The Minecraft game and engine is overall pretty much the same since its original release. It has been patched and updated, but the foundation is the same, correct? In other words, Minecraft 1.8, 1.10. 1.11 and 1.12 are pretty much the exact same game. They use the same coding for the textures. So why in the heck is every resource pack which is not updated to 1.12.2 unplayable in 1.12.2? The textures don't have to be changed, the sizes are good, the extensions are the same. Yet Minecraft will not use them unless something tells it that the textures are for 1.12.2. Why?
Is there an easy way to set the flags or whatever it is that needs to be done so that any texture pack can be made to be usable in Minecraft 1.12.2? Just use the default textures for anything that is not replaced with a custom texture. Is there a program that I can run a texture pack through, click a few things, and presto! I have a functional 1.12.2 pack? Because a lot of the maps I want to explore are made for 1.10 and earlier, and depend on texture packs that have been abandoned since 2013.
Also will someone reply to this, to let me know that someone, anyone is here actually reading posts at these forums? Because I have posted a dozen threads yet received one response. Where is everyone, if Minecraft is not dying, are they all at Reddit or another forum?
Actually.... Minecraft 1.9 completely changed item displays, and either 1.10 or 1.11 requires resource packs to use lowercase file names. You can still load old packs in 1.12 by clicking through the warning, but (as the warning states) things may break if you do this. Playing 1.12 with a 1.10-1.11 pack should be fine, since most packs don't use uppercase letters in file names anyway.
Also, when 1.13 is released, the pack format will change yet again, and you will have to wait for resource packs to update to 1.13.
To summarize, 1.8 packs are compatible with 1.9 iff they don't use custom models. 1.9 packs are compatible with 1.10-1.12 packs iff they only use lowercase file names. Nothing before 1.13 is compatible with 1.13.
The Minecraft game and engine is overall pretty much the same since its original release. It has been patched and updated, but the foundation is the same, correct?
Not sure where you got this idea, but no not really. There's still some of Notch's original code left but the entire game has been refactored so many times it's effectively a different game code-wise.
As Kwerti pointed out, they've also changed all of the file names and folders (which are important for figuring out which resources are where) over the years and added a lot of seemingly arbitrary restrictions on things like file names. These things break compatibility, and there's no easy way to fix it other than to make ANY of the standards they've used function which, of course, defeats the point of having a standard in the first place.
Is it possible to make something that will allow for backwards compatibility with older resource packs? No, not completely. Mojang potentially could do this but it would reintroduce whatever problems they were trying to fix by changing the format. Some of it can be done with a resource pack (ironically) but there's so much that's hard-coded that it would take some pretty extensive modding to do an adequate job. Even if that was done, many things would still look wrong such as the GUIs that have changed over the years. Know that little slot in the brewing stand GUI for the blaze powder? Well that wasn't originally there so an older pack just won't have that graphic even if you press the image into service with a modern version.
The long and short of it is that no, there's not a simple way to do this. Updates give, and updates take away. That's the nature of Minecraft, I'm afraid.
The Minecraft game and engine is overall pretty much the same since its original release. It has been patched and updated, but the foundation is the same, correct? In other words, Minecraft 1.8, 1.10. 1.11 and 1.12 are pretty much the exact same game. They use the same coding for the textures. So why in the heck is every resource pack which is not updated to 1.12.2 unplayable in 1.12.2? The textures don't have to be changed, the sizes are good, the extensions are the same. Yet Minecraft will not use them unless something tells it that the textures are for 1.12.2. Why?
Is there an easy way to set the flags or whatever it is that needs to be done so that any texture pack can be made to be usable in Minecraft 1.12.2? Just use the default textures for anything that is not replaced with a custom texture. Is there a program that I can run a texture pack through, click a few things, and presto! I have a functional 1.12.2 pack? Because a lot of the maps I want to explore are made for 1.10 and earlier, and depend on texture packs that have been abandoned since 2013.
Also will someone reply to this, to let me know that someone, anyone is here actually reading posts at these forums? Because I have posted a dozen threads yet received one response. Where is everyone, if Minecraft is not dying, are they all at Reddit or another forum?
Actually.... Minecraft 1.9 completely changed item displays, and either 1.10 or 1.11 requires resource packs to use lowercase file names. You can still load old packs in 1.12 by clicking through the warning, but (as the warning states) things may break if you do this. Playing 1.12 with a 1.10-1.11 pack should be fine, since most packs don't use uppercase letters in file names anyway.
Also, when 1.13 is released, the pack format will change yet again, and you will have to wait for resource packs to update to 1.13.
To summarize, 1.8 packs are compatible with 1.9 iff they don't use custom models. 1.9 packs are compatible with 1.10-1.12 packs iff they only use lowercase file names. Nothing before 1.13 is compatible with 1.13.
Putting the CENDENT back in transcendent!
Not sure where you got this idea, but no not really. There's still some of Notch's original code left but the entire game has been refactored so many times it's effectively a different game code-wise.
As Kwerti pointed out, they've also changed all of the file names and folders (which are important for figuring out which resources are where) over the years and added a lot of seemingly arbitrary restrictions on things like file names. These things break compatibility, and there's no easy way to fix it other than to make ANY of the standards they've used function which, of course, defeats the point of having a standard in the first place.
Is it possible to make something that will allow for backwards compatibility with older resource packs? No, not completely. Mojang potentially could do this but it would reintroduce whatever problems they were trying to fix by changing the format. Some of it can be done with a resource pack (ironically) but there's so much that's hard-coded that it would take some pretty extensive modding to do an adequate job. Even if that was done, many things would still look wrong such as the GUIs that have changed over the years. Know that little slot in the brewing stand GUI for the blaze powder? Well that wasn't originally there so an older pack just won't have that graphic even if you press the image into service with a modern version.
The long and short of it is that no, there's not a simple way to do this. Updates give, and updates take away. That's the nature of Minecraft, I'm afraid.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.