texture pack locked behind paywall?

[Roselucky7]

The funny thing is I play bedrock mainly, it's definitely not worse. It performs better and is overall smoother, even if some of the features aren't quite there, but not having the 1.9 combat update? Thank god. Anyways, just hoping for an update from Microsoft.

[Tharson]

I no longer believe that the pack will be released before 1.21

[jackofblades45]

hi been a longtime user of sphax and have finally become a supporter because of how much I love this texture pack. can't really play with out it lol. I was wondering how you guys design these as a graphic designer myself I have my own tweaked version of sphax texture pack. And no no one can have it. id love to get in contact with you guys to be able to jump onto having more designers that are active and want to adhere to the community's needs
much Love

[jackofblades45]

I no longer believe that the pack will be released before 1.21

just support incredible artists and support their wonderful work for over like at least 10+ or so years since I've known them

[RedDragonDE1824]

Any recent updates on ver 1.20 ? Thanks!

[Galenmacil]

*coughs coughs*

Temporary... for over a year now. Just saying. I agree with madmomoney on this : make no sense. Something fishy is going on HanFox!

[addinozzo91]

It's just ridiculous to not open the Java Edition pack for everyone because it's completly different and has nothing to do with the Bedrock Edition.
It will in no way make the Java Edition better for the customers (end users)!

It's further a clearly statement against the users of Sphax BDCraft to not release the Pack for Java Version and delete all Forum entries made by users, concerning the release being delayed.

Releasing the pack for Java Edition and Bedrock in general at the same time to end users is a good idea, but not to supporters only and specially not to everyone at, least 6 months later!

[Galenmacil]

The content of this post represent my personal views and opinions on the monetization of mods.

Something fishy is going on with the release of the latest version of BDCraft: I believe that the reason it is still not released for free is purely a monetary one.

Just yesterday, a new topic was created on this website. It was titled something along the lines of "We need to pay now to use PureBDCraft texture pack?" (this is not the exact title but it is pretty close) and to my surprise it was deleted somewhere between the 16 and 17 of march 2024... Why was it deleted and by whom? One can only speculate:

The creator of BDCraft would rather keep on selling its work on the Microsoft store and, to a lesser extent, here via "supporter" payment. Something which I believe goes fundamentally against the modding community ethics and practice as a whole. Several time it has been tried in the past in different games to monetize modders creations but it always hits a wall at some point because player who takes the time to mod a game to their liking are usually not inclined to pay for a mod let alone a whole set of them. So, the idea of charging for a "subscription" to get "exclusive" or "prioritized" access to content was tried which is an even worse practice than discrete fee/payment. Frequent updates only exacerbate the issues.

No, "The internet" does not like to be coerced into any form of monetary contribution.

The only potential way I see for a modder/creator to make money without receiving criticism from the community is by using a voluntary donation mechanism: The creations are free for everyone but, if you want and would like to support the creator, you can give any amount you deem appropriate. 1$, 2$, 10$, 500$, whatever. This way, player don't feel they are being treated as "customers" or, to put it bluntly, seen as "cash cows".

Personally, I have been using PureBDCraft textures since I started playing Minecraft 1.4.7. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the best texture packs there is out there. Heck, it should be the default look of Minecraft as it fits so well with the theme of the game!

Would I have given a small amount of money, voluntarily, once or twice, to support the creator? Absolutely! For the sake of making a point, imagine that 25% of players who downloaded a Sphax texture pack somewhere in the last 12 years gave 1$ ~ 5$ voluntarily on 1~3 occasions... Yes, successful creators can live off their work in an ethically and "mod community" friendly manner instead of the vague and business type secrecy way we have seen recently on BDCraft.net...

Edit: Also of note is the fact that the main post on this thread, again as seen yesterday, mentioned that the texture pack "should be available for everyone this week or by the end of next week..." (again not the exact text but the message was pretty close to this). This message was changed to a vague and non specific one.

[HanFox]

The content of this post represent my personal views and opinions on the monetization of mods.

Something fishy is going on with the release of the latest version of BDCraft: I believe that the reason it is still not released for free is purely a monetary one.

You'd be wrong. When the Bedrock version came out Sphax decided then and there that until Bedrock gets an update the Java one won't get a free update. He believes that's only fair when Bedrock is a paid-product. I know few people like this idea, but it's been the same since we first released on Bedrock. It's just more noticeable when we get stuck with delays.

This is an old post in our Discord by Sphax about issues with delays and monetisation of the pack (the longer exclusivity is in regards to it being a couple of weeks to a month or so, it is not in relation to the length of this currently period. If we were purposefully going to have longer periods, or make the pack fully paid-for we'd say so):

Just yesterday, a new topic was created on this website. It was titled something along the lines of "We need to pay now to use PureBDCraft texture pack?" (this is not the exact title but it is pretty close) and to my surprise it was deleted somewhere between the 16 and 17 of march 2024... Why was it deleted and by whom? One can only speculate:

The topic you're talking about was created on 5th September, 2022. You only think it was from yesterday because someone replied recently. If you like I can move it back, and I guess it can be the main place for people to call us greedy liars, if that'd suit you? I could maybe put all the other posts from this thread in there, too, and just lock this thread so it can just be about communicating updates. (Edit: this is now done)

I may will just do that, because I knew, regardless of the good news of an impending release, as soon as I pruned this topic people would just complain that the topic had been pruned and use it as more fuel for their anger.

The problem with the threads complaining is that it doesn't change that Java updates won't be free until Bedrock updates are out. It's a stance that just isn't changing. The handful of vocal complaints just aren't going to change that, sorry.

The creator of BDCraft would rather keep on selling its work on the Microsoft store and, to a lesser extent, here via "supporter" payment. Something which I believe goes fundamentally against the modding community ethics and practice as a whole. Several time it has been tried in the past in different games to monetize modders creations but it always hits a wall at some point because player who takes the time to mod a game to their liking are usually not inclined to pay for a mod let alone a whole set of them. So, the idea of charging for a "subscription" to get "exclusive" or "prioritized" access to content was tried which is an even worse practice than discrete fee/payment. Frequent updates only exacerbate the issues.

No, "The internet" does not like to be coerced into any form of monetary contribution.

Microsoft have actually monetized Minecraft amazingly well via the Bedrock marketplace. They even made themselves look fairly good in the process by giving a lot of Java users free Bedrock access, which was really just to expose them to the marketplace. They're literally reaping in billions of dollars from all sorts of things, even stuff that could be called mods, albeit only on Bedrock. I'm sure they've pondered doing something similar to Java, but know they just couldn't. Although if they did slip a marketplace in to it after the initial anger people would likely still begrudgingly use it.

The only potential way I see for a modder/creator to make money without receiving criticism from the community is by using a voluntary donation mechanism: The creations are free for everyone but, if you want and would like to support the creator, you can give any amount you deem appropriate. 1$, 2$, 10$, 500$, whatever. This way, player don't feel they are being treated as "customers" or, to put it bluntly, seen as "cash cows".

Voluntary schemes that don't offer anything exclusive don't work. If most people don't have to pay they won't pay. The people who buy Supporter when there is no PureBDcraft or VanillaBDcraft exclusive is virtually zero.

Personally, I have been using PureBDCraft textures since I started playing Minecraft 1.4.7. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the best texture packs there is out there. Heck, it should be the default look of Minecraft as it fits so well with the theme of the game!

Thanks for the kind words, but it definitely shouldn't be the default look. I'm sure you've never looked at review threads where people say the pack makes them feel physically sick when they look at it... I have, so I stopped looking at them. It's not a great feeling when people say mean things about you, your work, or your character, even on the internet.

Would I have given a small amount of money, voluntarily, once or twice, to support the creator? Absolutely! For the sake of making a point, imagine that 25% of players who downloaded a Sphax texture pack somewhere in the last 12 years gave 1$ ~ 5$ voluntarily on 1~3 occasions... Yes, successful creators can live off their work in an ethically and "mod community" friendly manner instead of the vague and business type secrecy way we have seen recently on BDCraft.net...

Which creators live off their work just via donations? I'm curious, I can't recall any off-hand unless they also have a Patreon or Twitch or something similar with more bonus content that they have to work hard on also.

Also, is the way we do things really vague? The reason Supporter exclusive times stretch has been stated numerous times. People just don't like the reason.

Edit: Also of note is the fact that the main post on this thread, again as seen yesterday, mentioned that the texture pack "should be available for everyone this week or by the end of next week..." (again not the exact text but the message was pretty close to this). This message was changed to a vague and non specific one.

The second post in the update thread still says last week, or this week. It hasn't changed. I'm hoping I'm not turned in to a liar for that post. Struggling to get much sense from Sphax about that currently.

[HanFox]

All the old posts from the Pack Status thread are now in here, which is an old thread about the pack being in temporary periods of paid-for exclusive, which I wrongly moved from public view.

Any future threads, or posts, on the subject will be moved in to here.