I'm not going to get all uppity about all the additions and unfinished items, etc... but hard-coding the swamp color where texture artists can't control the look is making me a bit crazy. Mushroom biomes have their own grass block and grass side block... Can't we do that for swamps as well?
I'm really hoping this was a temporary solution for Mojang, and they implement swamp grass properly come the next update.
If anyone can give a valid reason (or even just an explanation) of why the swamp colors (water included) are hard-coded, I'd love to hear about it.
Thanks!
After reading some of the posts, perhaps I wasn't clear enough.
Thanks to Schorl, who described more precisely what is going on:
It seems like a lot of people in this thread don't understand what exactly is going on with the swamp biome. Let me explain.
The default grass and foliage gradients for Minecraft use very vibrant, bright shades of green. So, to make swamps look darker and more faded, a PURPLE color overlay has been coded in to the game to alter the entire zone. With the default color gradient, it still appears green, just a more swampy and appropriate green. In my opinion, the default texture coloring looks fine.
Most texture packs do not use the default gradient. I have the most experience working with the DokuCraft texture pack, so I'm going to reference that. Many many other texture packs have this same issue, however. The DokuCraft pack uses slightly darker and less saturated shades of green for their gradient. Because of this, the purple wash is MUCH more prominent. Swamps become purple.
Swamps are not supposed to be purple. This is the problem. It's not a matter of whether or not swamps are ugly in real life. Of course they are. I don't really think this is what the OP meant. The issue is that unless we want trees and grass in custom texture packs to be neon green in the rest of the world, like the default textures, swamps will end up purple.
I found a tree half-in and half-out of a swamp. This should effectively demonstrate how the purple color overlay works. Using custom gradients, we start with a green tree and we end up with a purple tree:
Posted Image
This is what needs to be fixed.
And for the record, I love swamps, ugly or beautiful. I love all the pics! I'm hoping for a new tree for the biome, as well.
I've also added a few pics. In these, I've edited the grasscolor.png and the foliagecolor.png to be completely white. All textures used in my pack are greyscale only.
Here you can see the problem clearly. My objective now is to start playing with the biome color pngs to see if I can offset the color just in the swamp areas.
Also, I never really noticed, but the birch tree foliage color is hard-coded, too! This is somewhat easier to manage, though, because at least you can alter your leaf block to compensate somewhat.
Hey, having grown up in a swamp, I must add they they are absolutely beautiful. Multicolored mushrooms and plants lining ponds full of swirling algaes, fascinating animals, flowers of all shapes and sizes during some seasons... Swamps are gorgeous, if you can take the heat and, sometimes, the smell.
The main problem I see with the swamps as they are is the complete lack of any kind of swamp mobs. I don't care what anyone says, if there aren't any reptiles, it's not a swamp, it's just an awkwardly rehued forest with some water on the ground.
Hey, having grown up in a swamp, I must add they they are absolutely beautiful. Multicolored mushrooms and plants lining ponds full of swirling algaes, fascinating animals, flowers of all shapes and sizes during some seasons... Swamps are gorgeous, if you can take the heat and, sometimes, the smell.
The main problem I see with the swamps as they are is the complete lack of any kind of swamp mobs. I don't care what anyone says, if there aren't any reptiles, it's not a swamp, it's just an awkwardly rehued forest with some water on the ground.
its also not a swamp unless theres a narrater going "MEANWHILE AT THE LEGION OF DOOM"
I'm waiting for a piece of poop to go floating by... that looks like sewage.
But, to the topic at hand...
Don't confuse color with attributes. As I understand it, texture packs can most certainly change the color of these blocks, but they're rendered with hues or other attributes that change it. In theory modders would be able to change that.
swamps are SUPPOSED to be ugly. have you ever seen a nice looking swamp?
the whole reason we have a new biome is so the world looks differnt and the game just dosent look the same and boreing, to me i think this is a good new addition.
as for it being hard coded, i could care less, make it so or not make it so i dont really care, i just like it the way it is
For those of you who are just responding to this topic with "swamps are supposed to be ugly!", I think you're all rather missing the point. Minecraft is a game that has active and very easily useable texture pack support, and having this hardcoded can really cause problems for texture makers. Imagine how something like Candy Craft is effected by this. This is a legitimate concern that's presented in a civil way. There's no need to treat the original poster like they're just a complainer. They're not even asking that Mojang make the swamps look better in default; they'd just like the opportunity to change it more easily.
Adding vines and coloured water/grass doesn't really make a swamp for me.
Mojang would need to add a lot more detail into this biome to make it realistic at all, and i think its quite unnecessary since no other biome is extremely detailed.
Perhaps they should change it so it looks more like a marsh or wetland, to avoid overly-detailed swamps slowing down older computers.
As for the colouring problem, i really think this should be modable, since no other aspect of the game is not, it doesn't make sense.
I'm really hoping this was a temporary solution for Mojang, and they implement swamp grass properly come the next update.
If anyone can give a valid reason (or even just an explanation) of why the swamp colors (water included) are hard-coded, I'd love to hear about it.
Thanks!
After reading some of the posts, perhaps I wasn't clear enough.
Thanks to Schorl, who described more precisely what is going on:
And for the record, I love swamps, ugly or beautiful. I love all the pics! I'm hoping for a new tree for the biome, as well.
I've also added a few pics. In these, I've edited the grasscolor.png and the foliagecolor.png to be completely white. All textures used in my pack are greyscale only.
Here you can see the problem clearly. My objective now is to start playing with the biome color pngs to see if I can offset the color just in the swamp areas.
Also, I never really noticed, but the birch tree foliage color is hard-coded, too! This is somewhat easier to manage, though, because at least you can alter your leaf block to compensate somewhat.
My thoughts exactly - swamps have always been and always will be ugly
The OP never even suggested wanting to make swamps pretty. Its the fact they can't be modded. Maybe he wants them uglier.
The main problem I see with the swamps as they are is the complete lack of any kind of swamp mobs. I don't care what anyone says, if there aren't any reptiles, it's not a swamp, it's just an awkwardly rehued forest with some water on the ground.
its also not a swamp unless theres a narrater going "MEANWHILE AT THE LEGION OF DOOM"
Not insulting, they need to fix this. (or atleast make the borders more smooth.)
You see that green button with the plus? You dont have to click it, and I am not gonna force you to do it.
My 1.8 world started in a swamp, and I built my stuff there, but I relocated to a field so I wouldn't have to deal with the swampy appearance.
"sometimes, wizards are so awesome, it hurts"
It's called feedback. When you disagree, it's called whining.
Lovely.
At least, in my opinion.
I'm waiting for a piece of poop to go floating by... that looks like sewage.
But, to the topic at hand...
Don't confuse color with attributes. As I understand it, texture packs can most certainly change the color of these blocks, but they're rendered with hues or other attributes that change it. In theory modders would be able to change that.
the whole reason we have a new biome is so the world looks differnt and the game just dosent look the same and boreing, to me i think this is a good new addition.
as for it being hard coded, i could care less, make it so or not make it so i dont really care, i just like it the way it is
Mojang would need to add a lot more detail into this biome to make it realistic at all, and i think its quite unnecessary since no other biome is extremely detailed.
Perhaps they should change it so it looks more like a marsh or wetland, to avoid overly-detailed swamps slowing down older computers.
As for the colouring problem, i really think this should be modable, since no other aspect of the game is not, it doesn't make sense.