GR#072 - Minecraft Texturepack

[Dusty]

I wasn't going to post this here because of the liberties I was taking with it(not stealing, but just being lazy), and the medium of which they are being used for(3D)... but in the end they're still tiles and icons and pixel art, and I need help. The Minecraft community is(no offense)... I dunno. Some people don't like the blue in the grass, some think the grass is too bright, some think the brown in the rock is ugly, some don't... It's this over and over. In the end I don't know what direction to take it so I think I'd be better off getting help from you guys. Again, if this is not the appropriate spot feel free to move it I suppose. Currently there are two things that I'm working on, the terrain textures(which are just composed of tiles) and icons.

The current icons are here:


Inventory gui:


Mojang Logo(sorry, generated text), I think I messed up the AA on this:


And the current terrain:

You can ignore the semi-transparent effects in the water and ice. That water isn't being used as I'm using an animated version and I have to apply the transparency in the texture pack as Minecraft doesn't handle that internally.

Everything lower resolution is the original graphics not yet replaced, you can ignore those as well. You may recognize the grass and dirt from old graphics I've made... yes as I said I was lazy and threw them in very early to just get rid of the default textures. I had no idea what to do with a grass texture for a 3D game as it's new territory for me so I never revisited. Also, I apologize if the textures don't make any sense for those not familiar, if I need to write out what is what I'd be glad to.

Here is my to-do list and concerns:
> I need to either touch-up or redo gravel completely(currently a grayscaled version of dirt)
> I'm not sure if I'm yay or nay on the crowdedness of the mine track turn texture. Too many planks of wood is the general consensus, may remove some.
> TNT fuse lines are way too noisy and incomprehensible. Will probably just have one fuse.
> Cotton(the mostly white tile) is plain and doesn't really work well as a texture. Will possibly replace with cross-stitch or pillow-like texture.
> Iron(the grey ore) doesn't stand out apart from diamond very well. I already changed the colors but forgot to update it.
> Diamond perspective does not match the rest of the icons. I had a lot of difficulty with it so I ditched the perspective early on. Need to revisit.
> Stone(cracked) tools aren't immediately differentiated from iron(non-cracked) tools. Need to make them easier to tell apart. Possibly make stone tools darker.
> Ingots shapes are awkward, and I had a very hard time even getting what I have. I need to possibly fix this somehow, but I'm not sure how.
> Paper icon(looks like a hand of cards) sucks. Need to revisit.

So, any help would be appreciated! I don't want to post screenshots as they are not pixel art(given they're 3D and all) but if they're needed I can post them.
There are other odds and ends not posted here since they're mostly model textures(skins) and such. Also, while on the topic this relates possibly to some pixel artists here: http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11159&PN=1

[SwapBrain]

Firstly, the work at the pixel level is impressive, or at least I like it.

Sorry if this sounds like the same rigmarole that you have been dealing with in the MC forums but: My first impressions of some of these tiles is that they all look like they were pictures taken on a cloudy day - and I suppose that works what with the mist and all, but it would be nice to see some of the tiles intended for outside use shifted a bit towards the yellow end of the spectrum. Even the reds all appear to be a bit cool.

But, the takeaway here should be that overall my feelings are positive.

[Dusty]

Firstly, the work at the pixel level is impressive, or at least I like it.

Sorry if this sounds like the same rigmarole that you have been dealing with in the MC forums but: My first impressions of some of these tiles is that they all look like they were pictures taken on a cloudy day - and I suppose that works what with the mist and all, but it would be nice to see some of the tiles intended for outside use shifted a bit towards the yellow end of the spectrum. Even the reds all appear to be a bit cool.

But, the takeaway here should be that overall my feelings are positive.

Eh, I can't say I'm sure what you mean exactly about being cool. Most of the tileset is comprised of grays which are pushed towards earthly browns. The only thing I know that is intentionally cool is the grass, which I kind of like. I tend to push my highlights towards warm and my shadows towards cool, but I'm not entirely sure if I was consistent or messed that up.

[Andrio]

I think it's absolutely fantastic. Once this is finished I will most definitely use it. Well done!

[Twirly]

Could you show us some screenshots showing your textures in game (if you can even do that atm, idk much about minecraft)... That'd be really cool man, these textures looks smooth and nice

[Dusty]

These are kind of out-of-date, I can make some more up-to-date ones if it's needed.




Other screenshots can be viewed in the thread I made for it: http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=45333

[Twirly]

Oh, wow.
I'm impressed! I never thought it would pull off this well in-game.
This is totally sweet, please don't stop! 

[Helm]

The biggest problem with your texture pack is that it's too good. The surfaces are more realistically textured, the blocks start to mean more in literal terms. Why is the world made of blocks? This isn't an issue if the textures are abstract and naive.

[Dusty]

The biggest problem with your texture pack is that it's too good. The surfaces are more realistically textured, the blocks start to mean more in literal terms. Why is the world made of blocks? This isn't an issue if the textures are abstract and naive.

So do you feel this is kind of a fruitless endeavor? I constantly try to keep in mind that the world is blocky when I work on my textures, and avoid 'complex' features. There are many simple texture packs out there already so I think it would be a waste of time to pursue something more fitting for blocks.

As for why it's made of blocks... I dunno, it's Minecraft. I only mod the textures, the design stuff is what the maker decided. Here is a screenshot of the original textures, if you're interested:

[Helm]

The question was rhetoric. I've played Minecraft.

I absolutely do not think your tileset is a fruitless endeavor. I think it looks great and that you should finish it. It just will be met with resistance by people with a reason: it's too realistic for what the engine supports. What I'd like to see in Minecraft is pure diagonal vectors, flatshade perhaps. I don't think pixels help that game at all.

[Xion]

I gotta agree with helm - the tiles are rad but they look a bit out of place in the context of the game.
the best looking ones I think are the ones that acknowledge the blocky structure of the game - the half-steps, book-case, gold etc. blocks...I imagine the chest and  workbench look nice as well.

the natural stone and ore though looks pretty out of place, and the sand likewise.

The actual item icons look damn rad, but the seeds don't seem as good? Took me a second to figure out what they were - I thought they were leaves and I was like wait where can you get leaves from in the game.

I also kind of wish the picks had some variation in their shape/design, like the swords

[SirBilly]

I wanted to do a personal update myself actually since the current texture pack surely  could be improved, however, I was unsure of what style would really fit the blocky graphics. I felt that fancy graphics like yours would turn Minecraft to something I at least wouldn't like to see it, boxy with that sort of deatailed textures.  I belive it's the basic ingredients that really makes this game, graphics included. Either use more diagonal and square shapes to fit the actual box shape.
I play the game myself quite often and I really like what I see, in a fan art perspective. I hope you finish it too!

Make it or break it Junkboy!

EDIT: http://www.webhallen.com/minecraft/

[eobet]

This texture pack has some lovely pixel art and lovely tiles... but to me it's unfortunately all over the place in terms of style... some tiles are very subtle in their contrast variations, and some are extremely harsh, completely clashing with each other!

You have to decide which way you want to go. Personally, I would prefer if you picked the subtle tiles, because the default tiles have a lot of contrast, and there is a very popular "classic RPG" set of tiles out there already which also has quite a lot of contrast, and is slightly similar to yours (and again, personally I like a very abstract set of tiles with only nine subtle colored squares for each tile, which makes the entire game look very smooth).

Oh, and regardless which way you go, the water tiles look awesome as a texture, but in your screenshots from the game, it's just a grainy mess. You need to ease off on the detail there, or kill some of the highlights.

Also, seventh from the left, four down... I have no idea what that is, so as an icon it fails (but also a symbol I do not recognize it).

[Dusty]

This texture pack has some lovely pixel art and lovely tiles... but to me it's unfortunately all over the place in terms of style... some tiles are very subtle in their contrast variations, and some are extremely harsh, completely clashing with each other!

You have to decide which way you want to go. Personally, I would prefer if you picked the subtle tiles, because the default tiles have a lot of contrast, and there is a very popular "classic RPG" set of tiles out there already which also has quite a lot of contrast, and is slightly similar to yours (and again, personally I like a very abstract set of tiles with only nine subtle colored squares for each tile, which makes the entire game look very smooth).

What exactly is clashing? Sometimes it's natural for some things to be contrasting while others to lack it. If something is soft then chances are there isn't going to be anything that creates contrast, like say... a somewhat smooth tree bark. On the other hand the face of a rock with rough jutting edges is going to create more contrast as it creates more depth. If you get more specific I can look into it.

Oh, and regardless which way you go, the water tiles look awesome as a texture, but in your screenshots from the game, it's just a grainy mess. You need to ease off on the detail there, or kill some of the highlights.

There is some technical reason for this, though I can possibly try to address it. There are actually two reasons for what you're seeing as far as "messes" go. First, Minecraft doesn't support any AA. That means the more distorted things get from perspective and distance, the more noise and mess you get. This will happen to any game without texture filtering. The only way to really fix this is to pretty much lower the contrast to a harmful level and wash everything out so nothing can clash when it gets distorted. Secondly, I'm using a custom animation to represent the water moving, but the texture is being stretched larger than the actual texture(roughly twice the size or more, depending on the resolution), so even though the texture is moving at the smoothest possible increments(a single pixel every frame) it looks like it's jumping around as it moves. The only way to fix this is to combine my animation with code to handle the scrolling for me... sadly out of my skill range.

Also, seventh from the left, four down... I have no idea what that is, so as an icon it fails (but also a symbol I do not recognize it).

You probably can't recognize it because the game handles the most noticeable feature: a needle. It's a compass, so the engine is what renders the needle, since it needs to move around actively inside of the icon.

The actual item icons look damn rad, but the seeds don't seem as good? Took me a second to figure out what they were - I thought they were leaves and I was like wait where can you get leaves from in the game.

Aye, I may go with a giant seed for an icon instead of individuals.

I also kind of wish the picks had some variation in their shape/design, like the swords

I think that is the biggest problem I'm having with the tools is coming up with variations. It's been brought up already about the stone tools looking too similar to the iron tools, and I plan to remedy that with using a darker palette for stone tools. I actually came up with a new design for a sword that resembles more of a caveman-esque carved sword instead of something you'd pull out of a blacksmith shop. Though in the end the other tools are the ones that are going to suffer. Swords are somewhat easy to come up with various designs, but a pickaxe? A shovel? These are where I kind of lose creativity, heh.




On a side note, I am currently working on some entries for the official texture contest which will sadly only accept 16x16 textures. So this texture pack may get some neglect unless I get bored with the others. I definitely am going to finish this though as it makes Minecraft feel much more lively for me. I may post my other WIP textures in here, one is cartoony and the other is sort of a mini-version of this. The cartoony one hopefully fits more towards the blocky feel of Minecraft that everyone has brought up as it's heavily inspired by the old Sonic and Mario games. Because honestly I'm not sure how to address that problem with this texture pack as it was never meant to be a abstract sort of texture pack.

[Dusty]

Hey, I've been working on this quite a bit since I last posted. But I'm currently very stumped on one particular icon: the boat. As you can see from the minecart next to it, they're meant to be at an isometric angle, but I can not for the life of me figure out how to get the angle of the tip of the boat in isometric. I've tried multiple times and each looks worse than the one before it. If anyone could help me figure this out I'd greatly appreciate it.


Oh, guess I'll post my attempts:


I suppose the one in the center is the one I'm happiest with, but something still seems off about it.

[Solluxx]

First off these are amazing, there beautiful reguardless of what they are being used for.

Now the main problem(in my opinion) that you have is your color have alittle too much contrast. what looking at your tiles in game they are awesome but also feel very cluttered. try mellowing out the terrain tiles, mainly tiles like the ground tiles in the screen above by smoothing out the dark lines, and i think it will create a much more visually pleasing world.

these are just my though feel free to oppose me 

[Dusty]

First off these are amazing, there beautiful reguardless of what they are being used for.

Now the main problem(in my opinion) that you have is your color have alittle too much contrast. what looking at your tiles in game they are awesome but also feel very cluttered. try mellowing out the terrain tiles, mainly tiles like the ground tiles in the screen above by smoothing out the dark lines, and i think it will create a much more visually pleasing world.

these are just my though feel free to oppose me 

This is a technical limitation on the games part. The game lacks anti-aliasing so the farther out the texture is the more it's resized and skewed and thus the noisier the texture becomes. Games usually remedy this by AAing and blurring textures farther away from the camera. I don't think I want to compromise contrast to the degree it would take to address a problem that is the game's and not my own. I'm also not even sure I COULD fix this problem without lowering the contrast so much that it would look washed out.

[Solluxx]

i dont mean anything special just tone down the black or dark lines in the tiles so they are more gray and feel more mellow thats all.

[r1k]

I think the boat is almost there.  I did an edit, I dont think the front angle is perfect but maybe itll help still

I think the addition of boaty details like the seats helps too.  It also seems a little too deep for its length, which is probibly inevatable given the square format, but you are able to extend it lengthwise by 2 pixels still, which might help that a bit; worth a look anyways.

[Dusty]

I think the boat is almost there.  I did an edit, I dont think the front angle is perfect but maybe itll help still

I think the addition of boaty details like the seats helps too.  It also seems a little too deep for its length, which is probibly inevatable given the square format, but you are able to extend it lengthwise by 2 pixels still, which might help that a bit; worth a look anyways.

Well it was just a quick edit of the minecart as a base, and I never got around to fixing it up since I didn't like it. However I will say those planks inside are great and I don't think I'd have though of it! Thanks!

edit: okay, worked with your ideas and I'm pretty happy with the end-result

Thanks again!

[Dusty]

Since most of the work is near-finished I thought I'd post it here to get some critique before it's eventually finished. Besides finishing most of the work off I've also revisited a lot of my old work to "improve" it. Big improvements that I'm happy with is the new grass and cobblestone. I like the tree trunk I made but sadly it doesn't quite work out that well in the actual game.




Skins for mobs:

[Conzeit]

I just started playing minecraft, and I too have considered making a texturepack.

I agree about the general sentiment of it being inaproppiate to represent everything as a phisical reality, this does not fit the utterly abstract blockyness and all of the extremely gamy game mechanics of the game. You should seek an aesthetic which fits with the mininng-crafting but still does not see it as a pure phisical reality, makes it a little more abstract. Notice I'm not saying avoid putting logic behind this blocky world, just show plainly that it's not a purely phisical reality.

Now I must take issue with the rock texture you used, because upon trying all of the creative textures packs out there(that are 16x16, the texture patcher keeps crashing on me) including yours, I always feel like I'm missing something when I go into caves, it always always feels flatter and lighter. I want to feel lost inside a cave, and the textures just dont allow that, so in that sense even Notch's haphazardly scribbled texture trumps anything people have made trying to make it look pretty. Your ores also bug me, they dont seem to tile too well

[Mathias]

Great project, Dusty! Ambitious. Some VERY nice tiles in there.

I'm in agreement with the argument stating the overall style of your work being somewhat flawed when seen in the game world. Conceit nails it pretty good. With something like this I use extremes to prove the point - so here, imagine hi-res photo-real textures used in-game. Obviously, there'd be an even worse fundamental clash going on, don't you think?

But that aside, I think your pack still looks nice. It's not that it doesn't work at all, it just kinda pushes the envelope a little. Surely, you have zero desire to revise the entire set or even create a second version, but if you were to crank up the cartoonish feel, simplifying things more, than I think it would all work better.

[Dusty]

Now I must take issue with the rock texture you used, because upon trying all of the creative textures packs out there(that are 16x16, the texture patcher keeps crashing on me) including yours, I always feel like I'm missing something when I go into caves, it always always feels flatter and lighter. I want to feel lost inside a cave, and the textures just dont allow that, so in that sense even Notch's haphazardly scribbled texture trumps anything people have made trying to make it look pretty. Your ores also bug me, they dont seem to tile too well

Hmm, I'm not following you here. You say caves feel flat but my texture is anything but that. I actually get a lot of criticism about it NOT being flat. I dunno, I like the lumpy rock for natural rock as personally it makes me feel like the stone is naturally formed instead of something completely flat. However as I've made revisions to my pack eventually I will probably remake new natural rock since it doesn't sit very well with a lot of people. What will happen is I will allow users to customize their pack with various alternate textures.
As for the ores, I didn't put too much effort into the actual ores tiling because they're not something that's really going to be tiled much since they appear in small clumps.


And yes, I'm aware the texture pack isn't exactly the best artistic decision for Minecraft's blocks, but that's not something I'm willing to change. It's not that I'm being lazy but that I had a certain direction when I first imagined this pack and cartoony or simple wasn't one of them, though my pack has been considered one of the more "cartoony" packs out there compared to the majority of packs.

[sculptedpixel]

>Now I must take issue with the rock texture you used,

I don't feel that every minecraft texturepack needs to be impressionistic vs realistic - I think there's certainly room for all types, and tho I do lean more towards impressionistic packs, I love a lot of the character that Dusty has with this. 

[StaticSails]

Regardless of how these look wrapped around 3D cubes I think the 2D product is very beautiful and has great use of color. The inventory icons are great so far. I've honestly been visiting this thread to see what you're going to do for the armor.

I grabbed your monster skins and think they look pretty good in the game, shame the character's skin can't match these.

Anything that is supposed to be flat like wood, bricks or stone looks pretty good. Everything else sort of makes the lack of REAL texture a bit obvious.

I'd really like to see that armor worked on a bit more.

[Helm]

Sorry for slight derail, but after seeing this stuff

http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?p=2475378#p2475378

I think your tileset feels well within the aesthetic of minecraft, Dusty. My boundaries... they have expanded.

[Dusty]

Sorry for slight derail, but after seeing this stuff

http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?p=2475378#p2475378

I think your tileset feels well within the aesthetic of minecraft, Dusty. My boundaries... they have expanded.

Heh, ya. Photorealism packs are sadly a huge hit on Minecraft. The packs that consist of a bunch of textures pulled from google.images tend to get much more recognition than the truly amazing ones like Eld's:
http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1021&t=37621
or Shiny's(sadly abandoned): http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=68333

The only packs that come close to touching the popularity of photorealism packs are the mix packs where people pick and choose different images from different packs and make a compilation. They tend to look pretty bad because of the mixed styles, but people love them

[Conzeit]

hrm I can see how people think your texture isnt flat. Your texture has lines connecting rocks everywhere, and indeed the shading implies the rock isnt really flat...but when you see it in-game, you follow all the lines as they connect to eachother and you quickly realize it's just a texture, I think the attempt to define the geometry so finely puts in evidence the inevitable flatness of the texture.

I think the ideal situation to test a rock texture is to start exploring an unknown, dark cave and test wether you see any better with the new rock texture, if you do the texture fails. This is the reason I really havent installed any pack it; it takes away from the excitement of exploring the unknown when I can see the rocks more far ahead than with the default texture, also the ores usually pop up just a bit too much.

I think the main thing is this texture sets the ambience for most of the exploration of the game, so you gotta look at it as a way to set ambience, not as a texture that must have the most accurate geometry or the prettiest looking colors.

[Mathias]

So Conceit is saying that the rock cave texture is almost pretentious, in that it's confined to display in a low-poly, low-res world, yet tries to be much more, exposing itself, belying the very false impression of bump mapping it tried to convey all along. Oceanic.

[Lizzrd]

I tried your texturepack ingame, and well, it's pretty boring to be honest.
The dirt looks boring, the rocks are boring. Grass sides could need to be greener and less bluish.

You gotta make the world look pretty, not just the standalone textures.

[Dusty]

I tried your texturepack ingame, and well, it's pretty boring to be honest.
The dirt looks boring, the rocks are boring. Grass sides could need to be greener and less bluish.

You gotta make the world look pretty, not just the standalone textures.

Not exactly sure how to address this, or even what to say. The grass sides haven't been converted and still have remnants of the original grass, which had a slight blue hueshift. I don't know what you mean about dirt looking boring, or even how to improve dirt to look more... fun?

[Gemini166]

This pack seems to be coming along nicely, but if I'm correct, you are making a higher def texture pack than the default? I play on a laptop, so I don't feel that I'd be able to use your texture pack  But that doesn't mean I don't have a few suggestions(read: nit-picks) for your pack. Firstly, your stone is very cartoony and segmented, making it look a bit cobblestone-y, and also clash with your more realistic other tiles. I have no idea what that mostly gold thing is above the door(looked it up. That's your monster spawner?). The bark left of the birch looks a lot like planks to me. Some of the wool have fancy designs/gold on them, and the others don't    ? Your flint doesn't look like it could possibly be used to make those flawless arrows. Your tools look very nice, but I like to think of the gold tools as the overly ornate tools, which is a personal thing I guess, but they aren't as durable as iron, so I feel they should at least have looks going for them. Then your diamond tools are overly ornate, which I don't argue with, they just have a lot of gold on them, which only cements in my mind that the gold should be ornate. Then in seeming contradiction to that, your watch is far too ornate for my tastes, feeling like it should be on display somewhere instead of in an adventurers pocket, and also clashing with the compass, which is crafted in a similar manner. But I do want you to know that it does look very nice, I hope you finish it, and the parts I disagree with are just my personal tastes. Also I apologize for this ridiculously long post, I hope you have found it helpful. If not, I apologize again for wasting your time.

[Dusty]

I have no idea what that mostly gold thing is above the door(looked it up. That's your monster spawner?).

It is indeed the monster spawner. It will probably be revised in the future since mob spawners now have the useful function of showing what it spawns in the center.

The bark left of the birch looks a lot like planks to me.

It's a more "cartoony" version of some trunks that trees can have(where bark tends to grow as planks almost). I used to peel them off trees as a kid all the time.

Some of the wool have fancy designs/gold on them, and the others don't   ?

The original idea was to give different wools different looks. Red and purple got fancy designs since they, to me, are royal colors and mostly used for carpets.

Your flint doesn't look like it could possibly be used to make those flawless arrows.

True, my first instict when I drew an arrow is to make a typical arrow, not one of flint. I'm not sure if I could make the look of my flint that small though, but I will try.

Your tools look very nice, but I like to think of the gold tools as the overly ornate tools, which is a personal thing I guess, but they aren't as durable as iron, so I feel they should at least have looks going for them. Then your diamond tools are overly ornate, which I don't argue with, they just have a lot of gold on them, which only cements in my mind that the gold should be ornate.

This was something I did on purpose. Gold tools are useless, especially compared to iron/diamond tools, and I don't even think deserve a fanciful design. If a tool deserves to get a fancy design, shouldn't it be the ones that are hardest to make, and are the most useful? As for the gold in it, what can I say? I don't feel like it'd be in the best interest of the icons to limit them directly to what they are crafted from. Sometimes aesthetics > realistic. Realistically you wouldn't be able to make any tools strictly from wood and stone since you'd need to craft them together somehow. Thus my stone tools got rope/string! I felt the diamond tools benefited from being two-tone, especially when you consider how close in color they are to iron tools. I put a lot of importance on blocks/icons being instantly recognizable, so I've made many adjustments to blocks and icons to hopefully achieve that.

Then in seeming contradiction to that, your watch is far too ornate for my tastes, feeling like it should be on display somewhere instead of in an adventurers pocket, and also clashing with the compass, which is crafted in a similar manner.

But the watch DOES have a very useful purpose compared to the tools. So I don't think it's unfair that the watch is more ornate than the tools who no one uses. Also, the compass has been a part of the game for a long time while the watch is fairly recent, so how I approach two icons between 4 months or so probably has a lot to do with it. Though you also have to take into consideration the constraints placed into the game. The content of the watch and compass are generated via code in the game. So the perspective and the size of the watch and compass are pretty much forced onto me. The watch was the hardest because the center of the watch occupied a huge portion of the actual work space, so I had little room to actually do my own thing.

But I do want you to know that it does look very nice, I hope you finish it, and the parts I disagree with are just my personal tastes. Also I apologize for this ridiculously long post, I hope you have found it helpful. If not, I apologize again for wasting your time.

I do appreciate all criticism and it does not shy me away from working on it. I can especially benefit from even those things I can't agree with because in the end I will have alternative graphics for users to pick and choose that will hopefully make more people happy.

[Indigo]

Just wanted to drop by and say I'm loving your pack.  It's truly perfect for minecraft in my opinion.  I tried it out because I've been playing the new 1.8 build.  I switched back to the original textures for a bit and it was completely unplayable to me.  That's how good yours is

Keep it up!

[Seiseki]

The question was rhetoric. I've played Minecraft.

I absolutely do not think your tileset is a fruitless endeavor. I think it looks great and that you should finish it. It just will be met with resistance by people with a reason: it's too realistic for what the engine supports. What I'd like to see in Minecraft is pure diagonal vectors, flatshade perhaps. I don't think pixels help that game at all.

I actually think rpg-tileset styled pixel art works really well since it's based on tiles and therefore keeps true to the square style somewhat.

Personally I draw the line at pixel or cartoonish textures, anything else like all those "HD photorealistic texture pack" feel a bit strange, but oddly enough you get used to it really quick, even though I feel that a good texture pack should embrace the blockyness and not try to work around it.

Minecraft texture packs is actually what got me into pixel art, so I appreciate the work of all the awesome artists making them like Dusty, eld, doku, Johnsmith, Glimmar, etc