Java Edition history of textures/Blocks

This page attempts to document the full history of the textures of blocks, their additions, changes and removals. Additions and changes made to the models of blocks, as well as any new blocks which reuse prior textures, will not be documented here. Texture files which are completely identical to other texture files will also be largely ignored for the time being.

Blocks which use entity rendering
These textures are also used for blocks, however the blocks in question render as entities, rather than blocks. As such, the textures they use are much more akin to entity textures.

Texture Update pre-releases
These textures were released as one of the two Texture Update resource packs, but have never appeared in a full version.

''Note: this section only includes textures which are exclusive to the Texture Update preview resource packs. Unchanged textures from before which were included with the pack, as well as textures that went on to officially make it into the game, are not currently included.''

Joke version exclusive textures
These textures only existed in specific joke versions, and never appeared in official releases.

Textures used for block particles
These textures are not used directly for any blocks, but are instead used for defining particles they emit upon being broken, fallen on or sprinted on.

Placeholder textures
This section documents both placeholder textures for errors, and those formerly used for animated blocks.

Prior to the addition of actual animated textures, animations were procedurally generated. Placeholder textures were used for these blocks if the animation could not play. An easy way to see these in action (in some versions) is to enter the game while the game itself is paused (can be done if the window is out of focus when loaded), in which case the placeholder textures will be used.

Placeholder texture for fire


Placeholder graphics for the fire texture were found in, which was overwritten in VRAM with the true fire texture. The initial state of this texture was a vaguely flame-like red and orange scribble, but was later replaced with its second texture, a red square which read: "FIRE TEX! HNST", which means "Fire texture! Honest". It was replaced by the actual fire animation in 1.5.

A second copy was added to terrain.png in Beta 1.2, as fire now had two variant textures which would be variously applied depending on coordinates, this can be seen today in the fact that fire has two different texture files ( and  ).

Placeholder texture for lava and water textures
The old lava and water textures from Alpha could be found in. The textures were replaced by different lava and water animations in 1.5.