Stunning GLSL Shaders One of the things that people dislike about Minecraft is the graphics. They look quite poorly done and very low quality. Because of this, people created HD texture packs. First they were 32x32 textures, then 64x64, and now all the way up to 512x512 textures. They still look bad, because of the lighting. Then came the GLSL shaders mod. This added waving wheat, depth of field, and many other amazing changes. It still wasn’t enough to fill the hunger of the players craving of amazing textures. Then came Sonic Ether's Unbelievable Shaders. They are unlike anything ever seen in Minecraft. They add shadows, correct lighting, and just look stunning. They replicate an effect only seen in the best of Minecraft renders, in real time. That is what the cover art is. Not a prerendered shot, but a live screenshot of Minecraft with amazing quality graphics. These kinds of graphics not only make Minecraft look amazing, but are competing with other games in the graphics standpoint. I have seen many full games that don’t have textures anything like this. It’s quite a feat, this mod. It required totally rewriting Minecraft’s lighting engine to do something like this. Both the creator of GLSL shaders (daxnitro) and the creator of this custom edition (sonicether) have done something amazing. They have transformed a game that once had pixilated textures and generally poor graphics and gave it a total overhaul of the entire graphics system. This is one of the few mods I have ever used, and continue to use. I highly recommend this to anyone. I do have a warning though, once you’ve tried it, you can’t stop using it. Also, if you have a older or slow computer, don’t try this. Most people who got 100FPS get 30FPS with it. It is quite a strain on your system, but if you have a fast enough one, well worth it. If you already use it, awesome! If you find a particularly amazing screenshot, please send it to usercontent@minecraftweekly.tk.
Weekly Release 5 Minecraft weekly release 5 (12w04a and b) is now out! Go try it out if you haven’t yet, or read on to find out what amazing new features it contains. Ocelots are much easier to tame, and cats can be told to sit. Villagers will actually find their houses and live in them. More language files updates! Many assorted mob-related bugs were fixed. They also pushed 12w05b because of a bug they found after they released it. It was that when you shift-clicked an item, it would consume all the items in the crafting table and only give you one. They also made it so that cats can sit.
Xbox Cover Art Good news Xbox fans, the Xbox 360 Minecraft cover art was just released. This means the actual game can’t be too far behind! Minecraft seems to be taking over as it now has roots in PC gaming, iOS and Android gaming, and now Xbox gaming.
Reviews LoafCraft Texture Pack [32x] This texture pack is currently the featured texture pack on the “Texture Pack Central” thread, and I can see why. This texture pack has a very smooth feel. It looks like its way above its 32x32 resolution, and closer to 64x64. All of the blocks are textured nicely and somewhat lighter than most texture packs. Everything is still normal enough looking to tell what exactly it is, but still different enough to look amazing. This texture pack is somewhat based on cats, so most of the paintings are cats. The fire particles texture is a cat face. It is a very complete theme, and I quite enjoy it. It is a 100% complete theme, so everything is textured in the style of it.
SuperMarioCraft Texture Pack [x16] This texture pack is a novelty, having graphics based on Super Mario World. The texture pack is fully complete for Minecraft 1.1. There are only a few blocks that don’t have close similarities to Super Mario World. While the texture pack itself is quite nicely done, I can’t say I like it. It looks blocky even for Minecraft. It’s lacking that smooth feel that most successful texture packs have. I believe this pack only has any success because of the fact that it’s based on Super Mario World. Have a map or pack you want reviewed? Just shoot an email off to usercontent@minecraftweekly.tk