Hello! I'm N8thanH, and welcome back to Across the Map. Sorry for not posting the past few weeks! I'll have two posts coming this week, so keep an eye out this Thursday. Tuesday and Thursday are the two days I try to post; mostly since I tend to procrastinate too long to post on Tuesday, Wednesday isn't convenient, and I consider Friday too late.

Anyways, the first post this week will be a little update on what I've been up to with my texture pack, Cloud 16. I've been working on changing some of the textures that I wasn't happy with. Some of them were done when I wasn't as good at texturing, or just done hastily. I just thought I'd show you guys what I've been working on. Anyways, here's what I've been up to. I figure I'll go in the sequence of the Skislands.

So, first of all, I've changed a bunch of textures on Lightly Forested Forest; the first Skisland on my little texturing map. This is the first Skisland, and a lot of the textures on it are commonly seen as you play. In the photo below, you can see that I did new grass and fern textures, and also Coarse Dirt and Spruce Wood.

It's easier to notice in some biomes, but the grass and fern textures actually have non-grayscale pixels, so they don't change with the colors of the biome they're in.

If anyone remembers my old texture pack, FreshCraft, then you'd remember the... Distinct style I had. I tended to be rather predictable, and I always did this patchy kind of style with my wood, with a hard border. At the time I was working on the woods, I didn't really have a developed style as far as texturing went. So, now that I do have a more developed style, I've decided to go back and edit it. As opposed to having the texture being based from the foreground bark, this texture was built from the background portion.

As for the Gravel and Coarse Dirt, they were just cheap recolors of the dirt texture I had at the time. I decided to go back to them, and use a proper texture. I really don't enjoy doing the earlier textues in the game. It's the man-made blocks I enjoy doing. But, for the most part, in early worlds, these textures are all you really see.

Anyways, I also tweaked my Stone texture and the stone portion of all the ores, some were also tweaked in the appearance of the "ore patches," and I did a new and unique Gravel texture. It turned out pretty well, but my perfectionism and trained eye drove me to work on it for several hours. It's the sole reason why I didn't post last week. I still see little patterns, but I don't think it can be improved any more.

I can still distinguish block boundaries, but this texture will have to do for the time being.

The Coal Ore got a complete makeover, and the Iron Ore is now a more distinct color.

The Lapis Lazuli may need work. Ah, well. Another time.

Gravel. The most annoying texture in the game. Behold it in all its glory.

Anyways, moving along, I was pretty unhappy with how my 1.8 polished Stupid Stones turned out, so I redid those. The Diorite was the base for the other two. It was a decent texture; it wasn't drastically changed. These ones aren't necessarily up to my standard of having no visible repeating patterns, but I thought the clustered pattern looked kind of neat. I'll see if it bothers me enough. Right now, it doesn't. 

One thought I had was to fill in the space between the protruding parts of the Stupid Stones with the regular stone coloring. I just don't want to make any builds look messed up. Heh. As if anyone would use them in a build.

I'm going to move on before my impulse to fix textures kicks in. If that happens, there won't be any posts this week.

Next up, in the Magnificent Meadow, I did moderate-to-minor improvements to three of the double-tall flowers. The petals of the rose and peony got retextured, but I think they may need more contrast. Also, I slightly changed the color of the pink tulip to make it look more different from the white ones. It may not be enough, though. If I make any more changes, I'll to a follow-up next Skisland Project post.



This peony is just messed up.


Anyways, I decided to clean up the hide patterns on the cow and mooshroom textures. They felt too busy to me. Both cows have the same patterns, just different colors.


Last, I have a new little Skisland. The only reason it exists is because I forgot to implement a few blocks on the previous Skislands, and they had to be done at some point. However, I didn't feel like any of the prior Skislands needed a pond. So, here is as good as any place.

I didn't have any inspiration for the vines. Look for them in my follow-up next time.

Want to know where it is? I don't feel like doing a guided tour, so here is a bird's-eye view. It'll have to do for you guys. :t


Well, as far as my texture pack goes, this is all I've been up to. So, that's it for today. I'm going to go get outside before sunset. Keep an eye out for another post some time tomorrow! I have a simple little redstone doohickey to show you guys. Why not?

Thanks for reading! I'll see you all next post. Until then!