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!

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

This week, we have another Skisland for the texture pack map I've been working on. No, don't worry; this won't be a weekly thing. I'm just short on ideas for this week. :t I might have had a new house build to show you guys, but the funny thing is that I was doing it on an online friend's private server, but things got 'complicated' with him. (It was probably kind of my fault, but notice the hyphens. The whole thing was really stupid.)

Hi... Um... Hi. Yeah, I'm on topic now. Today's skisland is a small desert-themed skisland. It's pretty simple, but I'm actually quite proud of it.

Now, here's how to get to Sliding Sands from Magnificent Meadow. Last time, I said I'd be starting new walkthroughs from the skisland before the one we're going to, instead of the cannon launch. This time, we're actually doing that, and we're starting from the Magnificent Meadow side of the bridge connecting said skisland from Lightly Forested Forest. Actually, the bridge is down the short hill and to the right. One-screen walkthrough. For the win.



Poetic blurb:
"As the sands of time slide by, the wind of the desert disturbs the dunes. It conceals the remnants of forgotten forces of change. Only those who can dig deeper can stop the sands from being secretive."

This tour is going to be really short, to be honest. It really isn't going to be much of a tour. I feel like I'm kidding myself. I just need two screens, maybe three. Four at worst.

So, here we have another contrast pool. This time, though, I have some clay on the edge. I want people to use it to see what their clay looks like underwater. I was having trouble with telling it apart from sand in my other pack, FreshCraft, since I just colorized sand. I don't want that to happen anymore.

(In front of the pond)
"Once again, we have a contrast pool. (You're doing this island before the Mushroom Island, aren't you, though.)"
(In the background, under a cactus)
"These colors remind me of a taco shop. XD"

Actually, somewhere behind me in the above screenshot, I have a little texturing trivia fact. It may be common knowledge, though.


"Fact: the default dead bush is a leafless Oak Sapling texture."
"I suppose it would've been good to mention that earlier... :s"

I actually did the dead bushes a long time ago, since I was aware of that. 

There is a more interesting fact behind the little shrine building. I seem to enjoy these weird facts for some reason. These are just facts I've heard. I don't usually read a lot of trivia; only at the bottom of wiki pages...

  "Did you know? A cactus fruit is known as a Prickly Peir."

There are other names for cactus fruits, but I can't remember them.

I feel like I've been all over the place, and I kind of have. But, the last thing I have to show you guys is the inside of this little shrine. I tried to do a wither shine thing. No, I'm not making anyone texture wither skeletons or paintings on this skisland. I just like to use the odd decoration, like the Spruce Wood door on Rocky Ridge.

  
 Well, that's all for this week. As always, your feedback is appreciated. I think I may work on this place a little more; make the shrine look slightly buried. 

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

Hello, I'm N8thanH, and welcome back to Across the Map, and the third installment to the Skisland Project!

I've been pretty busy in the past while; making new skislands and creating textures on them in Cloud 16. Thus far, I've made 3 skislands that you haven't seen, and two of those three have been completed in Cloud 16. The last two skislands I have finished have been kind of small in size, and short in the way of textures. (At least, they felt short.) So, I decided to show you two today! It shouldn't take too long.

To start things off, I will show you guys a view of the two skislands I've created; first with default, and then my beautiful Cloud 16 Pack. :3

Magnificent Meadow



Shroomy Summit



The Tour

This tour will be continuous, since these skislands are also continuous. The past few tours started from the very start: the TNT cannon landing. Last time, I said I wouldn't be doing that again, but, since none of the skislands will be branching off there anymore, I will be starting from Magnificent Meadow, or later skislands after today. Anyways, let's get on with things.

You've probably seen this screenshot here several times already. Yeah, I reusing it from the first post. (Notice the old dirt and acacia texture. I changed both a while ago.) But, this is supposed to be the first place anyone sees on the Skislands. So, I will start here once again. We don't need to spend many screenshots on this photo at all.


So, all you need to do is head next to the jungle trees. It's along the forest walk route I showed you a long time ago.

Hmm... The jungle leaves look ugly and blocky. I always try to make block surfaces look continuous when next to each other. That's a common thing in tileset creation for games. You're always on a grid, but it shouldn't look like that. ;) I wish I could have alternate textures that have a chance to appear... That would help. I'll discuss this another time.

Now, you just need to walk across across the bridge. This screenshot is current, by the way. If you remember the old images well enough, you can probably see that I changed the grass. It's now a bit noisier. I felt like I disliked the obvious stripes. You can still see them a little bit, though. The texture generally looked better with the rotating textures. It's important for textures to always look good. I figure I'll turn the texture rotating off for the rest of the screens. Most of the grass past here will be obstructed, though.



Edit: hold on. There is a rather annoying patch! It kind of  gives away where the block boundaries are! They probably aren't where you think they are, though. I'm going to edit this on the fly. Ugh... I already took the screenshots for the skisland, though. :t

Ugly texture is ugly. I think I'll just get back to where I'm supposed to be working.

So, we come to this little spot right here, with the book of textures to do, along with the poetic blurb.

"You arrive in a small meadow, to find a plateau chock full of flowers. All the little wonders are not unexpected, but still manage to pleasantly surprise those who seek it. A small, hidden place; nobody said oases only exist in deserts."


 Down in the center of the skisland, there are a bunch of (mostly) natural double-plants. I know mine are probably sort of ugly compared to some packs (Especially the Lilac. I don't know how to fix it.). I just HATE doing double-plants; they annoy me for some reason. All the sunflowers and blue orchids had to be added. They only spawn in their respective biomes.

 Toward the back of the image and a bit to the right, there is a small "clearing" with some more little thoughts, and a little test to whoever is making a pack.


"Having trouble telling your pink tulips apart from your white? I am."
"<-- This tulip is white. [pointing toward pink tulip] Tip: move this sign for next time."

This one is self-explanatory. No. I'm not writing a second sentence. Wait... 0_0

Anyways, the bridge to Shroomy Summit is right here, and this time I'm honestly not writing a second sentence.


Right across, we have a little plateau that I decorated. It looks natural enough, although I planted a bunch of the tiny mushrooms, and I think I grew the giant brown one. Even I can hardly tell. XD I just hope the lone blocks don't look too awful.

Well, now's a good enough of a time to tell you guys the poetic blurb.

"Mushroom Islands are a place that few know to exist, and even fewer can find. They are so far from any land that has been walked, mushrooms can freely scatter their spores, and as all who have seen will know, truly spread their roots."


Umm... Yeah, you can probably tell that I recolored the Mycelium. It was a really terrible sun-bleached lavender color. I think I have a screenshot with it, which I took of a generation bug.  It seems to be that ravines don't remove Mycelium blocks.

"Fact: Brown Mushrooms are more common than red ones in all biomes, except mushroom islands, where they are dominant."

Hello! I'm N8thanH, and welcome back to Across the Map! This week, I have another finished skisland to show you, called Rocky Ridge, as I said in the title.

Poetic Blurb:

"In a roughland up high and left dry, few people live there to give to civilization, while not getting much in return, but to stay in a place that so often forsakes them. Those there walk a hard path of stone and ice alone."

Moving on from my poems, here is the island itself.

(Default):

(With Cloud 16 Pack (The one I've been working on)):


So, now for the tour. In the last post on my resource packing map, I gave you all a tour of the world, starting from this Icarus cannon. Just this one time, I'll show you guys how to get to our destination from the start. You'll have to be caught up next time; I'll start straight from the previous skisland after today's post.

(The Icarus cannon. As seen last installment.)

So, from here, you'd blast off into the sky, and land on the first skisland, right about here. I know this photo doesn't demonstrate much.


Right below that acacia tree, there's the chest with the notebook for Lightly Forested Forest in it. Today, it's a present box, since it's Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas!


In the last post, I gave the tour of this skisland by going counter-clockwise half way around that acacia tree, heading in the direction of the jungle trees, and then making our way around in a circle-ish shape. But, if you only wanted to walk to Rocky Ridge, you could head counter-clockwise around the edge of the skisland to find this cave right here.

Fact: this cave is actually natural; I didn't carve it with MCEdit. It somehow connected with the caves in the crater below this skisland. The ores were obviously hand-inserted, although one of the coal veins might have been natural.

So, heading down the tunnel, and past the ores to the Mycelium bed, you'd just have to head across this bridge to go to Rocky Ridge.

Why did they change the gravel texture? I remember the old one. It was BETTER.

So, I'm now across the bridge, with my texture pack enabled. Let's begin the actual tour!


So, I made a path going up from here. You can see it in the screenshot below this text. Not much to be said about it... Except that there isn't much to be said about it. :s


Along the path, there is a little texturing tip, with slightly bad grammar. I don't think there was space for complete sentences. I can't remember.

We have some containers full of mine products out here. One has the nasty 1.8 stones, and the other just has coal, along with a lone block of obsidian. When you are working on a texture pack, people should be able to tell which block is obsidian.


Directly behind me in that photo is a little slope. Not very important. But, somebody felt the need to conquer it.


Actually, at this little outcropping on the side of the hill, which I grudgingly loaded with 1.8 stones, there is a hidden bridge. You can see it when you hover over the cursor. I was planning on keeping these secret, but I decided to tell the player about just this one. They are mostly for me, in case I'm doing a texture pack review on this world, which I may.


These two screenshots below this text are inside the forge building. Once again, I don't have much to say on the matter. It's just a workshop, for crying out loud.



A small way's down the hill, we have a small hut. I'm not perfectly sure why I made it, but it's mostly my nostalgia.











The reason it's nostalgic is this view right here. I remember one night of my first Minecraft experiences, I was looking outside through the door, as the snow fell down. There was a beacon in that view, which I attempted to emulate.


So, now, down the portion of the hill that the shack faces, there is a lava spring that I hand-made. It was kind of a late-addition; I pretty much forgot about obsidian and bedrock.



Heading back to the summit of this skisland, there is one more little hidden location. It's right along the side of the hill, as you can see below. There is a gravel trail leading to it, but it isn't easy to see from all angles, since it's usually snowed over. Weather happens way too often on this map. Maybe I need an anti-weather clock. I'll consider it when I build the spawnpoint.


We have a little dungeon that I carved out in here. The waterfall is artificial, but that little cave is actually natural. Darn; I misspelled 'personnel' by one letter. I would fix it and change the screenshot, but I can't be bothered. You guys can ham it up with that. :I


Anyways, here is another view of the bridge. There are some dispensers and droppers, Just for aesthetics. They don't fire for any reason. One of them has a cool firework that I made, though! :)

 Now is a good time to point out that I changed the dirt texture a bit. It's a bit flatter than the old one.

The dungeon has a bunch of precious metals and gems, and then some. Sufficient to say, the spawner isn't really the definition of a threat... XD


 Also, I did change the Acacia wood texture! Up next is the Oak log. The shading on the sides of it are a little too harsh, in my opinion. It's not terrible, and I have actually changed it a bit at some point.

Last but not least, I have some animated textures, mostly for stuff that's flaming. So, here are some GIF's of the animated textues I have!




Well, that's all for this skisland. I have finished the third, but the textures for it aren't finished yet in Cloud 16. I have been procrastinating on the double-tall flowers. I hate texturing them! As always, you feedback is always appreciated. I'm not happy with some of the textures; mostly just the Lapis Lazuli Block at the moment. If you have suggestions on any improvements, I'm happy to hear it! The texture pack can never be too perfect.

Thanks for stopping by! For now, I'll see you all next post. Until then!