Sorry, I actually don't know how to do it with paint.net. I could've helped you with GIMP...
I found this, though: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 712AAixqrR
It seems pretty much the same as in GIMP. Select the parts you want translucent (the water), cut it (CTRL+X), then paste it (CTRL+V) in a different layer, and set the opacity of this layer to something like 75%.
Update: Here's one that you might like. Heavily beveled designed chest for your storage needs. I even went the distance and added hinges to the double chest.
Yep. It's my default until I make my own. I am liking the items though.
A little behind the scenes making of my map pack. Just to show people that my texture pack is not copy & paste. Everything in my pack is self generated and made on photoshop. Those who say otherwise are just haters. ;P
Amazing, Simply amazing, I will use this once its complete!
Here good Sir,
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“I don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference!” ~ Einstein
"“Piracy is not theft, If you steal a car, the original is lost. If you copy a game, there are simply more of them in the world.” ~Notch
I'm happy to hear that you and others are really liking the pack. It makes me sad that some others shunned and denied other hd 128 packs because I stand for everyone when I say tons out hours went into each one to make them flow and look nice. Some even went on to abandon all those hours of work because of the negative feedback and support. As for me, I'll continue to work on this pack since most of the work paid off.
We really are. I've spread it like wildfire amongst those whom I play with. And ya know, to each their own...I do photomanipulation for a hobby/time-killer...started because I wanted to learn Photoshop. I can only imagine the time you've put into this texture pack, simply for others' enjoyment. That alone is worth praise. And I do agree, it's sad to see people quit a task or goal, simply due to others' opinions...the negative are always the loudest it seems.
On rant with the negative...is it the frame that makes the torches look awkward? I was thinking about this at work (and reading the forums on my iPhone) and it struck me, that it's the only complaint I have so far with your pack, taste-wise. The torches just look awkward to me (I know I commented on the half-steps, but that's not really a complaint). They look...fatter than they would need to be. I'm assuming though, this has to do with the wireframe and the actual model, than the texture, which is rather unfortunate :sad.gif: But, I only provide this feedback, as you've requested it! :biggrin.gif: I love the pack, and will continue to use it until I experiment and make my own!
First, as I'm sure you're aware, there's an overall problem with trying to do high-res textures in this game-- no matter how detailed the individual textures are and how well they tile, they repeat potentially dozens of times within sight at any given time. The balance that needs to be found is a texture that has enough detail to be visually interesting but not such clear and obvious detail that, when viewed from any sort of distance, it just becomes a distractingly repeating pattern. There are some that do this well and some that don't quite so well. Honestly, I'm not sure if there is a really good solution to this problem, at least with the more organic textures like stone, dirt and grass. You can get rid of the distraction of an obviously repeating pattern by avoiding any sort of obvious pattern at all, but then there's little point in doing it high res.
Now there are obviously some textures with which that doesn't matter (and it's a shame that this pack currently doesn't include most of them-- the chests, workbench, furnace, etc.) Since they're discrete single items, they can be just as detailed as possible and that can only be an improvement. I look forward to seeing yours in game.
The torches..... eh. I see what you were shooting for, but the shaft texture isn't quite right and the flames are a bit too tall and block off too much of the animated flames. I like what you did with the mesh though, and if the flames were just a tad shorter and the shaft texture cleaned up... somehow.... I think they'd be fine.
Glass... I almost like it. I mostly like the highlights-- at least they're placed well. They're still textures sitting on top of a clear alpha, so they still look a bit fakey, but since the only alternative is to alpha the entire center and that loses even the illusion of glass, I guess it'll do. I'm not really sold on the shading on the frame. I like the way it's done-- I just don't like that it's directional and fixed. I know there's no way to make it not fixed, and making it non-directional makes it dully symmetrical, but still....
I love the wood. I've really been fighting with the wood in my own game, since it doesn't look quite right either with or without vertical seams. I like that you've done really subtle vertical seams. I also like the roughness of the texture toward the top of each color (particularly in the darker part). Those sections, viewed from a distance, start to look like the ends of planks rather than part of the grain of a larger piece of wood. Very nice effect.
I really don't like the dirt. It's too uniform, the grain is too distinct and it's too orange-- it looks more like leather than like dirt.
I like the look of the bark, but I think it's a bit too bulky and the highlights are a bit too smooth. A bit rougher and a bit smaller grained and it'd be a winner.
I'm not sure about the top and bottom of the logs. They're done well-- I'm just struggling with reconciling myself to round tree rings in the middle of square trees. Your approach to them is the best I've seen yet, but still.... I think I'd rather see believeable (at least within that context) square rings inside of the square logs.
I love the leaves. They're a great balance of sylized and realistic and the alpha outline of each leaf is tremendous. (I can see with them and with the torch that detailing the alpha is a huge advantage of high res). And they tile beautifully.
Speaking of tiling beautifully, I love the cobble too. I expected cobble to benefit from high res, since a repeating pattern is fine, so you can go to town with the detail. And you did a good job of staggering the heights and widths so that there aren't too many distracting visual lines from a distance.
I like the edge of the grass quite a bit, but I don't care for the surface grass. I've honestly yet to see high res grass that I like. It seems to be the thing that suffers most from obviously repeating patterns and benefits most from less rather than more detail.
In that same category is the sand. I like it well enough, but the pattern is a bit too distracting from a distance.
I like the smooth stone. I don't mind the color myself-- it won't work quite as well as a granite or marble substitute for building, but it looks great underground and scattered in the landscape. The pattern, at first glance, is a bit too heavy, but I noticed underground that it faded nicely in less light, with just little bits and pieces of the texture still showing up and looks quite nice. Overall, it's very good for natural stone, not quite so much so for building stone. I'm not sure that that's even a problem, but I'm mentioning it anyway.
I'm not overly fond of the texture on the top of the half steps. I've never cared for the obvious tiling of most half steps, but that's another choice thing, like the smooth stone. It doesn't work as a literal half block of smooth stone, but it does provide a completely different texture for some building variety. But that particular one is just a bit too blindingly white for my tastes. I'm intrigued by the texture on the side of the half steps though. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I like it a lot. Again, I don't care for it much as a literal half block of smooth stone, but I can definitely see using it for columns or for insets in a wall or for... I'm not sure what yet, but I like it anyway.
I like the gravel, though there's a distracting slightly wavery double line running through the middle of it from top to bottom that I'd get rid of. Other than that, it's very nice.
I'm not sure about the bricks yet. They seem a bit too sharp-edged and I'm not sure about the multi-color approach. I don't have an entire structure of brick so I couldn't see how they look in a wall.
I like the iron ore quite a bit-- the only problem with it is that it makes me a bit jealous. :biggrin.gif: I just redid all the ores in my personal set, and I was really quite proud of my, I thought, unique idea to do it as fine oxide scattered all the way through the rock rather than as any sort of vein or clumps. Now I find that you did the same thing, and yours looks better than mine. That's a good thing though, I guess.
The other ores-- the gold works well, as does the coal, but I don't care as much for the diamond in that style. It's a bit too grainy, and I think it'd work better with a bit more of a glassy shine. The redstone.... who the hell knows what redstone is really supposed to look like anyway? Yours might not be quite "electric" enough, but it's fine.
Let's see.... what else. The cacti are okay. The color and detail are nice, but they're a bit too smooth and a bit to bilaterally symmetrical. I'm not sure how much that can be changed though-- I've seen them done rougher and less symmetrical, and then they just look sort of odd since they're identically rough and assymetrical on each side. They work.
Oh-- the water's gorgeous. I like that you based it on at least a close approximation of the default water color (since that's what you get underwater and in splashes no matter what, I really think that color can't be avoided), but you worked enough variation into the detail to shift the overall look of it. And it tiles nicely and flows nicely.
The ladder's good. With the rough wood and rope, it might be a bit primitive with the rest of your textures, but it's very well executed.
I didn't check out the doors or the blocks.
And I hope none of this sounds harsh-- I really think it's tremendous work, all in all. I just.... I'm an analytical personality. I look at things and break them down and analyze them, whether it's for a purpose or not. I never mean to be rude or dismissive (well-- except when I do), but just analyze things and report my analyses honestly.
Well done, and I definitely look forward to seeing more.
That was super constructive. I'll try my best to incorporate it into my pack the best I can. :wink.gif:
I tried subtle transitioning sand when making the pack, but for some reason it didn't tickle my fancy so I tried wavy sand. It's definitely nice up close looking at each individual block, but as a mass pile the repetition is indeed visible.
That was super constructive. I'll try my best to incorporate it into my pack the best I can. :wink.gif:
I tried subtle transitioning sand when making the pack, but for some reason it didn't tickle my fancy so I tried wavy sand. It's definitely nice up close looking at each individual block, but as a mass pile the repetition is indeed visible.
Exactly. I think that's an unsolvable problem in the game (same with the grass). The only way to not get repitition from a distance is to avoid any sort of clear pattern, but then up close it's just mush. But if you do enough detail to look good up close, then from a distance all you see are the highlights and shadows, repeating over and over.
I wonder.... I probably don't have the skill to do it myself, and I'm not even sure where to start, but I wonder if just the right balance to the texture would shift it so it would work both up close and from a distance...
What I mean is.... I mentioned with your wood texture-- up close, the darker portions toward the tops of each color section look like detailed grain. From more of a distance, they resolve into darker lines and look like relatively thin planks, viewed end-on and stacked on top of larger lengths of wood. So even though the effect is different at the two viewing distances, it works at both distances.
I wonder if there's a way to do the same thing with sand and with grass-- to do close detail, but to also shade it in such a way that, when it's seen from a distance and just resolves into a pattern of vague highlights and shadows, those highlights and shadows ALSO convey a believeable sand or grass texture.
It'd be glorious if that worked, but I'm sure it's beyond my own skills. Nudge nudge... :biggrin.gif:
I'll indeed give it a shot. The main problem with seeing repetition is when you see only one section of the texture that has more detail then the rest, it will be noticeable in a group. It also is noticeable when you have a heavy amount of detailed clustered together. Only way to fix it it to evenly balance the detail to all sides, or lower the amount of details on the texture. I dropped the amount of details for the grass because I've seen grass tiles with details for each individual blade. It looks flat and overpowering. My grass tiles are made to be subtle to the eyes when playing minecraft and too much detail for something subtle is not necessary in my opinion.
I just took them out for a bit of a spin, rather than just looking at textures. I've got a world I just generated last night with an absolutely enormous web of natural caves that I wanted to explore, and I figured that was a good chance to see your stuff in action.
The more I look at the smooth stone, the more I like it. It doesn't fit so well with any of my monolithic smooth stone buildings since they need more of a marble/granite look (though I might just come to like it more there too), but it's just tremendous underground-- exactly the right feel.
The thing I really noticed though, and finally had to leave my game just to come here and post about, is your breaking rock overlays. They're just astounding-- that last frame, when the rock is broken up into little squarish pieces, right before the whole thing breaks apart, is one of the coolest texture details I've seen in this game yet.
Yay somebody noticed the details I put into the block breaking animation. ^.^
I'll have alternate types of stone available for those who like making stone structures.
Awesome
A little behind the scenes making of my map pack. Just to show people that my texture pack is not copy & paste. Everything in my pack is self generated and made on photoshop. Those who say otherwise are just haters. ;P
Portal Corruption suggestion
Here good Sir,
"“Piracy is not theft, If you steal a car, the original is lost. If you copy a game, there are simply more of them in the world.” ~Notch
We really are. I've spread it like wildfire amongst those whom I play with. And ya know, to each their own...I do photomanipulation for a hobby/time-killer...started because I wanted to learn Photoshop. I can only imagine the time you've put into this texture pack, simply for others' enjoyment. That alone is worth praise. And I do agree, it's sad to see people quit a task or goal, simply due to others' opinions...the negative are always the loudest it seems.
On rant with the negative...is it the frame that makes the torches look awkward? I was thinking about this at work (and reading the forums on my iPhone) and it struck me, that it's the only complaint I have so far with your pack, taste-wise. The torches just look awkward to me (I know I commented on the half-steps, but that's not really a complaint). They look...fatter than they would need to be. I'm assuming though, this has to do with the wireframe and the actual model, than the texture, which is rather unfortunate :sad.gif: But, I only provide this feedback, as you've requested it! :biggrin.gif: I love the pack, and will continue to use it until I experiment and make my own!
First, as I'm sure you're aware, there's an overall problem with trying to do high-res textures in this game-- no matter how detailed the individual textures are and how well they tile, they repeat potentially dozens of times within sight at any given time. The balance that needs to be found is a texture that has enough detail to be visually interesting but not such clear and obvious detail that, when viewed from any sort of distance, it just becomes a distractingly repeating pattern. There are some that do this well and some that don't quite so well. Honestly, I'm not sure if there is a really good solution to this problem, at least with the more organic textures like stone, dirt and grass. You can get rid of the distraction of an obviously repeating pattern by avoiding any sort of obvious pattern at all, but then there's little point in doing it high res.
Now there are obviously some textures with which that doesn't matter (and it's a shame that this pack currently doesn't include most of them-- the chests, workbench, furnace, etc.) Since they're discrete single items, they can be just as detailed as possible and that can only be an improvement. I look forward to seeing yours in game.
The torches..... eh. I see what you were shooting for, but the shaft texture isn't quite right and the flames are a bit too tall and block off too much of the animated flames. I like what you did with the mesh though, and if the flames were just a tad shorter and the shaft texture cleaned up... somehow.... I think they'd be fine.
Glass... I almost like it. I mostly like the highlights-- at least they're placed well. They're still textures sitting on top of a clear alpha, so they still look a bit fakey, but since the only alternative is to alpha the entire center and that loses even the illusion of glass, I guess it'll do. I'm not really sold on the shading on the frame. I like the way it's done-- I just don't like that it's directional and fixed. I know there's no way to make it not fixed, and making it non-directional makes it dully symmetrical, but still....
I love the wood. I've really been fighting with the wood in my own game, since it doesn't look quite right either with or without vertical seams. I like that you've done really subtle vertical seams. I also like the roughness of the texture toward the top of each color (particularly in the darker part). Those sections, viewed from a distance, start to look like the ends of planks rather than part of the grain of a larger piece of wood. Very nice effect.
I really don't like the dirt. It's too uniform, the grain is too distinct and it's too orange-- it looks more like leather than like dirt.
I like the look of the bark, but I think it's a bit too bulky and the highlights are a bit too smooth. A bit rougher and a bit smaller grained and it'd be a winner.
I'm not sure about the top and bottom of the logs. They're done well-- I'm just struggling with reconciling myself to round tree rings in the middle of square trees. Your approach to them is the best I've seen yet, but still.... I think I'd rather see believeable (at least within that context) square rings inside of the square logs.
I love the leaves. They're a great balance of sylized and realistic and the alpha outline of each leaf is tremendous. (I can see with them and with the torch that detailing the alpha is a huge advantage of high res). And they tile beautifully.
Speaking of tiling beautifully, I love the cobble too. I expected cobble to benefit from high res, since a repeating pattern is fine, so you can go to town with the detail. And you did a good job of staggering the heights and widths so that there aren't too many distracting visual lines from a distance.
I like the edge of the grass quite a bit, but I don't care for the surface grass. I've honestly yet to see high res grass that I like. It seems to be the thing that suffers most from obviously repeating patterns and benefits most from less rather than more detail.
In that same category is the sand. I like it well enough, but the pattern is a bit too distracting from a distance.
I like the smooth stone. I don't mind the color myself-- it won't work quite as well as a granite or marble substitute for building, but it looks great underground and scattered in the landscape. The pattern, at first glance, is a bit too heavy, but I noticed underground that it faded nicely in less light, with just little bits and pieces of the texture still showing up and looks quite nice. Overall, it's very good for natural stone, not quite so much so for building stone. I'm not sure that that's even a problem, but I'm mentioning it anyway.
I'm not overly fond of the texture on the top of the half steps. I've never cared for the obvious tiling of most half steps, but that's another choice thing, like the smooth stone. It doesn't work as a literal half block of smooth stone, but it does provide a completely different texture for some building variety. But that particular one is just a bit too blindingly white for my tastes. I'm intrigued by the texture on the side of the half steps though. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I like it a lot. Again, I don't care for it much as a literal half block of smooth stone, but I can definitely see using it for columns or for insets in a wall or for... I'm not sure what yet, but I like it anyway.
I like the gravel, though there's a distracting slightly wavery double line running through the middle of it from top to bottom that I'd get rid of. Other than that, it's very nice.
I'm not sure about the bricks yet. They seem a bit too sharp-edged and I'm not sure about the multi-color approach. I don't have an entire structure of brick so I couldn't see how they look in a wall.
I like the iron ore quite a bit-- the only problem with it is that it makes me a bit jealous. :biggrin.gif: I just redid all the ores in my personal set, and I was really quite proud of my, I thought, unique idea to do it as fine oxide scattered all the way through the rock rather than as any sort of vein or clumps. Now I find that you did the same thing, and yours looks better than mine. That's a good thing though, I guess.
The other ores-- the gold works well, as does the coal, but I don't care as much for the diamond in that style. It's a bit too grainy, and I think it'd work better with a bit more of a glassy shine. The redstone.... who the hell knows what redstone is really supposed to look like anyway? Yours might not be quite "electric" enough, but it's fine.
Let's see.... what else. The cacti are okay. The color and detail are nice, but they're a bit too smooth and a bit to bilaterally symmetrical. I'm not sure how much that can be changed though-- I've seen them done rougher and less symmetrical, and then they just look sort of odd since they're identically rough and assymetrical on each side. They work.
Oh-- the water's gorgeous. I like that you based it on at least a close approximation of the default water color (since that's what you get underwater and in splashes no matter what, I really think that color can't be avoided), but you worked enough variation into the detail to shift the overall look of it. And it tiles nicely and flows nicely.
The ladder's good. With the rough wood and rope, it might be a bit primitive with the rest of your textures, but it's very well executed.
I didn't check out the doors or the blocks.
And I hope none of this sounds harsh-- I really think it's tremendous work, all in all. I just.... I'm an analytical personality. I look at things and break them down and analyze them, whether it's for a purpose or not. I never mean to be rude or dismissive (well-- except when I do), but just analyze things and report my analyses honestly.
Well done, and I definitely look forward to seeing more.
I tried subtle transitioning sand when making the pack, but for some reason it didn't tickle my fancy so I tried wavy sand. It's definitely nice up close looking at each individual block, but as a mass pile the repetition is indeed visible.
Exactly. I think that's an unsolvable problem in the game (same with the grass). The only way to not get repitition from a distance is to avoid any sort of clear pattern, but then up close it's just mush. But if you do enough detail to look good up close, then from a distance all you see are the highlights and shadows, repeating over and over.
I wonder.... I probably don't have the skill to do it myself, and I'm not even sure where to start, but I wonder if just the right balance to the texture would shift it so it would work both up close and from a distance...
What I mean is.... I mentioned with your wood texture-- up close, the darker portions toward the tops of each color section look like detailed grain. From more of a distance, they resolve into darker lines and look like relatively thin planks, viewed end-on and stacked on top of larger lengths of wood. So even though the effect is different at the two viewing distances, it works at both distances.
I wonder if there's a way to do the same thing with sand and with grass-- to do close detail, but to also shade it in such a way that, when it's seen from a distance and just resolves into a pattern of vague highlights and shadows, those highlights and shadows ALSO convey a believeable sand or grass texture.
It'd be glorious if that worked, but I'm sure it's beyond my own skills. Nudge nudge... :biggrin.gif:
The more I look at the smooth stone, the more I like it. It doesn't fit so well with any of my monolithic smooth stone buildings since they need more of a marble/granite look (though I might just come to like it more there too), but it's just tremendous underground-- exactly the right feel.
The thing I really noticed though, and finally had to leave my game just to come here and post about, is your breaking rock overlays. They're just astounding-- that last frame, when the rock is broken up into little squarish pieces, right before the whole thing breaks apart, is one of the coolest texture details I've seen in this game yet.
.....back to the caves....
I'll have alternate types of stone available for those who like making stone structures.
I love your work bench !