Hello, I'm N8thanH, and welcome back to Across the Map!

In today's post, I am proud to reveal two projects of mine, which are currently being worked on simultaneously.

The first is something I had started a long time ago, and kind of forgot about: a texture pack creation world. It was originally just going to be a demo world, so I could get into texture pack reviews on YouTube, since I was inspired by a YouTuber named CocoSmackdown, who had an interesting showcase series.

Since I rediscovered this map, its purpose has kind of changed to a world that you can download, and go about completing textures in. (Sorry, I don't have a download yet; the map isn't nearly complete.)

My second new project is, well, my own texture pack, called Cloud 16. It's more-or-less a 16-bit-style texture pack, which I will show off in a bit. It's the reason map development hasn't gone faster, but I have been enjoying the experience. Just bug me in the comments if you want me to pick up the slack. I'll take any attention I'm given. XD

Back in the day of 16-bit game consoles, they didn't have it easy. They didn't have every color in the world, and at least in the case of the Super NES, could usually only display 128 different colors at a time, out of a pallet of 13,768, or, if an extra bit is given to a color, then about 16 thousand. It sounds like a lot, but on the Red/Green/Blue (RBG) color channels, you can use only every 8th level on typical channels, which can do 0-255 on each color.

The colors differ quite drastically, so you need to use techniques that you wouldn't normally, such as dithering. Here, I'll post my texture for Dark Oak Wood down here, so you can see what I did, along with FreshCraft, another incomplete pack of mine. I've used it a lot in past posts.



 I think that the Dark Oak still looks good in Cloud 16, but in practice, dithering only looks good from a distance, where the colors blend together. Just trust me; it looks good in-game. You'll see it soon.

Well, I digress. Getting back to the map, so far, I've completed one floating island (or as I like to say, Skisland) so far, and finished all the textures on it in Cloud 16. This is the first one, and it's a small forested island, known as Lightly Forested Forest. (In truth, I think "lightly forested" might be a bit of an understatement... :I)

The purpose of the island is to provide an environment for players to focus on the basic blocks; dirt, grass and other ground covers, tall grass and ferns, snow, stone and the ores are all blocks of note on the Skisland. It's also meant to emulate a small forest, so hopefully the texturer (made up word for the win!) will find it inspiring.

I'm sure you are excited to see it, so let's head into the map, which I have currently named Skylight Texture Packing World. (Anybody have a name suggestion? I'm happy to consider it!)

The map is not a flat world; it's just a typical map for Minecraft 1.7. The terrain is here if people want to see it, but this map is boring.


Generally, Minecraft is only as exciting as you make it. So, I took the initiative, and made the sky interesting.
 

These islands were crafted using MCEdit. I copied a chunk of land out of the ground, and rounded it out. Next, I ran SethBling's Floating Island filter, to make the bottoms more jagged. I cut the craters afterwards. They are done with only one brush-stroke, which can explain the roundness.


Since I had water running off the large Skisland, I decided to flood this crater.

Now, about that Skisland... I made it a long time ago. I was going to build a town on it, but when the purpose of this map shifted, I changed my attention to making a starter Skisland, which was Lightly Forested Forest. I will make some more Skislands, then return to this one when it's time to make it.

Anyways... Right over by the crater of Lightly Forested Forest, I placed a TNT cannon, a variety that I believe is known as an Icarus Cannon; a cannon designed to launch players. On that note, let's launch ourselves.



Skszzzzzz.... POW! (Fun with onomatopoeia. :3)


This is the peak altitude! It's so high, you can't see the Skislands!






We have landed! Sorry for the lack of captions; I wanted Google to make a GIF out of these photos. It made one for me last post... :o

Last post's Auto Awesome. Not bad... I'm looking forward to one today! :D

 So, now that we are up here, let's take a look at the Skisland!


 This seems like a good time to load up Cloud 16. Let's do it.


Yes, I can assure you that this isn't just a shader test effect. I guess my art style is just a lot more vibrant than the default textures. XD

So, starting from this chest, I will give you a tour while you take in my awesome new texture pack. :3


Here's the inside of it, by the way.


The book contains some poetic thoughts, and a list of blocks to texture. Don't worry if the book is inconvenient; I'll include a TXT file with the map, with all the blocks to texture.

"The last snow of the season has passed; it's time to head out and explore the wilderness. A small forest, dotted with light trees and small plants seems perfect. Why not explore, and do something fun? It seems that many people appreciate this place; to each, their own reasons. Time to head out!"

We went  up that little hill seen two screenshots ago. Here, there is a small clearing, with some jungle trees and cocoa beans. Plants won't grow on this map, since I set the Random Update speed to 0 using a gamerule. Gosh, the bean items always look like rabbit droppings to me. >.>


Now, hanging an immediate right will take us to another clearing, with a Dark Oak tree in the middle, surrounded by Podzol, ferns, and saplings of all sorts.

Do you guys think my ferns look okay? I was trying to make them look better this morning. I think they look okay. Not great; just alright.

Also, it's worth noticing these little snowdrift with some snowballs on them. These are supposed to be melting snow forts, as if some children have been playing here.



Heading counter-clockwise around the tree about a quarter of the way and going straight, we reach two things: a pile of logs, which will be in the center of the photo below this text. Slightly in the background, there is a cave. I will show you a better angle in a moment. Er, however fast you can read. No pressure.


Here is the cave! I loaded the walls with ores, and random ore products left behind. Yeah, it sort of goes against the theme of this island. Luckily, it's sort of hidden.



Getting into the details of this tunnel, I decided to be kind of goofy on the signs here. I realized that what I was doing with the signs was sort of counterproductive, so I decided to poke fun at it. :V



Here are the contents of the chest. I named it before I'd place it, so people would get the idea better. :/


The Redstone is animated, by the way. I decided to use a Paint.NET plugin I have to make a GIF to show you guys. Sorry for the poor quality and if it doesn't animate for you on your choice reading device. Such is the nature of GIFs. They only have 8-bit color. You should have an idea of what that means after what we've talked about today. ;D


I believe GIFs have access to 256 colors. Not many at all... 0_0

Anyways, the only area I have left to show you is this little cave. I made this mycelium bed while I was texturing it. Also, this cave has the, ah... exit.  There is also a gravel wall, should you want it.


Well, that's all I have to show for today! As always, your feedback and suggestions are appreciated, and thanks for stopping by my blog! I'll see you all next post. Until then!