Dem textures, how do they work? - A comprehensive guide for how to apply differe

Table of Contents
1. Installation for the Alpha
2. Installation for Creative Mode
3. How-to Character skinning
4. How-to HD Textures
5. Restoring the original textures

Required Software
- WinRAR or 7Zip
- (OPTIONAL) Image editing software like Gimp, Paint.NET or Photoshop
- (OPTIONAL) SkinEdit

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Installing a texture-pack for the Alpha
This part covers the details around installing a texture for the Alpha. Both the client and the browser version uses the same directory.

Step 1
Open your START menu in Windows and click "Run...". - For XP
Open your START menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Run - For Vista
Enter the text in the code-box below and press OK.

CODE: SELECT ALL
%appdata%/.minecraft/bin



Step 2
In here you will find a file called minecraft.jar, it will most likely carry the "Java"-symbol and be an Executable Jar File.



Step 3
Now for the magic. If you installed WinRAR or 7Zip like you were supposed you should be able to right-click the file and get an option to open with with either WinRAR or 7Zip as you can see in the picture below. I'm hovering the option to open it with WinRAR, but you can also see the 7Zip option in there.



This is where you swap the images. To do this, simply drag the textures from the folder where you extracted them to or directly from the WinRAR folder they're in, into the minecraft.jar file.



An example from WinRAR. On the left you can see the open minecraft.jar, and on the right the open texture pack. Once you drag the files from the texture pack to the .jar file WinRAR and 7Zip will ask if you want to Add and replace files / Copy files to archive, just press OK / Yes and you'll be done.

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Installing a texture-pack for Creative Mode.
This part covers the details around installing a new texture for creative mode, single and multiplayer.

Step 1
First we want the Run... box.
Open your START menu in Windows and click "Run...". - For XP
Open your START menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Run - For Vista
Enter the text in the code-box below and press OK.

CODE: SELECT ALL
%temp%/minecraft.net/minecraft 
(This is the path if you play at minecraft.net/play.jps)

or

%temp%/www.minecraft.net/minecraft 
(This is the path if you play at www.minecraft.net/play.jps)



- Possible Error For Step 1 -
If you encounter an error during the Run... step make sure you've actually downloaded the files from the website by simply loading the mode you wish to play on the website, it might be that you have recently flushed your Temp folder and deleted the files, thus making it impossible to find them.

Step 2
After hitting OK you should get this window with this folder.



In here you will find a file called minecraft.jar, it will most likely carry the "Java"-symbol and be an Executable Jar File.

Step 3
Now for the magic. If you installed WinRAR or 7Zip like you were supposed you should be able to right-click the file and get an option to open with with either WinRAR or 7Zip as you can see in the picture below. I'm hovering the option to open it with WinRAR, but you can also see the 7Zip option in there.



This is where you swap the images. To do this, simply drag the textures from the folder where you extracted them to or directly from the WinRAR folder they're in, into the minecraft.jar file.



An example from WinRAR. On the left you can see the open minecraft.jar, and on the right the open texture pack. Once you drag the files from the texture pack to the .jar file WinRAR and 7Zip will ask if you want to Add and replace files / Copy files to archive, just press OK / Yes and you'll be done.

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Swapping the character-skin
If you've got the texture-swapping part done this will be a breeze. We're simply going to repeat step one to three from the earlier tutorial, but instead of adding to the minecraft.jar, we will steal a little part from it, but don't worry. We'll put it back.

Step 1
Repeat Step 1 to Step 3 from the tutorial above and open up your desired minecraft.jar file. Once in here locate the file called char.png. This is the file that decides what skin your and others characters will have. To modify this skin simply drag it out from the .jar file and drop it in a folder or on your desktop.

Step 2
Once you have your file outside the .jar file you can go nuts on it and make it look like pretty much whatever you want. For more details about skinning, I suggest you visit the Skins part of the forums and take a look around on more detailed tutorials and software around re-skinning your character.

Step 3
After you've done your modifications fire up the same minecraft.jar that you stole it from and simply put it right back. Make sure to confirm any requests to overwrite/copy the file into the archive.

- Possible Error For This Whole Thing -
Note that this tutorial acts rather differently once you're a paying member. Once you buy Minecraft you can chose a custom skin from the Preferences tab on the main site. Whatever skin you chose there will the skin that you and everyone else sees on your character in Minecraft, and the skin you throw in the .jar file will only apply to non-paying members you meet in Creative mode. Another thing to notice is that this reskin does not apply to other paying-members, they will have their own skin over the one you put in the .jar file.

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Enabling HD Textures for the Alpha Client
Note: Currently out of date and broken. Will update once Notch settles for a system.
All credit to met48

This guide explains how to enable 64p+ textures in Minecraft. Please note that this only works when using the standalone client.

Step 1
Download and install the image files like you'd normally do.

Step 2
Delete the META-INF-folder from the minecraft.jar file.

Step 3
Download this and rename it to in.class.

Step 4
Now drop the in.class file into the minecraft.jar file and overwrite the original.

Done! There may be some texture glitches as well, most notably fire animations appearing on stone or dirt and water no longer animating.

- Possible Error For This -
This trick currently changes whenever Notch does changes to the .jar file and might not work if there's been an
major update recently.

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Restoring the original textures
If you've messed something up or simply want to revert back to Notch's textures, here's how.

Step 1
Go to the same place you went when installing your new textures.

For the Alpha Survival:
CODE: SELECT ALL
%appdata%/.minecraft/bin


For Creative mode:
CODE: SELECT ALL
%temp%/minecraft.net


Now simply delete everything in that folder and start Minecraft again, this will force the game to re-download all the files and you'll have the original texture again.

Nice, thanks for.the help, really helpful.