Hey everyone! Legoman2672 here! I am going to make a post for you all on how to use, make, and patch texture packs. This is a COMPLETE Noob's guide. I've made this since it was so frustrating for me, as a noob, to find out this info. So, you noobs won't have to go through the suffering of finding out this crap.

Keep in mind, this is for PC ONLY! Sorry Mac users (Not the packs, the tutorial)!

DOWNLOADING A TEXTURE PACK

Now, go to the texture pack that you want to download. Once you have downloaded it, you will want to go into your .minecraft folder. Some of you already know how to do this, but others don't. Skip over this next part if you know how.

1)Start up Minecraft
2)Go to the texture packs section
3)Hit "Open Texture Packs Folder"
4)Go up until your in the "roaming" folder
5)Make a shortcut to the .minecraft folder on your desktop. You don't have to do this, but I strongly recommend that you do.

Now, you should've downloaded a .zip file. DO NOT UNZIP THIS FOLDER UNLESS THE CREATOR OF THE PACK INSTRUCTS YOU TO. Sometimes, Texture Pack Creators give you terrain.png's to download. If this happens to you, do this:

1)Make a .zip folder of what you want the texture pack to be called.
2)Drag the terrain.png into the .zip folder
3)Have fun!

Now, here is something important to keep in mind, you will want to check the resolution of your texture pack. I will get more into this in the patching section. If you do not use the patcher, do NOT download texture packs that are 32x or higher.

If you did it correctly, you should be enjoying your new Texture Pack! I hope this helped!

MAKING A TEXTURE PACK

Now, we are going to get technical. This can be more advanced. You will need to know how to get to your .minecraft folder and how to find your minecraft.jar. If you need to know how to get their, here are the instructions:

1)You will need to download an rar archiver. Many choose winRAR, but I prefer 7zip.
2)Go to your .minecraft folder and enter the folder named bin
3)You should now have access to your minecraft.jar!

Now, you are going to want to open the .jar. You should have winRAR or 7zip for this. Once it is opened, you are going to drag a few files out. Here are the files/folders you will need:

You will need these folders:
achievement , armor , art , enviroment , font , gui , item , misc , mob , terrain , title

You will need these files:
pack.png , pack.txt , particles.png , terrain.png

Take all these files and extract them into a folder. I'm not going to tell you what every one is for, as that would take forever. Here is a short little synopsis of some of the less obvious ones

Pack.png - The "logo" for your texture pack. The default depicts the beta island.
Pack.txt - The "description" of your pack. The default is "The default look of Minecraft"
terrain.png - Changes what the blocks look like in your world. Some of the files, such as grass, leaves, and plants are a tad bit weird. They read 2 other files called "grasscolor" and "foliagecolor" which is what makes their color change over time.

Now, to edit these, you are going to need an image editor that supports transparency. Programs like MS Paint aren't going to work. Here are 3 I recommend:

Adobe Photoshop - Costs money, but is what most people consider to be the best.
Paint.NET - Notch's preferred image editor, free
GIMP 2.0 - My preferred image editor, free

Once you have one, you will be able to edit the files. You will need to shove these files into a .zip when you are done. Make sure that you insert the files into a .zip without being placed in any other folders.

PATCHING YOUR TEXTURE PACK

Remember earlier when I mentioned resolutions? This will come in handy now.

What the heck does resolution have to do with this?!

The resolution is how many pixels are in each block. It's hard to explain. The default pack is 16 pixels by 16 pixels per block. Here is a description of each resolution:

8x - Made specifically for low-end computers. Works fine on any computer. Usually used to make "simple-packs." Doesn't require patching.
16x - The most commonly used resolution for a texture pack, also used by the default. Doesn't require patching.
32x - Another commonly used resolution. Used to make things look more detailed. Lags on low-end computers, and sometimes even crashes. Usually requires patching.
64x - Made for more detailed packs. Lags on decent computers, crashes on low-end computers. Always requires patching
128x - Made for extremely detailed packs, and to make things more realistic. Semi-rare. Only works with fast computers. Always requires patching
256x - Made for extremely detailed packs, usually for ones that are made to be more realistic. Rare. Only works with fast computers. Always requires patching
512x - VERY rare. Made for EXTREMELY detailed packs. Only works with VERY fast computers

Keep in mind what resolution you are downloading, or Minecraft will crash. Anywho, get a mod called MCPatcher for the latest version. You will want to force your minecraft.jar to update before doing so. Once you have done it, open the patcher.

You will get an odd screen that comes with 4 options.

HD Textures - This is what gives minecraft permission to load anything above 16x. This is important for 32x and plus texture packs.

HD Font - Allows the text of minecraft to look different, if the pack supports the option.

Better Grass - An edit for grass. I don't recommend using this.

Random Mobs - Randomizes the way mobs can look, if the pack supports this.

HD Textures and HD Font are the only ones you need. The other 2 are optional.

Now, when you go to play minecraft, you can have fun with your new 32x pack!

WHAT TO DO IF MINECRAFT CRASHES

Now, if you were a noob like I was, you may accidentally crash your game. DO NOT STRESS ABOUT IT. No, seriously, don't. Imagining the scenario under stress actually triggers the reaction. Here is what to do:

1)Go back to that handy-dandy .minecraft folder I told you about earlier.
2)Find a file called options.txt
3)Open it in notepad. This is what saves your options
4)Look for "skin:[Texture Pack Name].zip
5) Change this to "skin:Default"

CONTACTING ME

Thank you for reading this post! If you have any problems, please leave them in the post. I don't want to be like the trillions of other people who make forum posts and say 'IF YOU HAVE EVEN THE SLIGHTEST AMOUNT OF TROUBLE INSTALLING THESE 53,248,707,497,856,587,365 FILES YOU WILL BE BANNED AND I WILL IGNORE YOU.' I want to know if any of you have problems so I can update the post. Just please don't PM me. If it was, however, answered in the post, I will ignore you.

If you didn't understand, then tell me too. I can see how it could happen, being a former noob.

I am new to tutorials, so any constructive-criticism is good too. Just don't call me a JACKBARFIN' PIECE OF CHILDREN EATING DEMONS

Thanks for reading.