History of textures/Unused textures

This page documents textures which are or once were present within Minecraft, but are not actually used.

Classic white texture
In the versions of terrain.png used between 0.0.14a and 0.0.14a_08 there is a white texture which was not used in any in-game block. It was removed from terrain.png in 0.0.15a.

Brick texture variations
In the versions of terrain.png used between 0.26 SURVIVAL TEST and 0.30 inclusive, there existed four textures very similar to the existing bricks texture, although with subtle differences. These textures were removed from terrain.png at the start of Indev.

Chair and possible table textures
From Indev 20100206 to Infdev 20100627 two textures were present in terrain.png which were based off of the oak planks texture. The first texture is commonly recognised to be the side view of a chair, and the other texture is often interpreted as being either the front view of a chair or the side of a table.

Indev 20100206 also added a duplicate oak planks texture. This may have been intended to be used for such blocks as well (as the back or seat portion, or a tabletop), or it may have simply been the texture copied for the other two textures to be cut from. This was removed earlier than the other two textures in Infdev 20100607.

In Infdev 20100618, the chair texture specifically changed to be slightly darker, which was likely unintentional, as the door and ladder textures, relatively close by on the atlas, were also darkened in said version.

Infdev/Alpha white texture
In Infdev 20100629, a texture was added to terrain.png of completely unknown use. This texture was composed of several transparent, black, white and various shades of gray pixels. This texture was removed in Alpha v1.0.4 with its position being taken by the snowy grass block side texture.

Grass block top texture duplicate
In Beta 1.6 Test Build 3, a duplicate of the grass block top texture was added to terrain.png. As this version also added grass and ferns, which appear adjacent to this texture, it is highly likely that this texture was copied simply to pick the colors from during texturing, and was accidentally left in.

Interestingly, in Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5, despite being completely unused in-game, this texture was actually changed alongside other block textures that changed in this version. The actually used grass block texture also changed in this version, however despite both textures being identical beforehand, the Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5 textures made the two textures visually distinct from each other.

The terrain.png used in Pocket Edition v0.2.0 alpha, being based off of the terrain.png from Java Edition 1.0.0, also includes this texture.

The texture was eventually removed from Java Edition in 13w02a and Pocket Edition in v0.8.0 alpha build 2 due to the deprecation of terrain.png in those versions.

"Footprints" texture
In Beta 1.8 Pre-release, a texture possibly composed of three footprints was added to terrain.png. Its intended use is unknown. The texture was eventually removed in 13w02a due to terrain.png 's deprecation.

This texture also carried on to Pocket Edition in v0.2.0 alpha due to the terrain.png used then being based off of the one from Java Edition 1.0.0, before its removal in v0.8.0 alpha build 2.

"Village border" texture
These textures, also added to  in Beta 1.8 Pre-release, remained unused and were removed in 13w02a per texture pack reforms. These textures were said to have been used to mark the edges of villages as seen in the Beta 1.8 PAX demo, however footage of these textures in action does not seem to exist.

The "edge" texture was carried to Pocket Edition in v0.2.0 alpha, however the "corner" texture was not, as its place was taken up by the info_update texture. The "edge" was removed in v0.8.0 alpha build 2 alongside many other such textures.

Beta/Release white texture
The last of four unused textures added in Beta 1.8 Pre-release, this white texture was located alongside the three others. Its use is also unknown, and was removed in 13w02a with texture pack reforms.

This texture never appeared in Pocket Edition Alpha, as its position was taken by the texture for info_update2.

Paeonia
The paeonia was a flower type originally planned for implementation in 1.7.2. Originally revealed by Jeb in a screenshot, and shown to possibly have a dedicated holding pose, the flower was ultimately never implemented, ultimately superseded by the peony.

Wax block
A texture for a wax block was added to the game files in 19w34a. This texture was removed in 19w42a, as it was never actually intended to be used.

As this was a lone texture, it is implied that it would simply be rendered as a full cube:

Barrel variants
In beta 1.9.0.2, these two barrel top textures were added to Bedrock Edition's block textures, but were unused. The "empty" texture visually resembles the later-introduced open texture. What these textures were specifically intended for remains unknown, and it is not known if they have been removed yet.

debug.png and debug2.png
In 15w31a, these two textures were added to the game, where they remain to the current day. Given their name, they are used for debugging purposes by Mojang, likely for the creation and testing of block textures and models. They bear a passing resemblance to the two unimplemented sandstone textures added in 1.2.

debug.png could be made to appear in-game in certain Java Edition 1.13 snapshots by pushing a bubble column with a piston, implying the bubble column was somehow developed using this texture.

Despite being unused, both of these blocks were given new textures for the 2018 April Fools' update: .

Calibrated sculk sensor textures
In 20w49a, these two textures were added to the assets/minecraft/textures/blocks directory. The top texture is a translucent version of the block of amethyst texture, where the side texture is composed of the sculk sensor's side texture overlayed on the amethyst texture. Interestingly, the amethyst textures are based on those from 20w45a, despite these textures being added in 20w49a after the amethyst block textures were redone twice, implying these textures come from a probably long-since-scrapped functionality of the sculk sensor coupled with amethysts.

Root vines
In Java Edition 21w05a, this texture called root_vines_head.png was added to the assets/minecraft/textures/block/ directory. What it would be used for is unknown. There is no known "body" texture despite this being implied by this texture being named "head" alongside the naming of existing cave vines.

Crystallized honey texture
A texture for a crystallized honey item was added to the game files in 19w34a, but it was removed in 19w42a.

Studded armor


Studded armor consisted of several sprites that were added in Indev 0.31 20091231-2. They were taken from Notch's unfinished game, Legend of the Chambered, along with other armor sprites. The sprites were added for testing purposes, didn't have armor health, and were eventually removed between Indev 0.31 20100204-1 and Indev 20100206.

Quiver


In Legend of the Chambered (an abandoned RPG that Notch made), there was a quiver item available to be picked up as loot. Notch reused its texture and put it in Minecraft, albeit flipped horizontally. It was added in Indev 0.31 20091231-2.

Although the texture for a quiver had been in the game since Indev, almost nothing was known about it. Jeb stated that he was not going to add them. Later, during 1.9 development, Dinnerbone tweeted a 2×204960 image, which can be reformed into a 854×480 Minecraft screenshot, containing the quiver. On June 30, 2015, Dinnerbone posted that he removed them again as arrows in the off-hand feel "more natural."

In 1.9, the quiver texture was removed.

Ruby


On May 21, 2012, Jeb released a screenshot of himself testing the trading system. At this time, what would become emerald ore in Java Edition 1.3.1 was ruby ore. The previous ruby texture remains in the ruby.png file. It is unknown if the texture will ever be used. Dinnerbone stated in a forum post that they went with emeralds instead of rubies at the last minute because he is colorblind and he had a hard time spotting the difference between ruby ore and redstone ore. The names "Ruby Ore" and "Ruby" were still in the .lang files, but they were removed.

Rubies would later appear as the purchasable currency $$. However, they use a different texture and are completely unrelated to the original item.

Confusingly, the texture still remains even in 1.16.5.

Door entity


In the Infdev "item" folder (where signs, arrows, and minecarts could be found at the time), a file named  could also be found. It was most likely going to be used for the door animation Notch had been wanting to add. The texture was removed in 1.6.1.

Steve villager hybrid


After villagers were added, a strange file could be found in the mobs folder (outside of the villager folder) called. It appeared to be some sort of Steve villager hybrid. The file was removed in 13w24a during the texture pack reform. It did not match the villager model. If used for the villager model in a resource pack, it would look glitched.

Char_2.png
can be found in Indev 20100212-1's texture files. This was possibly another failed attempt at testing skins. There are two gold pixels on the top right of Steve's head and two layers of hair.

Strider's fin
Striders had a fin in their texture file. The fin wasn't visible in-game and was removed in 20w15a.



Skis
A texture known in the game files as  was added in 1.4.6 (around Christmas and New Year). Its texture was added by Dinnerbone as a red herring. The texture was removed in 1.6.1.

Light blue particles
In Beta 1.4, two blue particles were added to particles.png of completely unknown use. They visually resemble water droplets, possibly implying early plans to add the water dripping event later added in 1.0.0, or a change to existing water splash effects. These particle textures were eventually removed in 19w06a due to the splitting of particles.png into its constituent textures, with unused particle textures being removed outright.

The textures were also added to Pocket Edition in v0.1.0 alpha due to its particles.png being the same as the version from Beta 1.4. It still exists in Bedrock Edition's particles.png as of 1.16.

It may be worth noting that these two particles also closely resemble the existing used "flame" and "lava" particles in shape, possibly hinting at a planned connection:

Angry villager head
In 12w34a, a texture resembling an angry-looking villager head was added to particles.png. However, it remained unused, likely superseded by the cloud texture next to it. This texture was also removed in 19w06a due to being unused.

This unused texture was added to Pocket Edition in v0.12.1 alpha build 1 due to it changing to use a particles.png based on the one from 12w34a. It still exists in Bedrock Edition's particles.png as of 1.16.

Soul lava
In an unknown build of Bedrock Edition 1.16.0, a "soul lava" particle was added to particles.png. It can be seen that this particle is to the "lava" particle texture what the soul flame particle is to the ordinary "flame" particle. While likely added for consistency, it appears completely unused and whether it was actually planned for use at all is unknown.

Elemental paintings
In v0.5.0 alpha, with the addition of paintings to Pocket Edition, four unused 32x32 paintings were present in kz.png which remained unused - using IDA and the Android  file, it has been found that the paintings are referenced from the game code, particularly in the   method (get all paintings), but the   method excludes them as possibilities for a random painting. In v0.8.0 alpha build 2, despite still being unused, the textures of these paintings were updated to be more detailed.

The paintings are named and designed according to the four classical elements - "Earth" features a brown square on a light brown background, "Water" is split into a lower light blue half and an upper blue half with a jagged line, "Fire" consists of three orange isosceles triangles on a yellow background, with the largest having a small red triangle inside it, and "Wind" features a beige hollow circle on a white background.

The artist and purpose of these paintings are both unknown.

waterterrain.png


In Infdev, a file similar to, referred to as  , could be found. It appeared to be some sort of arrow system, and it is possible this was used to test water animation.