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Quote from Slimeyz

Also, awesome texture pack!

Many thanks.

Quote from 13thMurder

This has to be the first time any texture pack ever has had cobblestone that isn't ugly. I always thought it was a requirement for cobblestone, but you went and broke the standard. I would build a cobblestone house WILLINGLY with that.

See, now that you've done this, all the other texture artists are going to have to make some descent cobble to keep up

13th, I very much appreciate those words, especially coming from a fellow artist. Many thanks indeed!

Yeh! Cobble textures never really do what you want them to do, and considering how cheap a material it is...meaning everyone uses it, it's always in the spotlight, gets used in so many ways...so there's constant pressure to make textures that look interesting! However, 'interesting' and 'tiling' are not happy bedfellows when it comes to large scale builds. It's a real quandary for sure. I eventually plucked up the courage to tackle it and I think I got something that is fairly interesting, but still tiles ok, but these basic building block textures are absolute torture to do!

Well, being a glutton for punishment though, I went and finished up as best I could on the accompanying mossy cobble and I think I like building with it better than the new cobble! I've also spent much time balancing the colors of stone bricks and new cobble with a view to tackling a new more interesting stone texture, but as that will effect all the ores too, it'll be a massive project to tackle after my 1.7 work.



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.....Last Few Pics Before GS v13 Update!

I finished up on creating more variety for mossy cobble and added a few extra blocks to ordinary cobble. Not perfect...but good enough for now!

Made a new 64x brass gas lamp torch, loosely based on the original, but with more detail and with a lovely (!) amber lime glow. The 'brief' for this was...keep it simple, as 3-dimensional as possible, able to be used en-masse for large construction lighting effects without it being overwhelming and still more 'gas-lamp-like' when viewed close up.

Refined the iron_block to 64x, which was actually a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. It turns out that my original texture (for me at least) has just the right contrast and level of detail to make it look right when viewed at distance considering it's pixelly design. Managing to keep this effect at 64x with even greater detail took a lot of balancing. Use of low level mipmapping can improve things slightly.

Refined a number of particles including drips, bubbles and smoke. Smoke is now fluffier and more transparent, but still animated in a 'puff, puff' kind of way!

Spent quite a bit of time re-balancing the color and tone of those hardened clay bricks of mine effected by the new 1.7 'mesa' biome. Also refined some tiling issues. The overall effect is a better range of brick hues to work with on large city building projects.

The following are a few example pics, plus at the end there are a few extra pics of the main gate to my Newglim Dock complex:







Click the spoiler for more examples:

Possible video clip to come, a few more cracked and mossy stone bricks to finish up on and then I want to try and get GS v13 uploaded before MC 1.7 hits. At least if 1.7 proves to be a disaster when you all try it out, you'll still be able to have fun with all the new stuff in GS v13 for MC 1.6.4, until I can get round to fixing all the issues with 1.7. You will keep your 1.6.4 profile in a safe place...won't you...and backups of any important worlds!?

Quote from rosestorm90

You never cease to amaze Glim. I am pretty sure that if upgraded this pack to 128x, it would make most computers catch fire with the amount of detail you manage to squeeze out of every pixel. Amazing work once again.

Haha! Many thanks, Rosestorm. Glad it looks ok and hope the update doesn't disappoint when it finally comes.:)

Obviously it's not as big an update as my last few, but I think there's enough new things to warrant it and enough old textures that badly needed some love and attention. With 1.7 looming and possibly changing the look of everything so drastically, things like new cobble, torches and iron, etc. would just have got lost in the confusion. With the amount of work I've put into these upgrades and changes, it would have been disappointing to lose them in the chaos.

Quote from rosestorm90

Is there any kind of ETA on the update?

Next few days is about as accurate as I can be. Sorry I can't be more specific than that, but I've quite a bit of too-ing and fro-ing this weekend.

I've just finished up on making more cracked and mossy random stone bricks and I'm just doing a little filming as proof of work and then I can upload. Bottom dollar is I'm really wanting to get this update out before Mojang updates to 1.7 as explained above, so I'll be sad if they update this weekend.

Thanks for asking.

edit: after which I'll try and update whenever I make a new texture...at least I'll see how practical it is on an ongoing basis. 'Little and often' might be better than 'almost never and huge'!

Quote from JesterxMailman89

That torch.... How do you keep making things that are already amazing even better? I am seriously pumped for the torch, it looks like a massive upgrade to a block that is scattered throughout my worlds. Really lookin forward to the next update Glim

Like most of these old textures, I started out thinking it would be relatively easy to upgrade and change to something new and it turns out to be way more complicated. After three years placing that little green torch all over the place and in lots of situations, you realize how important the size, shape, tone and shade are and how just tiny changes too far in any direction ruins the entire ambiance of a place.

I've found for this pack and my purposes, it's important to keep it compact (so it looks mass-produced and industrial), functional looking (so it can be used on posts, walls, on machines and generally everywhere you'd be able to put a modern day tungsten lightbulb), not too dramatic, like a flickering animated flame (or using it all over the place ends up a mass of over-powering movement), not too bright (or it spoils the effect of that neony ethereal distant glow, which is great for illuminating buildings, as you would in RL with little spotlights) and not too standard a torch color (or it looks too ordinary for the theme).

Bearing all the above in mind and other even more subtle things that a small lambent glowing retro lamp should have, I went through lots of tiny variations in shape, colour, height, width, detail etc, to get to something I think is better but not too different to what we're used to.

I'm not hyping the work detail up or the effort that goes into it, but being as finicky as I am, I spent a good 8 hours making one lamp variation after another and then each time hopping in game and flitting all over my world to view old constructions to check if it at least matched up to the effect of the old lamp. It was soul destroying to start with, when first attempts just looked awful, then bit by bit making one tiny change after another, I felt I was going in the right direction.

The limits of the shape and size of the mojang torch pretty much decides the lamp's final shape, if you want it to retain it's 3d feel. I'm not overly keen on anything about the lamp if when orbiting around it you get the feeling it's just two flat textures bisecting each other.

I think I got there in the end, but there's always room for improvement or variation (perhaps a ghostly blue color), but for my sanity's sake I had to call it a day. I'm quite sure others could, and have, done better, but I'm more than happy with it for now and especially if a few others think it looks ok too.

Many thanks for the encouragement, Jester...much appreciated as ever.

Quote from juliusand1

ooooh a ghostly blue variation would be cool. There are some mods with blue torches, it would be great for mod support purposes!

It shall be done!

However, I'll upload them in the next alts support pack after the v13 update, as they'll need supporting lightmaps to give off a bluish light...or whatever other color variations I rustle up.

Quote from juliusand1

So let it be written. So let it be done!

Haha! My kinda phraseology!

.....GS v13 Glimmar Sheep!

Before finishing up I just fancied working on updating at least one new mob, so here's the all new Glimmar sheep, with woollier, woolly coat and skinnier pink skin...when shorn of course! Hope you like it's woolly leg warmers!

I thought leaving it with at least a balaclava and leg warmers after shearing was the only decent thing to do. It seemed cruel to leave it shivering on a snowy mountain side without something on!



Click the spoiler for more examples:

Quote from LORD_MJ

Great work. I love the details on the wool, it makes it look really realistic.

Glad you like it, LORD_MJ, and thanks for saying.

Yep, I spent a lot of time on making the wool as woolly as possible.

Given time, I hope to make some randomob variations, but until 1.7 arrives and settles in partnership with MCPatcher, I'm being a little more wary of bloating the pack with lots of new animations, randomobs and ctm. This is due to a lack of knowledge on what the limits are for all this additional material, so I want to proceed with caution rather than burn out everyone's desktops. I'd be interested to know which of those three things has the most effect on lag. I'm sure it's complicated by having randomobs that are also animated (like the iron golems).

A stripped down hybrid version of the pack is still in the works for testing purposes.


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edit: There's going to be a little delay in updating this weekend now (obviously...as it's now Sunday night here in the UK). I've just got back from travelling on the motorway all day, mostly spent crawling in heavy traffic, so I'm shattered and my brain feels like mush.

Quote from dunnra

Great lookin' sheep, Glimmar! +k)

Many thanks, dunnra...much appreciated!