Minecraft Forums

Quote from Freso

As juliusand1 said, that's really thinking too little of yourself and your pack. Yours is the only >16x steampunk pack that's worth anything (heck, I only even know of one 16x steampunk pack too). That alone is pretty special. That you then manage to make a pretty good job of it too just makes it all the more magnificent. Don't berate yourself, Glimmar, you're doing an excellent job. Everything in its own time.

Thanks, mate.

Quote from ksheep

I wouldn't say it's the only >16x steampunk pack that's any good. 13thMurder's "Broken Anachronism" pack is also quite good, and it's coming along quite nicely (although it's still not quite as complete as this one). Then again, it's not a bright(-ish) Steampunk like this one, but more of a gritty post-apocalyptic Steampunk (with a few other "punks" thrown in as well). If you haven't seen it yet, it's well worth a look, and while it does have some differences from Glimmar's pack, I think the two could work together to an extent.

And with that thought, I wonder how easy it would be to take bits and pieces of the two packs, make certain ones biome specific, and allow for some greater variety in buildings. Have the main city in, say, a plains biome with Glimmars textures, but when you travel out to the desert or swamp biomes, you start seeing run-down, dilapidated factories made using Broken Anacronism textures... Unfortunately distributing such a pack would go against both Glimmars and 13ths licenses, but it might make for an interesting Adventure video, at the very least.

EDIT: Actually, would it be against either of the licenses if I merely uploaded the CTM properties files which set biome specific textures (assuming that works with the multiple resource pack feature)? Just have instructions saying "insert these files into the two resource packs, set X as top pack, Y as bottom pack"... That just might work.

I have every respect and admiration for 13thMurder's work, and have said so many times, but I think we have completely different styles and vision for our work and are motivated by different things. Therefore I wouldn't be at all interested in any public combination of the two packs, as per my conditions of use. I dare say 13th would be of the same opinion too. Call it a stupid quirk of being a selfish artist (me being the selfish one, not 13th!).

I know everyone has lots of favorite packs, and those who can, will mix and match what they consider to be the best textures for their ideal personal pack. However, I think I speak for many artists around here, who spend a lot of their free time making quite intricate and time consuming textures for their own resource packs, that the thought of their work being publicly combined with the work of another artist is not what motivates them to work through 'till 3, 4 and 5.00 am in the morning, many nights over!

Now that you've pointed my last few regulars in the direction of 'Broken Anachronism', there's probably not much point in sloggin away anyway! So why should I worry. Lol!

Seriously though, Sheep, in all fairness to both 13th and myself, I wouldn't want to see any public combination of the two packs, at least while I'm still working on mine.

Quote from JesterxMailman89

Thanks for the kind words Glim, and as Freso and Juliusand said, your whole pack is special and it means a lot to us "regulars" (Am I a regular? I didnt even notice!) that you work so hard on it and stay so connected to the community

I am SO glad about those new mushrooms! They look awesome, especially around all that new grass and the podzol. The biome specific Mesa Biome sounds like a good route, but I could imagine it would bother people who build in them using clay. Then again, there is always more stuff for them to build out of in the end.

Btw, because the mod I have been texturing for is stayin in 1.5.2 I have been porting most of your recent updates for my own personal use, but I realized when I thought I had lost my work that a lot has changed in the pack since the 1.5.2 download. If I were to put together a 1.5.2 version of the pack that includes the recent changes, could you perhaps include it on the main page? I wouldn't want to distribute it myself since it would be all your work, just arranged differently. If you would not be comfortable with this idea at all I understand, it was just something that occurred to me a little while ago

I consider you a regular, Jester, whether you like it or not!

Glad you like the funghi and stuff. Just finished up on a mass of new desert plants and upgrades too.

I'd rather make an upgraded 1.5 version myself, mate, if you don't mind, though I wouldn't be as fast as you to put it together.

Quote from VermillionTwilight

Hmmmm... You can do biome-specific ctm? You might wanna try expanding on that idea for something truly unique among all other texture packs.
Like... Rusted Iron Blocks for Iron Blocks in Ocean and River Biomes, or something similar. Different water textures between ocean and beach (waves) and all other biomes (standard still water) or lava in the nether vs overworld. But that's just lumping more work on you.

Ooo! There's plenty of resource packs that have already implemented lots of biome specific textures...I just can't keep up with it all, but there's certainly plenty of scope. It just has to be thought through very carefully. I remember when the idea was first mooted and everyone suddenly suggested stone and cobble could have icicles hanging off them in arctic biomes, then the idea of having an interior with a roaring fire and permanent icicles hanging off the walls might not be quite what one was expecting.

Did you know you can have biome and height specific mobs too, though I'm not sure if it's possible to have height specific blocks. Now that really would make having rusty iron blocks a possibility!)

Flora and Fauna and geographical architectural styles (designs, type of stone, etc) would be ideal for biome specific consideration. However, as you say, it's an enormous undertaking and most texture artists have only just started scratching the surface really. Now if Mojang just laid off adding in new things then perhaps everyone could just catch up with all the possibilities MCPatcher throws into the mix. Wasn't there some talk that Mojang might be considering implementing ctm? I never really read the forum news anymore.

Lol! Biome specific textures would certainly be the way to cleverly combine favorite packs together, but it's not something I would officially approve of!

Sorry, I can't at this moment in time, Rosestorm, but thanks for asking.

How will 54 (and counting) 64x desert plants do for something to look at in the meantime?


.....GS v14 64x Desert Plants 50+ Varieties!

...quite a lot of 'em actually, although being random not all of them appeared before I got bored of spraying them all over the sand in this shot:


I was pleased to find that Mojang still allow desert plants to be placed on Podzol blocks in creative mode...so adding to the variety of flora in those giant forests, though obviously not all desert plants work. I can just imagine that someone will complain to Mojang that it isn't realistic and it'll get scrapped as an option.


It's a shame though that double grass and double ferns can't be planted in pots as well as desert plants.


I know these aren't actually required 1.7 plant textures, but while I was doing ferns, grass and fungi they kind of led onto desert plants, partly because like everything else, they stuck out like sore thumbs up close against their more detailed companions. While I was on the subject and rather enjoying it, I decided to carry on until I get bored...if I don't add as much in now I'll not likely get the time to return to that area for a long time into the future. Re-editing and adding to the range of existing plants like this is a good limbering up exercise for making new plants, so I'm more aware of necessary tone and shadow, etc.

Right...once more into the jaws of...sorry, what am I saying?!

Quote from Steelfeathers

You're nuts, Glim. But in a good way. (Still nuts, though)

Absolutely!

Quote from 13thMurder

Neat, i redid my deadbush texture just a few days ago with variants as well. Not nearly that many, but there's certainly no such thing as too much ctm!

They look excellent. I look forward to using this when it's released.

Thanks.

Yep! That ctm business gets to be a bit of a drug, once started on a particular area. The trouble is in stopping sometimes! I'm still looking back at these and thinking of a few more variants.

Lol! Your deadbush texture didn't need any re-working, it was excellent as it was...I'm the one who needs to improve stuff around here!

Quote from 13thMurder

That's what happens when you've had some practice. Things you thought were good when you made them, you suddenly realize just aren't up to what the rest of the pack has become. Then once you've improved those, you've gained even more skill and had new ideas and have to replace more things... i swear, it's endless. XD

I swear it's a curse!

Quote from Freso

I actually didn't know of that pack! Thank you!

Nooooooooooooo! Another one lost to the dark side! Aaaargh!!

Quote from Freso

As you mention though, it's really rather gritty and dark. Which I generally like. But I already find Glimmar's to be almost too dim for general playing/adventuring. I'll definitely keep it in mind though.

And with 13th's latest mob updated, I actually find that I like his mobs better than Glimmar's mechanised ones (sorry man!), so I might try and make a "mobs only" version of Broken Anachronism for local use, for loading above Glimmar's pack. That could work well. Time will tell.

Curses!

Quote from Freso

Shhh! Don't tell him! He's moaning quite enough already about all of Mo' Jang's additions making it endless. Letting him know that even with the current textures it's endless... I don't think it's a good idea!

Edit: Woo! Go MC Forums for telling my the post submission page wasn't found! \o/

Lol! The forum is always doin' that to me. Your post attempts filled my in-tray up.

Don't worry, I'm well aware of how endless this flippin' texturing lark is. After three years...moaning is about the only thing that keeps me sane.

...More curses!

Quote from Steelfeathers

THIS. SO HARD.
I can't tell you how much I struggle with this. You seem to have done well, though, Glimmar. I don't know where you get your texturing energy from. (I also have trouble staying with one theme for too long; I get bored. So kudos again for being able to stick with the steampunk thing.)

Believe me, I find it immensely difficult too. The problem is that having done it for so long it's almost become a leisure time habit and I find it very difficult to unwind with some other game or activity...it's always there at the back of my mind to try something else out for the pack. I'm mostly interested in sandbox survival games and follow lots of indy developments, but I find I haven't the willpower to plunge in and explore their depths...I get drawn inexorably back here.

I honestly do get drained, and this MC update has probably been the worst for me so far, because as the game expands, the possibilities, the scope for improvement, all expand exponentially too in every direction. Add mods and MCPatcher into that equation and you're constantly stewing in a feeling of being left behind, wondering which way to turn next to catch up.

Flip! There was a time I'd have loved to have tried other themes and ideas for packs, but knowing what would be involved to actually get something to a presentable state now, I think I'd rather walk from one end of the UK to the other or build a real house or something. Actually I did that this year (only a summer house, still warm and relaxing though, even now winter has set in!).

This Minecraft thing is a bottomless pit, a 'nether' from which there is no escape!

Moan...moan...moan!

...turning back to the Minecraft habit, I'm now up to 70 odd desert plants and 29 fern or forest/swamp plants. Nutty?! Nutty as a fruit cake...perhaps even nuttier than that! Why do I do it? Haven't the foggiest!

Quote from zamaj

Sometimes... many times... I think things were better back in alpha and early beta. One could put lots of time their textures and play around without the stress of so many images. It was possible to have a complete, high-quality pack without a tremendous amount of work.

I'm with you there, zamaj. How on earth anyone can contemplate starting a new texture pack from scratch now is beyond my comprehension. Sheer admiration, but I worry that maybe they're not fully aware of what is entailed in maintaining a pack, not just the making of the textures.

I mourn not having the old terrain.png sheet to look at, where it was possible to make global lighting changes quite simply and compare textures. I actually still keep most of my working textures on a 'global' worksheet of course, but switching textures back and forth between folders, and generally working with ctm folders requires lots of organisation for even minor changes, eg. finding that a 'repeat' texture of 64 textures is slightly too dark, so each square has to be chopped up and dropped back in the appropriate folder after the change is made. If you're like me, ie. not very organised and foggy in the head from lack of sleep, who hasn't a clue about Gimp scripts etc., it's a tedious task...rewarding when the work looks right, but easy to get lost in a confusing maelstrom of forgotten folder names!

Quote from zamaj

That being said, all of the additions to the game do add plenty for us to capitalize on with many unique and interesting textures, but, to tell the truth, I'm not sure that it's worth it.

Yes, with all my moaning, don't get me wrong, ctm is a marvelous tool for beautifying the Minecraft world, but it is incredibly labor intensive and I only understand how to use the basic stuff, like random, repeat, vertical and horizontal, so consequently always left with the feeling that I'm only scratching the surface, even after hundreds of hours of work! Other times it's just sheer joy to discover how much prettier something looks with a few random textures to break up the repetitiveness.

It's reassuring I'm not the only one who feels the strain.

Quote from 13thMurder

Here's what you need for a much easier time doing repeat ctm.

Guillotine into layers and Export layers.

Guillotine into layers will cut the image into single tiles based on where you put your guides, so it's easily configurable. Export layers exports all of the layers at once, saving you from having to do each one manually.

Now, there is a downside to this. Everything gets mixed up in the process, but it's a very easy fix. Using the grid feature set to the resolution of your pack, make a plain colored background and number each square tile in the proper order starting at 0. Then guillotine into layers again, export layers, and stick them in a folder alone. This folder is your key. Do not rename any of the image files used as your key. Instead, put all the ctm tiles into another file, right click the first one, rename it to the number shown in the first spot in the key folder, then just hit tab to go to the next and repeat. If you number them in the scrambled order the numbers in the key folder you made appear, it will actually unscramble the tiles.

Here's an example of what i mean:

[snip]

The tiles appear scrambled in that folder, but the image it was cut from was in the correct order (though i actually messed up and started at 1 rather than 0). By renaming the actual ctm tiles in that order, they end up being in the right order ingame.

Anyway, i realize it sounds like a very large project when i type it all out like that, but it will take you a minute or two at most. It's tons faster than trying to cut it up manually.

You've gone to a lot of trouble there to explain how 'guillotine into layers' and 'export layers' works, and I'm very grateful for your time, mate, thank you.

I think I get it, at least that a grid of textures is chopped up into a stack of tiles with GIL (is that correct?) and the 'export layers' takes the stack and saves each layer as a separate .png file. However, anything beyond that and my brain goes into melt down. It's just old age and tiredness. I'm a lost cause, 13th, so don't go wasting even more time on me! Honestly, you're as pressed for time as I am so don't make me feel any more guilty about wasting it than I already do. I'll give it a whirl and along with your explanation I'll cross my fingers and hope the penny drops.

My biggest problem is my own lack of organisation. It's an imperative that I start to keep sheets of related ctm textures that can easily be referenced for edits in the future. In the past I've sometimes done that, and other times I've just quickly rushed things out, saved the work as individual tiles and abandoned the original sheet or stored it who knows where. Dreadful practice!!

Thanks again.

Quote from 13thMurder

Beyond exporting it, it's not too hard. It's less complicated than it sounds to name them all.

Anyway, i find it's much easier just to keep the .xcf files than to keep actual .png sheets around.

You wouldn't happen to have found a script for reassembling the individual 64x tiles back onto the sheet in grid formation, would you?

Quote from asikar

Here's an update pic of the Icarus for you all.

I'm imagining walking around on that deck, just looking up at the balloons above.

That skytrain looked big yesterday, but I barely noticed it against the Icarus until I enlarged the pic!


****************************************


Now a little pic of my own.



.....GS v14 Ferns!

...41 different types of fern to date...also desert plants have increased to 75. I almost feel limbered up enough to start on the new flowers now, which I intend doing along with tall grass!

The sample pic below doesn't depict all the types...sorry. Being random means some will not choose to appear exactly where you want 'em: