Texture packs

woodspeople

Member
Contributor
Design
Not sure which forum is best for this. Maybe a new TP forum is in order?

Anyway, here is the TP I've been working on.


It's called "elsewhere." The conceit is that everything is somewhat the same as "normal" yet somewhat different as well. There are clues to the identity of things, but you have to tease them out. The sand has ripples, the wood is all the same weird green, etc. The secondary conceit is that in this world-in-which-you-find-yourself there is no such thing as stochasticity: nothing is ever random. (You are meant to figure that out slowly, as a sort of challenge.) I don't know if this is intriguing or just stupid at this point.

My question is: would you like me to continue developing this for TS? Or does this not matter? It is something I can do a bit at a time, for fun in between other things. (While remembering other more-difficult-to-fit-in promises.)

Also: Would any of the people who are also messing with TPs here want to collaborate on this or any other interesting TPs for TS? Sometimes the new-new look of something can draw people in ...

woodspeople
 

Cervator

Org Co-Founder & Project Lead
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Very abstract - kinda cute :)

That might be useful later when there's enough of a game to actually have several different ways for it to look - currently we don't even have the base look of the game down though, so it might be a little early to get creative.

We also need to make the facilities to actually enable/disable whole texture sets at once - right now again it is just the base look, block by block, for the stuff we even have.

So it is plenty cool - just not sure what to actually do with it yet :)

I'd heartily encourage more discussion on the topic of texture packs itself though! It would be very cool to be able to enable whole packs in bulk, especially to be able to support turning on packs made for Minecraft - although I'm unsure what we'd do for blocks unique to Terasology (again when we actually have some other than the goofy companion cube)

I had a thought some time ago about a UI screen for enabling/disabling individual blocks. Builds on the idea of having a landing menu before loading a world. Could probably build whole pack switching into something like that.
 

metouto

Active Member
Contributor
Art
I was impressed by woodspeople texture pack :shock: and I thought I could do something like this but more in the lines minecraft style but with an inventory full like DF :unsure: (yes, I know it is a lot but I thought there was time if I started out with the basics then went to the more advanced stuff .... :roll: maybe I am naive :roll: ) .... so of course if went to the internet to check out how one is done ...

1) most say don't use paint because it doesn't support transparent (where the background of the game shows through) :cry:

2) low-resolution textures with GIMP is good because it does do # one and is free to use :cool:

3) the one texture I did create was for a block with gold in veins :D but it was done in paint so not sure if I redid it for thinner veins (to make it look more real) if it would even work now that I have read stuff on the net. :roll:

4) finding a step by step tutorial for making a texture pack is hard and most that I find start with minecraft pack as a starter which I did not want to copy becaues I wanted to try my own thing but something like theirs. :(

5)I find that I can load terasology's imagemanifest file into GIMP2 (which I downloaded) but my question then is if I adjust those files of add files to the file will it me messed up. :?

I GUESS the bottom line here is 1) should I try these at this early stage of the game 2) what do I need to get the job done 3) are there special rules I have to follow that I may not know about (like that transparent thing) :unsure:

There sure are a lot of things for a person to do here .... but not so many for those of use (me :unsure: ) with little or no talent. But I AM going to find something I can do somehow !!!!! (maybe :twisted: )


edited ... terasology's imagemanifest file has 256 X 256, 128 X 128, 64X 64 and 32 X 32 .... (no 16X16) when one makes a block texture does one make them to each size ????
 

Cervator

Org Co-Founder & Project Lead
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So good news here - it is actually a lot simpler than you think :)

First of we don't actually use texture "packs" - that's generally when a game uses a single big source image like Minecraft, and you can only edit it by editing the big image. While we might eventually do packs for base textures, we entirely use individual 16x16 images for blocks.

On game startup we build that image manifest based on whatever is available - so it is a throwaway file unique to that one world it was built for. You don't need to worry about that big image at all - you just tinker with the single image you're interested in

So with a working DevSetup it actually gets this easy:

1) Find the image you care about under Terasology\src\org\terasology\data\blocks\images
2) Open it in Gimp and make changes as you see fit (or save an image you've created in Gimp here)
3) Be sure you delete your SAVED_WORLDS directory and simply run the game - the new texture will be used!

Until we get you a fully working GitHub setup just look at the images at the above path and make similar 16x16 images in Gimp - can attach/link here to samples :)

(Incidentally, I'll likely be on IRC a little later tomorrow than expected - maybe about 10 hours from this message.
 

metouto

Active Member
Contributor
Art
Ok .... don't know if this is right but you all can lead me in the right direction ... right???



Playing around to day I created this torch. I know we already have one but I was just trying out Paint.net ( I could not understand Gimp or get it to work for me :( ) I have it on my desktop but know not what to do with it or if it is worth keeping. Also, the torch in Intellij has a check background witch is transparent (?) mine has white .... does it make a deffence???

If you had to list things in this area for me to do what would that list be like ? I am so new to this I will be naive(?) enough to try anything.

what ending would the game use (.PNG) :?


BTW .... is this the right place to post this :?
 

Cervator

Org Co-Founder & Project Lead
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Heya - I can't actually see that while I'm at work, but I should be able to at home :)

The special checkered background in IntelliJ is important as it indicates transparency - a plain white background is actual white, which will show up inside the game (imagine grass with white where the transparency currently works)

Gimp can do that for you, but yes, it is a bit more involved. You can always hop on IRC to ask questions, I'm usually around :)

PNG is the right image type - posting here is fine for reviewing. If we finish getting your DevSetup to work you can actually put the images in the right spot under the source directory and see them in-game :)

Things we need the most (and that do not involve transparency, so that's easier): Replacements for the existing full-block textures, like grass and snow covered dirt, dirt itself, stone, etc. Minerals too, but they don't generate in-game at the moment, so you'd have to cheat with the console to get blocks to see them.

Again, IRC is your friend :D
 

metouto

Active Member
Contributor
Art
After talking to you Cervator I went back to the internet and found out how to make the background transparent and redid my torch so now it should be a good torch. I will work on the other stuff (nontransparent things) and see what I can come up with. ;)
 

Immortius

Lead Software Architect
Contributor
Architecture
GUI
The one problem with Paint.Net is you can't control the RGB values of transparent pixels. This may seem unnecessary, but it prevent some fun things like using the alpha layer to provide non-alpha information to shaders.

Not really an issue for block textures at the moment though.
 

metouto

Active Member
Contributor
Art
Immortius thanks for your post :) I put the transparent stuff on my torch with Gimp. Cervator I think would like me to use that program and I am trying my best to get up to speed in being able to use it. ;)

BTW...Immortius if you know something which will help me along this path PLEASE let me know :)
 

metouto

Active Member
Contributor
Art
I had a thought some time ago about a UI screen for enabling/disabling individual blocks. Builds on the idea of having a landing menu before loading a world. Could probably build whole pack switching into something like that.
I missed this in your 1st post Cervator and just wanted to say that not knowing the coding or getting it to work problems :unsure: , that as a player I would very much like to see this happen (and I don't play much). The idea of being able to walk into a new world and being able to bring individual blocks into that world (no matter what the blocks are) could mean me staying to play the game more because I was not bored(?) the 1st 5 mins of the game or killed because I did not have something I need.

But that is not also to say that many things need to be "ah" moments when you say yes, that is something I could use a little later down the road.

Ok ... enough already metouto ... your not writing a book here .... :oops: :oops: :oops:
 

Cervator

Org Co-Founder & Project Lead
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Mainly that idea was to be able to configure what blocks could exist in a world, not really what you'd start with. But that could itself be a good idea, sort of a "survival pack" mode where you get to bring some blocks with you :)
 

Cervator

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*necro*

An amusing thought came to mind today. Woodspeople, you might get a kick out of this, knowing your nifty abstract leanings for textures and that you've tried DF now: A DF-tribute ascii texture pack :D

Metouto has made a ton of spiffy mineral blocks now, most of which are in DF as simple colored letters (or slightly more advanced symbols with a DF texture pack). Imagine a Terasology texture pack that shows everything as big black squares with a single colored ASCII symbol on each side a la DF ;)

(Somehow I wouldn't be surprised if something like that already exists for MC, but hey)
 

woodspeople

Member
Contributor
Design
My plain-text TP for MC was a bit like that, though not much. Doing it as one giant symbol per block (maybe on a black "screen" background) might be funnier. The first computer games I ever played were Zork, Pong (which was and is the best computer game ever made), and something like Civilization except ten years before that came out (maybe Empire?). I played these on a TRS-80 with green letters on a black screen...and quite possibly had more fun with them than anybody does today with 3d graphics and AI. :roll:
 
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