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Vanilla RTX Normals

BedrockTexture packRealistic

by Cubeir

Vanilla RTX Normals screenshot 1 of 11

About this texture pack

The default ray-traced Minecraft graphics, featuring handcrafted 16x normal maps! – Vanilla Resources Made Available for Minecraft with RTX.

Read the author’s full description (1,056 words)

Written by Cubeir for the MCPEDL post, shown as published.

Vanilla Resources Made Available for Minecraft with RTX 

Vanilla RTX is the go-to ray tracing resource pack for Minecraft RTX, bringing together a cohesive art direction for default ray-traced Minecraft graphics since 2020 – Enabling players to use Minecraft's ray tracing features in any world or servers by adding thoughtfully-crafted materials and configurations to the base game without altering the vanilla experience, delivering complete ray tracing support for Minecraft in a manner that integrates seamlessly and maintains a native look and feel.
Vanilla RTX Normals, as the name suggests, is the fully normal-mapped version.

  • Every possible vanilla block is supported, even secret or unobtainable blocks.
  • All blocks feature highly detailed, unique material designs that remain consistent across different blocks made of similar materials.
  • Every material has been carefully designed to give each block the character it deserves while preserving its original style and functionality – without diverging from the artist's intent inherent in the texture.
  • Everything has been fine-tuned for Minecraft's ray tracing.
  • Compatibility errors of vanilla resources with ray tracing are resolved through Enhancements

Vanilla RTX has been relocated!You're currently viewing Vanilla RTX Normals' page, click here to go to the new page.

Main Resource Packs:

  • Vanilla RTXuses 16x heightmaps which define depth on blocks.
  • Vanilla RTX Normals features handcrafted 16x normal maps instead, which simulate curvature by defining the direction each pixel in the texture is facing.
  • Vanilla RTX Opus is the composition of both Vanilla RTX & Vanilla RTX Normals, featuring higher resolution normal maps with an unprecedented level of detail.

Related Projects:

  • Vanilla RTX Appis an installable tool that lets you launch Minecraft RTX without issues in one click, customize fog, lighting or materials in Vanilla RTX, recieve updates automatically, upgrade DLSS, and more...
  • Vanilla RTX Add-Ons are a series of smaller packages that give certain blocks interesting properties!
  • Chemistry RTX packs are optional extensions to extend support to Minecraft: Education Edition Chemistry content.
  • Creative RTX HD Material Pack features a collection of exotic high definition materials for creative builds with ray tracing.

With Vanilla RTX all blocks receives their own custom RTX flavor, elevating their character.
Every texture is meticulously taken care of for the highest level of detail and internal consistency while making sure they preserve or complement their core vanilla style and functionlity.

Vanilla RTX is is the most up-to-date ray tracing resource pack for Minecraft, regular updates add support for newer Minecraft features while improving the appearance of existing ones and adapting to the latest versions of the game.
A wide range of technical and compatibility issues of vanilla resources with ray tracing have also been addressed in this pack, giving all players the ability to continue to enjoy the latest Minecraft features and updates with ray tracing at its best.

Most of fog colors with ray tracing have been made to match vanilla game colors and to complement each biome's intended feel and atmosphere. If you want to control the intensity of fog effects, you can easily do that (and much more!) through the Vanilla RTX App.

Q: What are the differences between the three different versions of Vanilla RTX?

A: Vanilla RTX uses 16x heightmaps, which are later converted to a higher resolution (192x) normal map to create an impression of depth on otherwise flat surfaces.
Vanilla RTX Normals uses 16x normal maps instead, which define curvature on surfaces and the direction that light will bounce off each individual pixel, also creating a perception of depth and shape–in a different way!
Only one can be used at a time, each will provide a distinct appearance for all blocks.

In a few words, Vanilla RTX Normals provides alternative lighting for surfaces.

Over 1100 of secondary PBR layers differ between every two Vanilla RTX variant, they are also maintained and updated independently of each other, updates are usually released in parallel, smaller updates might only available through the Vanilla RTX App before camulative updates arrive here. All three are arguably a faithful manifestation of vanilla RTX, they follow the same goals, but which one feels right or "better" is up to you! If you need help deciding, check out the examplse below. First image shows some blocks from Vanilla RTX, second image shows Vanilla RTX Normals. Vanilla RTX Opus would be the composition of the two.

Relevant Links

Github: vanilla-rtx/Vanilla-RTX
License: vanilla-rtx/License
Discord: Discord.gg/A4wv4wwYud
Minecraft RTX Bug Tracking:  vanilla-rtx/Minecraft-RTX-Bug-Tracking

Installation

Vanilla RTX is not intended for Android, iOS or gaming consoles such as Xbox Series X|S, PS5, etc...
Windows 10 and Windows 11 Devices Only with NVIDIA GeForce® RTX 20 Series and higher, along with the AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series and higher & Intel® Arc™ A380 or better.

If your device can't use ray tracing, Vanilla RTX Normals has a branch dedicated to Vibrant Visuals called Vibrant Normals, check it out!

Guide:

  1. Ensure your system meets the hardware requirements on a supported platform, install the latest drivers for your graphics card.
  2. Download and import the pack by right-clicking the .mcpack file and opening with Minecraft (or Minecraft Preview).
  3. Use the Vanilla RTX App to launch Minecraft RTX.
  4. In your Minecraft's settings, find Global Resources and activate the pack.
  5. Join any world, server or realm with ray tracing now enabled correctly.


Tips:

  • There is an issue that will keep Vanilla RTX files from loading in properly causing the world to appear glossy. To avoid this, always make sure ray tracing is enabled before you attempt joining a world. In other words, do not enable ray tracing while inside a world! The simplest, most reliable solution to enabling ray tracing in Minecraft is by using the Vanilla RTX App to launch the game, which circumvents all of the activation-related bugs.
  • If you're experiencing low and inconsistent frame rate, disable Minecraft's VSync, you can keep VSync on in your graphics card's control panel without drawbacks. This also greatly reduces input latency when compared to Minecraft's VSync.
  • If textures appears broken or fail to load, make sure other resource packs from server/realm or world aren't overriding Vanilla RTX's files.
  • If you're using a dual-GPU setup (commonly a Laptop with an Integrated GPU) make sure Minecraft is set to use the High Performance GPU preference in Windows' graphics settings.
  • If the game window appears black, exit full-screen (press F11), close the game, relaunch the game and continue to play without entering full-screen mode.

Images



What’s new in the latest update

The author’s notes for the file uploaded .

View all changes since last release on github: Vanilla-RTX/compare/release-2026-09-05…release-2026-10-10

Summary:

- Added full support for all Wilderness Bound blocks, including the entire poplar wood set, straw bed, shelf mushrooms, and more… Fully hand-made normal maps for Vanilla RTX Normals, and like always, consistent and well-designed materials throughout
- Dappled Forest biome now has its very own unique atmosphere with RTX. Darker atmosphere with mildly blue-shifted colors to convey its status as a Cold biome
- Enhanced all new particles from the Wilderness Bound game drop for ray tracing
-Updated several already-existing particle definitions to include their newer/changed properties from later game updates
- Reworked Fire and Soul fire (and campfires) emissivity, both now emit significantly more light and produce less noise/firefly effect The overwhelming majority of the emissivity now comes from invisible static pixels around the fire texture, as opposed to the constantly shifting colors, which produced noise At the same time, made Soul fire significantly weaker compared to regular fire, to further emphasize their Fancy graphics light level differences
- Updated all campfire/fire MERS with properly animated MERS Previously they used a MER based on the average of all stages This was done in 2021 to work around the fact that animated MERS didn't work, but now they do. Almost every other item that was in the same boat was updated already, fire was left out until today
- Improved End fog for a purpler, darker atmosphere that matches Fancy graphics brightness, distant lights now get purple-shifted due to the fog now producing a strong purple color.
- Improved fog across all 5 Nether biomes, colors are now more accurate to vanilla game/fancy colors and each biome's intended theme, e.g. crimson forest now appears more red, and soul sand valleys appear to scatter more blue light.
- Resolved disparities of MERS between Vanilla RTX Normals and Vanilla RTX Note: while this was intentional all along, going forward, maintaining two different, consistent palettes of colors across two packs carried minimal benefit and was more of a thing done for correctness This just means certain things in Vanilla RTX Normals, and consequently Opus, are going to appear a bit less rough/more glossy than usual. Things like planks, planks on a Crafter, lectern, etc… are also impacted
- Updated Hay texture based on the most recent update, and updated PBR textures to match the new color texture
- Updated sulfur spike up tip merge; Mojang had updated a pixel on this texture, so the MERS were updated to match this change.
- Updated pale oak sapling subsurface scattering to match the style of other saplings, with only the leaf parts having SSS
- Adjusted Sulfur, Potent Sulfur, and Cinnabar block normal maps to be closer in style to blocks like Calcite In effect, you might notice the normal map is ever so slightly less blurry, and mildly stronger
- Improved cherry shelf normal map to better follow its texture (namely, which parts are considered to be carved-in on the shelf)
- Improved pale oak log side normal map
- Adjusted ancient debris side normal map
- Minor revisions to numerous other normal maps, very little visual impact, mostly for the sake of correctness, so they aren't mentioned in the changelogs
- Added poplar door darkening issue workaround (MCPE-121412)
- Updated format version of client biomes to the latest
- Minimum required Minecraft version is now 1.26.50
- Known issue: Red shrub renders incorrectly (MCPE-189266 fix for both red shrub and poplar sapling is applied, but only works for the sapling and not the red bush at the moment, a future update might fix it, the reason for this is unknown)
- Updated blocks.json schema

Video

The video the creator embedded in this texture pack's MCPEDL post. Cubeir on YouTube

How to install

  1. Download the file below. On iOS or Android, open it from your Downloads with Minecraft; on Windows, double-click it.
  2. Minecraft imports the pack automatically. Enable it in your world’s settings under Behavior Packs or Resource Packs; an add-on usually needs both.
  3. Playing on a Realm or server? Everyone needs the same packs, and the host has to enable them.
  4. Starting a new world? Choose its seed first: the Seed Map shows villages, structures and biomes near spawn for any Bedrock seed.