resource packs for the game. If players simply want to increase the pixel density of the blocks without changing the texture design, this resource pack is the best for them. It boasts that it perfectly sharpens the vanilla textures to add more detail to the game.

There are other versions of the resource pack as well, depending on the level of pixel density. However, bumping up from 16x to 64x will be drastic enough for most players.

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2) Motschen Better Leaves

Motschen Better Leaves makes leaf blocks more realistic and fluffly in Minecraft (Image via CurseForge)

Leaves in the game are also blocky in shape and look extremely unrealistic, even though their configuration has a particular pattern. In reality, leaves grow in a vastly different manner and are by no means confined like blocks.

Hence, this texture pack simply focuses on removing the texture boundaries of leaf blocks, making them more rounded and fluffy.

This means that leaves will no longer be blocks but will protrude outside of the traditional block boundaries. Motschen also has a round trees mod that makes all the log blocks cylindrical, which is much closer to reality compared to cubic tree trunks and branches.

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3) Clarity x32

Clarity not only increases pixel density, but changes entire texture design of each and every Minecraft block (Image via CurseForge)

Clarity is another famous resource pack that focuses on increasing the graphics quality of the game by changing the textures and increasing the pixel density of textures.

Even though it changes the textures of each and every block, it stays relatively close to the vanilla experience. However, if players are fans of the vanilla textures and simply want to enhance them, this resource pack might not be for them.

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4) Dramatic Skys

Dramatic skies adds high resolution sky textures to Minecraft (Image via CurseForge)

Even the skies in the game have blocky and pixelated textures. The sun, the moon, and the clouds are block-like or square in shape.

Though some of the resource packs mentioned above bring changes to the sky textures as well, Dramatic Skys is the best pack that solely focuses on it.

It not only adds high-resolution textures; it even has hundreds of variants for the sun, the moon, and the clouds. This makes the sky look even more realistic.

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5) DefaultHD

DefaultHD subtly increases the quality of block textures in Minecraft by adding 3D effect with the help of PBR shaders (Image via Mojang)

DefaultHD is also one of the best resource packs for bringing out higher resolution details from blocks. It increases the quality of each pixel, along with adding hyper-realistic shadows. Hence, the result is extremely realistic textures.

The only catch is that this texture pack will require PBR shaders to fully enhance the effect of the resource pack, compared to others that work without shaders as well.

For example, the screeenshot provided above was taken using Complementary shaders and the DefaultHD resource pack.