The Downloads: (# = for use with Texture pack)
Are you getting tired of playing plain old vanilla Minecraft or dealing with conflicting mods? Then, you need to try out Feed The Beast (FTB). FTB is a mod pack that uses over 25 mods to create a constantly evolving gaming experience like no other.
While FTB itself started as a custom challenge map in Minecraft it has since grown leaps and bounds. The biggest change came in November of 2012 when it released its launcher.
Today, I am going to walk you through installing FTB and the texture pack Sphax BD craft. This guide also requires that you have a PC version of Minecraft and an account with the Minecraft servers with access to the full game.
First, you will have to download a few things. Most importantly you will need to get is the most up-to-date version of FTB from the FTB download page. Unless you are planning on running your very own FTB server all you need is the exe file.
Also, if you are running a 64-bit system you will want to make sure you have both the 32 and 64-bit versions of java installed. I will explain why later. If you do not care about the graphics, you can skip to the installation.
Those who demand better gameplay and graphics must also download the corresponding version of Optifine. As of writing, this FTB uses Minecraft version 1.4.7, and while there is no Optifine for 1.4.7, Optifine 1.4.6 HD D5 worked just fine.
Lastly, you need to download the 128 x128 version of Sphax BD craft that works with your version of Minecraft (again, for me that is version 1.4.7). The last thing you need to get is the patch file for that shiny new texture mod, which will work with all the stuff the other mods add.
Remember how I said to get the 128 x 128 version? That is because the texture pack's highest resolution is 128. Go ahead and download the 128 x 128 Sphax BD patch file for FTB.
Installation:
- Run FTB Launcher
- Adjust allocated RAM settings
- Launch Game
Okay, so you have all these downloads. Now, what do you do? You install them, of course! Go ahead and run the FTB launcher, but before you launch the game, you might want to adjust some settings. Remember the 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Java?
Having both will make sure the game will not only run smoothly but will also allow you to adjust the amount of RAM you can allow allocate to the game. With all the mods this game has become a bit memory intensive so you will probably want to raise it.
For safety, I like to keep it at or below half the total amount of RAM in your computer. Once you are done, launch the game and when you reach the menu, you are done. Well, you are if you do not want to have better graphics to go with that new content.
For the sake of this example, we are launching FTB Ultimate. Doing this will start the installation and create the folder paths we will use. Selecting another FTB mod pack will change the folder paths, so keep that in mind as we go along and keep a copy of these files for later use.
Installation Continued: Sphax Texture Mods
- Exit Minecraft if it is still open
- Extract Optifine to folder ex. UltimateinstMods
- Check that Optifine is enabled in Jar Mods under Mod settings
- Merge Sphax FTB Patch into Sphax Core with WinRAR
- Place the Patched Core Sphax BDcraft file into the Ultimateminecrafttexturepacks folder
- Launch game
- Verify Optifine is correctly installed
- Select Texture Pack
- Play!
- ???
- Profit
(Steps 10 and 11 are not actual steps)
If you are still with me, the next step is to exit the game and extract the Optifine download into the newly created UltimateinstMods folder. This adds several tools to enhance the visuals.
To finish installing Optifine, launch FTB, select the Mods page, click "edit mod pack," and click on the JARMods on the new page. Just make sure that Optifine is seen by FTB and enabled. The next step is to merge the Sphax BDcraft core file with the Sphax BDcraft FTB patch.
To do this I used WinRAR to open both files and copied the files from the FTB Patch into the Sphax BDcraft core file. Make sure you copy the patch files into the core file because you want to overwrite the core with the patch files and not the other way around.
Sphax BDcraft Patching
Take the newly merged Sphax BDcraft file and drop it into the Ultimateminecrafttexturepacks folder. At this point, you are almost done. All you have to do is relaunch FTB Ultimate and check if Optifine is correctly installed.
To do this, launch FTB Ultimate, and while at the Minecraft game starting menu, place your cursor over the Minecraft version displayed in the bottom left corner. When you do this, an overlay should pop up, and if Optifine is installed correctly, it will be displayed. You can see an example in the picture below.
If everything is okay, then all you have to do is select the texture pack, which, if it is placed correctly, will already be in the folder. If not, simply open the folder through Minecraft and drag and drop it into the folder. Select the texture pack, and enjoy!
Keep in mind that the texture pack is very large, and your computer may hang a bit when launching Minecraft and selecting the texture mod. Be patient, though, because it is all worth it.
Below are the direct links I used to install FTB, Optifine, and Sphax BDcraft for Minecraft version 1.4.7. Use them at your own discretion, and understand they may become outdated if FTB starts using a newer version of Minecraft.