Placeholder texture

From Minecraft Wiki

This article is a work in progress.

Please help expand and improve it. The talk page may contain suggestions.

Minecraft uses an assortment of different placeholder textures for handling cases where textures cannot be drawn normally.

Missing texture

[edit | edit source]

Main article: Missing textures and models § Missing texture

The most known, the missing texture, is a texture composed of a black and magenta checkerboard, and turns up anytime a texture or model reference could not be correctly resolved.

Animation placeholder textures

[edit | edit source]

Main article: Animation placeholder texture

Another type of placeholder texture, these were overwritten by the actual animated textures during gameplay once said textures were generated by the game. They would appear themselves in the event that the associated animation could not be generated for whatever reason.

Texture atlas blank spaces

[edit | edit source]

👁 BlockSprite rose.png: Sprite image for rose in Minecraft

This section describes content that has been removed from Minecraft.

This feature was present in earlier versions of Minecraft, but has since been removed.

👁 Image

This section is missing information about: items.png and inventory.png also have other separate placeholder textures that are different from just empty areas

Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.

When predefined texture atlases were used for storing and loading textures, certain patterns were used for marking unused regions on some atlases, where others simply used outright blank spaces.

These texture spots end up being removed as the texture atlases containing them are split up into individual files.

👁 Nothing: items.png particles.png

Nothing:
items.png
particles.png
👁 Purple square: terrain.png kz.png

Purple square:
terrain.png
kz.png
👁 Blue square: Early mapicons.png

Blue square:
Early mapicons.png

Java Edition pre-Classic
Cave game tech test							👁 Image Added `terrain.png`, with the purple square placeholder.
Java Edition
1.5			13w02a				Deprecated `terrain.png`, taking the purple placeholder texture for blocks with it. The file remains in the jar, unused, as does `results.png`, a new file containing textures that are not split.
			13w02a				👁 Image The generated texture atlas (`stitched_terrain.png`) now produces solid yellow squares in empty regions.
			13w02b				`terrain.png` is now removed from the jar file, resulting in the placeholder block texture being almost fully removed.
			13w03a				`results.png` has now been removed from the jar file, completely eradicating all block placeholder texture squares.
			13w03a				👁 Image The empty spaces in `stitched_terrain.png` are now blank, although removing the alpha channel will still show the yellow placeholder texture.
Pocket Edition Alpha
Demo							👁 Image This version presumably added `terrain.png`, alongside its placeholder texture.
v0.8.0			build 2				👁 Image Removed `terrain.png`, taking the purple placeholder texture for blocks with it. The replacement texture atlas (`terrain-atlas.tga`) uses blank spaces instead.
Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
1.66.0016.0							👁 Image This was presumably the version to add `terrain.png`, alongside its placeholder texture.
TU19	CU7	1.12	1.12	1.12			👁 Image `terrain.png` has been extended downward to fit more textures. This is despite the fact that there is still one purple placeholder square remaining.
TU25	CU12	1.17	1.17	1.17			The last purple placeholder square has been replaced, fully removing them from `terrain.png`.

Items

[edit | edit source]

👁 Image

This section is missing information about: there were some different placeholder slots up until the end, alongside outright blank areas

Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.

Java Edition Indev
0.31			20091231-2147				👁 Image Added `items.png`, with the blank placeholder.
Java Edition
1.5			13w02a				Deprecated `items.png`.
			13w02a				👁 Image The generated texture atlas (`stitched_items.png`) now produces solid yellow squares in empty regions.
			13w03a				👁 Image The empty spaces in `stitched_items.png` are now blank.
Pocket Edition Alpha
Demo							👁 Image This version presumably added `items.png`, alongside its placeholder texture.
v0.8.0			build 1				👁 Image Removed `items.png`. The replacement texture atlas (`items-opaque.tga`) still uses blank spaces.
Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
1.66.0016.0							👁 Image This was presumably the version to add `items.png`, alongside its placeholder texture.

Particles

[edit | edit source]

Java Edition Classic
0.26 SURVIVAL TEST							👁 Image Added `particles.png`, with the blank placeholder.
Java Edition
1.14			19w06a				👁 Image Removed `particles.png`. The generated atlas, `particles.png-atlas`, still has blank spaces.
Pocket Edition Alpha
Demo							👁 Image This version presumably added `particles.png`, alongside its placeholder texture.
Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
1.66.0016.0							👁 Image This was presumably the version to add `particles.png`, alongside its placeholder texture.

Paintings

[edit | edit source]

Java Edition Indev
Minecraft Indev			20100223				👁 Image Added `kz.png`, with the purple square placeholder.
Java Edition
1.14			19w07a				👁 Image Removed `paintings_kristoffer_zetterstrand.png`, taking the purple placeholder texture out of the game entirely. The generated atlas, `paintings.png-atlas`, instead has blank spaces.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.5.0							👁 Image Added `kz.png`, with the purple square placeholder.
Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
1.66.0016.0							👁 Image This was presumably the version to add `kz.png`, alongside its placeholder texture.

Effects

[edit | edit source]

Map icons

[edit | edit source]

Java Edition Beta
1.6	Test Build 3	👁 Image Added `mapicons.png`, with the cyan square placeholder.
Java Edition
1.13	18w10a	👁 Image `map_icons.png` now uses blank spaces for placeholders instead of blue squares.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.14.0	build 1	👁 Image Added `mapicons.png`, with the cyan square placeholder.
Bedrock Edition
?		`mapicons.png` no longer has any placeholder regions, as all 16 spaces now correspond to a map icon.

Unsorted

[edit | edit source]

Java Edition
1.14			19w08a				👁 Image Split effect icons from `inventory.png`, taking out some of the placeholder regions, although most were blank to begin with anyway.

Default texture

[edit | edit source]

In some cases where textures were not explicitly defined for certain blocks, the blocks in question would "default" to the texture at position (0,0) of the texture atlas in use. Where terrain.png is used, this was the top of the grass block; however, with the deprecation of predefined texture atlases and their replacement with atlases that generate at runtime, this texture tended to shift with time.

Since 14w25a, the majority of such cases are instead directed to the missing texture, although some notable outliers persisted beyond this point.

Uses

[edit | edit source]

👁 Image
For cases where the default texture was unintentionally used in-game, see Java Edition default texture uses, Bedrock Edition default texture uses, and Legacy Console Edition default texture uses.

History

[edit | edit source]

Java Edition pre-Classic
Cave game tech test		👁 Image The texture at (0,0) in the current block texture atlas, `terrain.png`, is the top of the grass block.
rd-20090515		👁 Image The grass block top texture has changed.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.2.0	preview	👁 Image The grass block top texture has changed.
Java Edition
1.0.0	Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5	👁 Image The grass block top texture has changed.
1.5	13w02a	`terrain.png` has been removed and replaced with texture atlases generated at runtime.
1.5	13w02a	👁 Image By default, the texture at (0,0) is the missing texture, meaning that certain things that use this texture in-game actually use it due to it being the texture at (0,0), rather than it being the missing texture and pointing to it in error cases. It is possible to distinguish default texture uses from true uses of the missing texture by applying a texture pack with a block graphic which is larger than 64x64: blocks that point to the missing texture specifically still use the missing texture and will therefore be unaffected by the texture pack, but those that simply point to the default position use the new, large texture provided by the texture pack.^{[more information needed]}
1.6.1	13w18a	The missing texture has changed in this version, becoming 16x16 from its previous 64x64 size.
	13w18a	👁 Image As such, due to how textures are ordered in atlases the game generates, it is no longer at the top-left of the atlas, instead being replaced by the 32x32 flowing lava texture, which is used in these cases.^{[more information needed]}
	13w18b	The flowing lava particles are now animated.^[1]
1.8	14w06a	👁 Image Unreferenced textures now point to the block of redstone texture instead, likely as a fix to MC-46427.
	14w06b	End portals and moving pistons now have the lava texture again when broken, although barriers still use the redstone block texture. This is likely due to the fix for MC-47482.
	14w25a	👁 Image Unreferenced textures now point to the missing texture from this point forward. All cases of this happening are now counted as uses of the missing texture.
	14w30a	The default texture appears to be used again in some cases, such as chest item particles (only accessible via commands).^{[more information needed]}
1.13	?	The default texture is no longer referenced for any item, excluding shields.
1.14	18w47a	The default texture is no longer used for shield particles.^[2]

Bedrock Edition missing textures

[edit | edit source]

👁 Image
For cases where these placeholder textures were used in-game, see Bedrock Edition missing tile texture uses.

Unlike in Java Edition, which has a single missing texture that is generated by the game at runtime, Bedrock Edition defines other textures as image files in the game's assets directory:

	Path	Use case
👁 Image	`textures/blocks/missing_tile.png`	Commonly used for blocks and their item forms that have no assigned texture or blocks that are in the game and have their texture, but the texture isn't assigned correctly.
👁 Image	`textures/ui/missing_item.png`	Unknown^{[more information needed]}

Debug textures

[edit | edit source]

Main article: History of textures/Unused textures § debug.png and debug2.png

👁 Image

This section of the article is empty.

You can help by expanding it.

MC-125280

Default player skins

[edit | edit source]

👁 Image

This section of the article is empty.

You can help by expanding it.

References

[edit | edit source]

Navigation

[edit | edit source]

Textures

Minecraft

Texture history	Java mobs
Minecraft Dungeons	Items Entities Prefabs
Minecraft Legends	Entities
Minecraft Earth	Blocks Items Entities
Minecraft: Story Mode	Exclusive textures

Retrieved from "https://minecraft.wiki/w/Placeholder_texture?oldid=3533426"

Category:

Textures

Hidden categories:

URL: https://minecraft.wiki/w/Placeholder_texture