Unused textures

This page documents textures that are present in Minecraft but are not actually used.

Specifically, only textures that were fully unused are included here. Textures that were previously unused but became used in a later update—even if the texture was changed before being used are not included. Examples include cobweb, crying obsidian, calibrated sculk sensor, end stone, and the original two sandstone texture variants. Unused duplicate textures are generally not listed unless they are tied to another unused texture or were changed later on.

Current

In Bedrock Edition, most textures from older versions are still in the game to support backward-compatibility; therefore they are not unused. Only textures that have never been used, or were updated for Vibrant Visuals without being used are included.

Blocks

debug.png and debug2.png

In Java Edition 15w31a, these two textures were added to the game, where they remain to the current day. It appears that there are the letters N, E, S, and W on the texture of debug2, all placed at different rotations. This could possibly be used for rendering, with the letters signifying the four cardinal directions.

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  debug.png
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  debug2.png

debug.png was used in Java Edition 18w07a, presumably unintentionally, due to being defined as the particle texture for bubble columns, meaning actions that would result in the creation of particles (such as falling from a height onto the edge of a block next to a bubble column) would show particles with this texture. They could also be seen when the bubble column was pushed by a piston.

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Items

Ruby

The regular color textures.

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  Ruby

The MERS textures for Vibrant Visuals.

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  Ruby

The MERS textures, edited to ignore the alpha channel for visibility (MER).

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  Ruby

Quiver

The regular color textures.

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  Quiver

The MERS textures for Vibrant Visuals.

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  Quiver

The MERS textures, edited to ignore the alpha channel for visibility (MER).

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  Quiver

Unused potions

Bedrock Edition has unused potion textures for many effects, along with their splash variants. These effects are Absorption, Blindness, Haste, Health Boost, Hunger, Mining Fatigue, Nausea, Resistance, Saturation, and Levitation. These unused textures were added along with the other potion textures in Pocket Edition v0.12.1 alpha, except for the potion of Levitation, which was added in Pocket Edition 1.0.0. The textures were changed along with the other potion textures during the Texture Update in Bedrock Edition 1.10.0. Some potions once again updated when potion colors changed in Bedrock Edition 1.20.0. Strangely, the potion of Levitation texture is a duplicate of the splash potion of Levitation texture. Moreover, the potions of Blindness, Resistance, Saturation, and Levitation look like potions of Weakness, Fire Resistance, Healing, and Leaping respectively.

The regular color textures.

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  Potion of Absorption
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  Potion of Blindness
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  Potion of Haste
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  Potion of Health Boost
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  Potion of Hunger
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  Potion of Levitation
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  Potion of Mining Fatigue
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  Potion of Nausea
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  Potion of Resistance
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  Potion of Saturation
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  Splash Potion of Absorption
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  Splash Potion of Blindness
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  Splash Potion of Haste
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  Splash Potion of Health Boost
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  Splash Potion of Hunger
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  Splash Potion of Levitation
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  Splash Potion of Mining Fatigue
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  Splash Potion of Nausea
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  Splash Potion of Resistance
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  Splash Potion of Saturation

The MERS textures for Vibrant Visuals.

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  Potion of Absorption
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  Potion of Blindness
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  Potion of Haste
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  Potion of Health Boost
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  Potion of Hunger
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  Potion of Levitation
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  Potion of Mining Fatigue
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  Potion of Nausea
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  Potion of Resistance
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  Potion of Saturation
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  Splash Potion of Absorption
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  Splash Potion of Blindness
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  Splash Potion of Haste
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  Splash Potion of Health Boost
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  Splash Potion of Hunger
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  Splash Potion of Levitation
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  Splash Potion of Mining Fatigue
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  Splash Potion of Nausea
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  Splash Potion of Resistance
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  Splash Potion of Saturation

The MERS textures, edited to ignore the alpha channel for visibility (MER).

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  Potion of Absorption
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  Potion of Blindness
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  Potion of Haste
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  Potion of Health Boost
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  Potion of Hunger
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  Potion of Levitation
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  Potion of Mining Fatigue
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  Potion of Nausea
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  Potion of Resistance
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  Potion of Saturation
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  Splash Potion of Absorption
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  Splash Potion of Blindness
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  Splash Potion of Haste
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  Splash Potion of Health Boost
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  Splash Potion of Hunger
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  Splash Potion of Levitation
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  Splash Potion of Mining Fatigue
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  Splash Potion of Nausea
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  Splash Potion of Resistance
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  Splash Potion of Saturation

Potion overlay

A texture presumably intended to be colored with effect colors exists in Bedrock Edition even though potions use pre-colored textures. Java Edition does use coloring for this purpose, but its overlay texture differs from Bedrock Edition.

Similarly, an empty lingering potion bottle texture is unused in Bedrock Edition.

The regular color textures.

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The MERS textures for Vibrant Visuals.

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The MERS textures, edited to ignore the alpha channel for visibility (MER).

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Tipped arrow base and overlay

Tipped arrows use effect colors with base and overlay textures in Java Edition and pre-colored textures in Bedrock Edition, yet unused base and overlay textures exist in Bedrock Edition.

The regular color textures.

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The MERS textures for Vibrant Visuals.

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The MERS textures, edited to ignore the alpha channel for visibility (MER).

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Potion and arrow of Luck

The potions of Luck are exclusive to Java Edition yet the lingering potion and tipped arrow textures exist in Bedrock Edition.

The regular color textures.

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The MERS textures for Vibrant Visuals.

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The MERS textures, edited to ignore the alpha channel for visibility (MER).

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Minecart with furnace

The minecart with furnace exists in Java Edition but has an unused item texture in Bedrock Edition.

The regular color textures.

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The MERS textures for Vibrant Visuals.

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The MERS textures, edited to ignore the alpha channel for visibility (MER).

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Hoglin meat

Textures for raw and cooked hoglin_meat exist in Bedrock Edition but are unused. They are identical to raw and cooked beef.

The regular color textures.

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  Hoglin Meat
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  Cooked Hoglin Meat

The MERS textures for Vibrant Visuals.

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  Hoglin Meat
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  Cooked Hoglin Meat

The MERS textures, edited to ignore the alpha channel for visibility (MER).

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  Hoglin Meat
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  Cooked Hoglin Meat

Old boat and banner pattern

The textures for the boat and banner pattern items have both been split into individual textures for each variant, but the old generic textures still exist in Bedrock Edition and are unused. The old banner pattern texture is used in backward-compatibility but still receives updates.

The regular color textures.

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The MERS textures for Vibrant Visuals.

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The MERS textures, edited to ignore the alpha channel for visibility (MER).

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Hanging roots and lever

The hanging roots and lever items re-use the block textures for item display, but identical item textures exist in Bedrock Edition and are unused.

The regular color textures.

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The MERS textures for Vibrant Visuals.

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The MERS textures, edited to ignore the alpha channel for visibility (MER).

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Unused compounds

In the chemistry resource pack folder of Minecraft Education, there are numerous compound textures which are not used in the game, including a variant of the bleach texture.

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  Flask
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  Black Flask
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  Blue Flask
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  Brown Beaker
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  Brown Flask
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  Dark Gray Beaker
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  Dark Gray Flask
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  Dark Gray Jar
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  Green Beaker
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  Green Flask
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  Green Jar
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  Indigo Beaker
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  Indigo Flask
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  Indigo Jar
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  Light Gray Beaker
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  Light Gray Flask
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  Orange Beaker
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  Orange Flask
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  Orange Jar
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  Purple Beaker
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  Purple Flask
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  Purple Jar
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  Red Beaker
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  Red Flask
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  Red Jar
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  White Flask
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  Yellow Flask
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  Bleach

Entities

Gray Tabby Cat

In Bedrock Edition, a texture file for a tamed gray tabby cat exists. However, it is completely unused and cannot be spawned in-game. The grey tabby is, however used as a cosmetic pet in Minecraft Dungeons.

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  Unused gray tabby texture
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  What the texture would look like on a standard cat model

Clownfish

In Bedrock Edition, there is a texture for a generic clownfish, which is unused; instead, clownfish are a variant of tropical fish.

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  Unused clownfish texture
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  A possible look of the unused clownfish mob

char.png

In Bedrock Edition, a mysterious all-green 16x16 texture is present. It is unknown what this texture is meant for.

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  char.png

The file's presence in Bedrock Edition is a leftover from the early Pocket Edition era, where it served as the default player texture before the skin system was properly implemented . In these early versions, players without jailbroken devices could manually replace char.png in the app's files to change their skin, though this only changed the appearance locally and did not affect how other players saw them . Its all-green appearance in the modern Bedrock codebase is likely a placeholder or a corrupted remnant of that legacy asset, as the game now uses a completely different rendering pipeline and file structure for player skins .

While Java Edition also uses a file named char.png (historically the Steve skin), the two are distinct: the Java version was a full player model texture that could be edited in texture packs, whereas the Bedrock file is a vestigial 16x16 green square with no current purpose .

Particles

goldheart

Java Edition 23w12a added three particle textures. As of today, they still exist in the game.

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  goldheart_0.png
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  goldheart_1.png
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  goldheart_2.png

Light blue particles

In Java Edition Beta 1.4 and Pocket Edition v0.1.0 alpha, 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, or a change to existing water splash effects. These particle textures were eventually removed in Java Edition 19w06a with the removal of particles.png and still exist in Bedrock Edition.

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Angry villager head

In Java Edition 12w34a and Pocket Edition v0.12.1 alpha build 1, a texture resembling an angry-looking villager head was added to particles.png, which was never used. This texture was removed in Java Edition 19w06a and still exists in Bedrock Edition.

Fishing bobber

This texture is used in Java Edition to render the fishing bobber and exists on the particles.png file, but it is unused in Bedrock Edition due to it having its own 3D model.

Soul lava

In an unknown build of Bedrock Edition 1.16.0,​^{[more information needed]} 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. It appears completely unused.

Unlike normal campfires, soul campfires do not emit any type of ember. This is due to there being no defined particle for a soul ember, something which this texture would fill in. Despite this, the texture only exists in Bedrock Edition.

Copper lava

Similarly to soul lava, a "copper lava" particle was added to particles.png in Bedrock Edition Preview 1.21.110.23. A difference is that copper campfires do not exist, so it would not have a use.

Drip land

This particle exists in particles.png in Bedrock Edition or as a dedicated texture in Java Edition, but it is only used on the latter edition for crying obsidian, honey, and lava drip particles landing on the ground and disappearing after a while. In Bedrock Edition, it is instead the drip particle itself that lands on the ground and disappears after a while, making this texture unused.

UI

Purtle

Purtle (Performance Turtle)​^{[more information needed]}

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Historical

Blocks

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 may have been an early experimental snow texture, as Notch had stated interest in adding snow and ice before this point, or it could relate to clouds, as they were added in the same version. This texture was removed from terrain.png in 0.0.15a.

Chair textures

From Indev 20100206-2034 to Infdev 20100627, two textures were present in terrain.png that were based off of the oak planks texture. The first texture is commonly recognized to be a side view of a chair, and the other texture is often interpreted as being either the front view of a chair or the side view of a table. However, the latter was never mentioned by Notch and, as such, this interpretation remains speculative.

Indev 20100206-2034 also added a duplicate oak planks texture. This may have been intended for use in the aforementioned chair texture as well (potentially being used as the back or seat portions), 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 was changed to be slightly darker. The door and ladder textures, which were relatively close to it in terrain.png, were also darkened in that version, and the second "table" texture remained completely untouched.

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  The original chair side texture.
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  The darkened chair side texture.
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  The chair front texture.
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  The duplicated wooden planks texture for the chair.
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  Recreated possible model of a chair using all 3 textures.

During the time these textures existed within terrain.png, Notch repeatedly stated plans to implement chairs, as well as mentions of other furniture (like doors, signs, and ladders).

Intriguingly, these textures were added in the exact same version as wheat crops and farming mechanics were. Crops of invalid data values (8 and beyond, as wheat normally only grows to 7) would overflow to the next line of terrain.png, due to how wheat models and texture selection were defined at the time. Data values 11 and 12 specifically happened to use the exact spots where these two textures were positioned, resulting in wheat with these data values appearing as rather broken chairs.

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  Wheat with age 11 used the chair side texture.
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  Wheat with age 11 used a darkened chair side texture.
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  Wheat with age 12 used the chair front texture.

Mojang have since rejected the idea of adding "furniture" blocks to the game, as their existence would "inhibit natural creativity".

A mechanic that, unlike chairs, does exist in Minecraft, are cushions. These can be sat on, and can be used to make chair-like builds and furnishings.

Coral block texture

In Infdev 20100629, a coral block texture was added to terrain.png, being composed of several transparent and grayscale pixels. The coral texture was later removed in Alpha v1.0.4, with its position being taken by the snowy grass block side texture.

Around the same time the texture was added to terrain.png, Notch mentioned an attempt to add coral blocks to the game, according to a post on The Word of Notch documenting a failed attempt to draw a realistic-looking coral block texture.

Unused code for coral blocks was found in a development build of Beta 1.2_02, allowing randomly-colored coral blocks to be created in-game. While the remaining code does not specify which spot in terrain.png corals would have used, the way in which the random coloring was implemented implies it would have been used on a grayscale texture, such as this one.

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  Unused texture in Infdev 20100629
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  The texture applied to the unused block code

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. This version also added grass and ferns, which appear adjacent to this texture.

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, and despite both textures being identical beforehand, Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5 made the two textures visually distinct from one another.

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. It was also present in Xbox 360 Edition since its inception, due to initially being based on Java Edition Beta 1.6.6.

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. It was removed from Xbox 360 Edition in TU12 due to being replaced by the vertical dispenser texture, although it still technically persists in the base game, as the original terrain.png was never removed, in spite of it becoming unused in TU3.

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  The original duplicate, identical to the actually used texture
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  The retextured duplicate
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  The retextured actual grass block top, which differs from the duplicate

"Footprints" texture

In Beta 1.8 Pre-release, a texture composed of three footprints was added to terrain.png. Its intended use is unknown. The texture was eventually removed in 13w03a due to terrain.png's deprecation in 13w02a and the subsequent removal of it and results.png.

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

The texture was also present in Xbox 360 Edition since TU0 due to said version including a copy of Java Edition 1.2's terrain.png. It was re-replaced by a placeholder texture in TU12.

"Village border"

These textures, also added to terrain.png in Beta 1.8 Pre-release, remained unused and were removed in 13w03a per terrain.png's deprecation in 13w02a and the subsequent removal of it and results.png. 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.

Both textures were present in Xbox 360 Edition since TU0 due to said version including a copy of Java Edition 1.2's terrain.png. In TU12, the "edge" was replaced by the bottom texture of the block of quartz (later known as the smooth quartz texture), and the "corner" by the top texture of the hopper.

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  "edge"
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  "corner"

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 (potentially, it could be meant to be a "snowy" overlay for saplings), and was removed in 13w02a per terrain.png's deprecation in 13w02a and the subsequent removal of it and results.png.

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

The texture was present in Xbox 360 Edition since TU0 due to said version including a copy of Java Edition 1.2's terrain.png. It was re-replaced by a placeholder texture in TU12.

Paeonia

The paeonia was a flower type originally planned for implementation in 1.7.2. Originally revealed by Jeb in a screenshot, the flower was never implemented, being superseded by the peony.

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  The screenshot revealed by Jeb on Instagram
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  Model
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  Texture

However, the texture for the paeonia was still added to the game's texture files in 13w36a as flower_paeonia.png, alongside all the actually implemented flowers. This texture persisted in the files for over four years, eventually being removed in 17w47a due to resource changes and the Flattening.

Interestingly, despite the texture being completely unused throughout its presence in the game files, paeonias were redone in the Texture Update beta packs. The texture is present in the Bedrock Edition default resource pack, having been added along with the other texture update textures.

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  Texture Update texture

Vine variants

Three unused vine variant textures were present in early revisions of the Texture Update.

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Barrel variants

In a beta 1.9.0.0 resource pack template, two unused barrel textures were added, though it is uncertain if they were ever in any releases.^[verify] The "empty" texture visually resembles the later-introduced open texture. What these textures were specifically intended for remains unknown.

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  fishbarrel_top_empty.png
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  fishbarrel_top.png
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  How the empty barrel with the aforementioned texture as the top would look in-game. Again, the empty top texture is different than its later in-game counterpart.
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  How the fish-filled barrel with the aforementioned texture as the top would look in-game.

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.

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  Wax block texture
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  Speculative rendering of what the wax block could have looked like

Root vines

In Java Edition 21w05a, a texture named root_vines_head.png was added to the assets/minecraft/textures/block/ directory. This unused texture was an early design for cave vines. There is no known "body" texture, despite this being implied by this texture being named "head" alongside the naming of existing cave vines.

The texture was removed in Java Edition 21w16a.

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Items

Studded armor

A speculative render of what Studded Armor could have looked like

Studded armor refers to four armor item textures which were found in the initial versions of items.png, alongside the leather armor, chain armor and plate (iron) armor sets. First appearing in the second December 31, 2009 build, the sprites technically did see use in-game, but this is of little significance as all sprites on items.png were used at the time, with basically no functionality. These textures were taken directly from one of Notch's games Legend of the Chambered 2.

The textures were ultimately removed some time between the 4th and 6th of February, 2010 in preparation for the actual implementation of armor and its mechanics.

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  Helmet
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  Chestplate
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  Leggings
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  Boots

Quiver

The quiver was another unused item texture which existed in items.png from Java Edition Indev 0.31 20091231-2255, but which persisted for much longer. Having its origins in Legend of the Chambered, one of Notch's prior games, the texture was also included among the first item sprites in the game. While it also technically existed as an item, it was also ultimately nonfunctional and only existed for testing purposes.

Its texture was changed on the 22nd of January, 2010 by flipping it horizontally from its original orientation.

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  Original texture
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  Second version

The texture itself, however, remained in items.png for as long as items.png itself existed, and even outlived it; it became an individual file in 13w02a with items.png's splitting. It was also not removed in 13w24a with the advent of resource packs, despite many other unused textures being deleted.

Despite the quiver texture continuing to exist in the game unused, Jeb stated in 2011 he would not add quivers to the game as an item.

During the development of Java Edition 1.9, Dinnerbone posted a 2×204960 image on Twitter which could be reformed into a 854×480 Minecraft screenshot, clearly depicting the quiver as a usable item in the inventory, where it had what seemed to be a dedicated slot alongside a slot for arrows. He shared another screenshot of the quiver in the inventory a few weeks later, with the quiver slot in a different location. On June 30, 2015, Dinnerbone stated that he scrapped quivers as he felt that holding arrows in the off-hand felt "more natural."

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  The screenshot which Dinnerbone's 854×480 image decodes to, showing a quiver in its slot in the survival inventory
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  A similar screenshot showing a quiver slot in the creative inventory

As a result of this scrapping, with there no longer being any planned future uses for the texture, it was ultimately removed from Java Edition in 1.9's first snapshot, 15w31a.

The quiver texture was also present in Pocket Edition's items.png file from the beginning and, reflecting the behavior of early Indev, was even unintentionally assigned to an invalid ID item.​^{[more information needed]} It remained part of Items.png and its successor Items-opaque.tga until the texture atlas was replaced with invidual item textures. It was removed at an unknown time but later re-added,^[verify] and is still present in Bedrock Edition's vanilla resource pack. It was also present in the Legacy Console Edition from the start, being replaced by the end crystal item texture in TU43 and equivalent versions. The texture is also present in every version of Pi Edition.

Unused camera item texture

Prior to the addition of cameras in Pocket Edition v0.2.0 alpha, an unused item texture resembling a handheld camera existed next to the texture for the actual camera entity. It would be replaced by a "blocks" music disc texture with the full addition of the camera.

Ruby

Rubies were intended to be the original currency used for trading. They could be seen in a screenshot released by Jeb on 21 May 2012, in which the trading system was first being tested. While it was later decided that emeralds would take their place as a currency, a ruby texture was still in Java Edition 12w21a's items.png file, alongside the emerald. The unused ruby texture which was present in the game differed from the version shown in the screenshot, however.

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  Jeb's screenshot showing rubies.
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  A re-created ruby texture, as seen in Jeb's screenshot
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  The unused ruby texture present in released Minecraft versions

Alongside emeralds, 12w21a also implemented emerald ore as a method of obtaining them. However, the texture used for emerald ore was accidentally set to a texture seemingly intended for ruby ore, and translation strings in the game's language files included references to rubies and ruby ore:

• item.ruby.name=Ruby
• tile.oreRuby.name=Ruby Ore

Java Edition 12w21b was swiftly released to give emerald ore its intended release texture, and the translation strings for rubies and ruby ore were removed in the full release of Java Edition 1.10.

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  Emerald ore in its first iteration, using the "ruby ore" texture
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  Emerald ore in its second iteration, using its intended texture

Emeralds were decided upon over rubies for accessibility purposes, as Dinnerbone stated he has red-green color blindness, and had difficulty distinguishing between ruby ore and redstone ore.

Despite the item texture for rubies being completely unused throughout its existence in the game files, it, like the quiver, inexplicably survived the splitting of items.png and remained in the game as an unused texture file for much longer than expected. It even beat the quiver in longevity, remaining unused in the game for close to a decade prior to its removal in Java Edition 21w13a.

The texture was added to Pocket Edition in Pocket Edition v0.8.0 alpha build 2. It was eventually removed in the first v0.14.0 build, but later re-added and is still present in the vanilla resource pack. The texture was also added to Xbox 360 Edition in TU9, and remained in the console editions until TU54 and equivalent versions, in which it was replaced by one of the textures used for bed items​^{[more information needed]}.

The name "Ruby" was reused for a currency in the now-discontinued game Minecraft Earth, using completely different textures from those present in the main game.

Rubies were reimplemented as a joke feature in 23w13a_or_b snapshot, where they could replace the Emerald item texture via a specific vote.

Banner item textures

During the Java Edition 1.8 snapshots, starting with Java Edition 14w30a, there were two unused item textures, "banner_base" and "banner_overlay", which were likely intended to be used together as a recolorable inventory icon for banners. The banner_base.png texture was removed in 16w41a, and the banner_overlay.png texture removed in 17w47a.

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  The base texture.
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  The overlay texture.
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  Both textures put together.

Crystallized honey

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

Entities

2char.png

2char.png is a texture that was added in Java Edition Classic 0.0.20a, consisting of an entirely white player skin. It was removed in Java Edition Alpha v1.2.2.

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  2char.png
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  2char.png used as a player skin

char_2.png

char_2.png is a texture that could be found in the jar file for Java Edition Indev 20100212-1210. The texture is mostly identical to that of Steve, with the main difference being another layer of hair being present in the hat layer. Two potentially-misplaced yellow pixels also appear on the forehead. It was removed two days later.

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  char_2.png
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  char_2.png used as a player skin

Door entity

On 3 June 2010, Notch discussed on his blog plans to add different types of furniture to the game, including doors. These postings include discussions of implementing said furniture in the form of entities as opposed to blocks, as was previously done for paintings in Indev, with Notch also stating his successful reimplementation of signs the previous day as a block entity. If implemented as a block entity, this would allow doors to have a smooth opening and closing animation, similarly to what was added for chests just over a year later in Beta 1.8 Pre-release by converting them from normal blocks.

Doors were ultimately added on the 7th of June, 2010, as a relatively normal block, which would instantly open or close when interacted with, having no continuous animation in the process as had been mentioned. However, the /item directory in minecraft.jar, which stored the textures for other non-mob entities at that time such as minecarts and arrows, gained a texture called door.png in this same version, which is speculated to have been linked to said scrapped opening/closing animation. An early iteration of the oak door texture can be seen in it, with empty space in the texture being filled out by solid purple.

An interesting thing to note about this unused door texture is the absence of any windows, a significant difference from the door actually implemented in the June 7th Infdev build, the top half of which does have a transparent window. The item form, however, still did not have a window in it until Alpha v1.0.1.

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  The oak door item from the June 7th build of Infdev
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  The oak door item in Alpha v1.0.1

This door entity texture was one of many unused textures removed in 13w24a with the reconfiguring of game assets and the introduction of resource packs as the successor to texture packs.

villager.png

Villagers were added to Java Edition in the first Beta 1.9 prerelease, with their textures located together in a dedicated subfolder of the mob textures folder: /mob/villager. However, another texture was added in this version, called villager.png, which is located directly in the mob folder itself rather than the villager subfolder. (It is not to be confused with the "generic" file also called villager.png which is located in the villager subfolder, which was later used for nitwits.) This texture is completely unused, and closely resembles Steve, but with significant modifications to fit a different entity model.

If this texture is applied to a villager through use of a custom texture pack, the overall appearance is broken and mismatched, implying that the model it was intended to be used for was different than the released villager model.

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  villager.png used as the texture for a villager using a texture pack
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  How this texture was likely intended to look, applied to a speculative entity model

Along with many other unused textures, villager.png was removed in 13w24a when texture packs were succeeded by resource packs.

Villager, vindicator, evoker, and witch hood

Witch hood seen on 18w50a.

Evoker hood seen on Meet the Evoker.

Evokers, vindicators, and witches had an unused hood texture.

The evoker hood can be seen in the minecraft.net article "Meet the Evoker" and the witch hood can be seen in 18w50a.

Prior to the Village & Pillage update, the villagers also had unused hood textures.

The hoods on the evokers, vindicators, and witches were removed in Java Edition 1.18 Pre-release 5.

Early ender dragon textures

In Java Edition Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4, two unused ender dragon textures, titled "body" and "dragon", were added, probably left over from an earlier phase in development, as they resemble other pre-release ender dragon textures that Notch shared on twitter. They were removed in Java Edition 1.6.1.

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  The "body" texture.
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  The "dragon" texture.

Skis

In 12w50a, a snapshot for Java Edition 1.4.6, a texture named skis.png was added to the game. Notably, 1.4.6 was released close to Christmas of 2012. The texture was never actually intended to be used, and instead added by Dinnerbone as a red herring.

Like many other unused textures, it was removed in 13w24a with the switch to resource packs. The texture was reimplemented and used as a joke feature in 23w13a_or_b.

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• 
  A speculative model for skis.png

Particles

Footprint particle

A footstep particle was introduced, but never used in-game. The particle itself was removed in snapshot 17w47a as part of The Flattening, and the texture file was removed in snapshot 21w13a.

Footstep particles on sand.

The footstep was later added as an easter egg item in the 20w14∞ April Fools snapshot with the resource location minecraft:footprint. It could be obtained in the "missing" dimension or using the /give command. The particle itself was readded in 22w13oneblockatatime, which is spawned when the player walks around. It was once again readded in 24w14potato which is shown when the player has the Sticky effect and walks around.

Miscellaneous

tallterrain.png

Between Classic 0.0.14a and Classic 0.0.14a_08 a 16x4096 file named tallterrain.png was added to the jar file. It is dated from May 23rd 2009 and uses textures from Classic 0.0.13a_03, its intended use is unknown. The file was removed between Classic 0.28 and Classic 0.28_01.

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  tallterrain.png

Villager speech bubble

A villager speech bubble

The villager speech bubble is an image that was added along with the villager.png file in the jar when the trading system was added. It showed a trade, where raw chicken could be sold to villagers for another raw chicken. Both raw chickens have the old raw chicken texture. During an interview about villagers, Jeb offered a possible explanation: "We did some experiments with thought bubbles, but it didn't look good. So in the end, after I'd been lead on Minecraft for a year, we just decided to add an interface instead."

The texture was partially overwritten by the selection arrows. It was removed in snapshot 23w31a.

waterterrain.png

In the 15 June 2010 Infdev release, a texture file named waterterrain.png was added to the jar file. Resembling terrain.png in name, dimensions and the use of similar lilac textures in empty spots, it featured a multitude of different directional symbols.

This was added in the same version that implemented new flowing mechanics for water and lava.

Ultimately, flowing liquids simply used a 32×32 texture each (which remained within terrain.png), rotated accordingly depending on the flow direction (which could be orthogonal, diagonal or knightwise, the last of which this sheet did not account for), and this file fell into disuse. It was eventually removed in Alpha v1.2.2 with the addition of texture pack support.

watercolor.png

Java Edition Beta 1.6 Test Build 3 introduced this file to the /misc/ directory in the jar file. This image was a color map intended to be used depending on the biome, similarly to the existing grasscolor.png and foliagecolor.png, where a color would be selected from a point on the image depending on temperature and humidity.

Intended for use on water, with the game even containing unused code around the time of its introduction which would apply it to water, it ultimately remained unused, with water maintaining a constant color regardless of biome at the time. This may or may not be due to water's texture being blue at the time, rather than the gray or white required for an effective tint, and as such multiplying it with a color would yield undesirable results (tinting already-blue water with another shade of blue would just make it much darker and unsightly); since water's texture was generated at runtime rather than defined as an image, actually making water's raw texture be gray would be a non-trivial task.

Biome-tinted water was first introduced in Java Edition Beta 1.9 Prerelease, but only to a limited extent, as swamps were the only biome to have a tint defined, and as water's texture was still blue by default, swamp water had to be tinted green to make it appear browner.

When procedurally-generated animated textures were replaced by texture files in 13w02a, the water texture was still inherently blue, even though making it gray or white would have been an easy task at this point and would allow watercolor.png to be used for biome-dependent water colors.

watercolor.png was ultimately removed in 13w24a alongside many others due to it remaining unused.

When Java Edition 18w15a expanded on biome-dependent water tints (and made the water textures white to accommodate this), the subject biomes still remained limited, as swamps and different temperature oceans were the only^[verify] biomes to have colors which differed from the default color specified. These colors were values explicitly specified per biome, rather than taken from a colormap like watercolor.png. As a result of this approach, there are currently several oversights in the current game where special water colors have not been defined for certain biomes even when they should be.

Reimplementing and actually using this file for the majority of biomes, like is done for grass and foliage, with swamps and possibly a few other biomes being the only remaining special-cased biomes, would likely resolve this issue in its entirety, as there would no longer be a need to specify water colors in biome json files; a blank entry would cause the game to seek out a value from the color map, which is what happens currently for grass and foliage.

Selected and unselected

Squares labeled "SEL" and "UN SEL" (likely "SELECTED" and "UNSELECTED") can be found in "textures\gui\container\creative_inventory\tabs.png". Purpose is unknown, though they could possibly be used as a template for the selected tabs and unselected tabs with the rest of tabs.png.

It was removed in snapshot 23w31a.