Configuring OptiFine Random Mobs and Block Entity Textures in ETF

ETF (Entity Texture Features) is a Minecraft mod that adds randomized and custom entity textures, emissive and enchanted overlays, player skin features, and a set of OptiFine-compatibility options, all configured through its settings screen rather than through crafting or items. This guide covers the main switches for random mobs, block entity random textures, texture update frequency, and property restrictions, plus how to reach and operate the settings.

Opening the Settings

The mod's settings button appears in the resource pack menu. Its position is controlled by the Settings button location option, which decides where the button shows up in that menu or hides it completely. Hovering the mouse over any button shows a help tooltip, and clicking the settings button opens the Entity Features config screen.

If a section shows No settings available, there is nothing to configure there. Two related notices explain that OptiFine-format Custom Entity Models require the Entity Model Features mod, and Varied Entity Sounds require the Entity Sound Features mod.

Random Mobs and Block Entity Random Textures

Enable OptiFine random mobs turns on randomized entity textures. It works with resource packs and allows entity texture customization in the OptiFine format.

Block entity random textures lets block entities pull custom textures using the OptiFine/ETF random format. It is not compatible with the Enhanced Block Entities mod, and ETF's block entity features do not apply to that mod's block entities.

Block entity textures separately allows block entities to use emissive textures, with the same Enhanced Block Entities incompatibility.

Disable using default directory is relevant here: by default the vanilla directory can be used for random textures, and this option disables that and enforces the optifine and etf folders instead. It exists to support mods whose entity textures are named in ways like "mob2.png".

Related to random variants, Allow random suffix number skipping lets ETF skip numbers in random suffix variants when .properties files are not used, matching OptiFine's behaviour even though sequential numbering is considered better practice. Limit rule number gaps enforces OptiFine's limit where sequential random .properties rule numbers cannot exceed a gap of 9.

Texture Update Frequency

Texture update frequency sets how often a mob's texture refreshes for changes such as health and age. The choices are Never (no updates), Slow (three to five seconds), Fast (under a second), and Instant (immediate, which may cause lag with hundreds of mobs).

Property Restrictions

Property restrictions controls whether property restrictions tied to a mob's spawn conditions, such as biomes, are allowed or denied. Individual properties can be handled through per-entity settings: each property has an Enable random property toggle, and disabled properties are ignored by resource packs. A property can also be Locked to Spawn Conditions — when locked, it only applies to the entity's initial spawn conditions; when unlocked, it applies to the entity's current conditions.

Allow restricting unknown texture properties decides whether spawn condition restrictions are permitted for all additional properties added by ETF, EMF, or other mods. Allow broken texture paths overrides vanilla's ban on characters outside the allowed set in texture paths, permitting spaces and capitals; it is disabled by default, since such names should be corrected by the pack creator. Always check for '_e' emissive makes the mod keep looking for the '_e' suffix even when a resource pack defines a different emissive suffix.

Compatibility and Warnings

The backwards-compatibility options exist because OptiFine imposes certain limits and behaviours, and the description notes some options restrict features or enable odd behaviours to match it. Prevent base texture overrides stops ETF from loading overrides for the 'base' texture found in the optifine/etf directories; ON is the default OptiFine behaviour.

A Mod conflicts / warnings area lists detected conflicts, and some warnings automatically disable conflicting ETF settings unless ignored. Ignore / hide config warnings makes ETF stop disabling features for compatibility reasons and hides warnings; it appears only when a warning is shown or the option is already enabled, and it reports how many warnings are currently ignored.

Other toggles in the same screen include Automatic animation compat (ETF leaves animated textures alone when MoreMcmeta is present, with possible z-fighting depending on the shader), Automatic PBR compat (ETF leaves textures that have PBR textures alone when shader mods are present, also with possible z-fighting), Emissive armor & trims (can be disabled if ETF's armor code conflicts with modded armor), and Emissive rendering mode, which chooses between Brighter and Default rendering — bright rendering pushes emissives to maximum brightness and is only partly shader-compatible, while default rendering respects the normal renderers, giving slight surface-direction brightness variation and generally less brightness and bloom.

Operating the Controls

Every option is a button or toggle on the config screen. Hover the mouse over a button to read its help text, then click to change it. When a setting says a resource reload is required, reload resources with the stated action; when a setting says a restart is required, restart the game for it to take effect. For actions that depend on a hotkey — such as opening or closing a screen — use the corresponding hotkey and set it in the controls menu.