Ray-tracing can only take Minecraft realism so far. Fans have been making the game more and more realistic with mods, resource packs, and RTX, converting the innocuous, retro-stylized block builder into a ram-chugging next-gen experience. Now, another fan has taken another leap with hyperrealistic grass. Go on, give it a touch.
From the fittingly named NicoRTX, this pack adds depth and detail to Minecraft's otherwise incredibly simplistic grass texture with individual strands now poised upward, edging around blocks as pictured above.
But it's not just a pack that's being shown off on Reddit to score some brownie points while their computer melts in the background, it's also downloadable should you want to see how well your own rig can handle it. There are a couple of extra screenshots on the Planet Minecraft page and a description: "Optifine is not required. However, it is better with shaders. Some shaders (f-ex SEUS-Renewed) have support for waviness!" That's right, each strand will bristle in the wind with the right shader pack on top.
The resource pack itself is made for Minecraft 1.17.1 (Java) and sports a hefty resolution of 2048x.
Nico has put out some other work too like the Trans Bucket pack, the realistic anime pack, the Tokyo map, and even Japanese vending machines. The list goes on with impressive outings.
They even posted to the Minecraft subreddit recently, showing off their resource pack, but it was removed by the moderators as they claimed it was "real life" and not in-game. The pictures are no longer available due to having been removed but Nico claims that they are from Minecraft contrary to the claims saying otherwise. Given how stunning the grass looks, it's certainly believable.