This program allows the installation of a new graphic design for Sid Meier's CivIV Colonization™, based on images of the NASA project Blue Marble, supplemented with a graphically modernized and harmonized user interface. Individual components are selectable in the setup program.
Homepage and Download: http://www.civfanatics.net/bluemarble
German Mirror: http://www.civilized.de/www/content/index.php?cat=civ4_bluemarble

Desired/Undesired components can be enabled/disabled during installation via options:
Terrains: BlueMarble textures of the earth
Themes: BlueMarble fonts and mouse cursors
Backgrounds: BlueMarble backgrounds (loading screens, advisors, civilopedia)
Leaderheads: BlueMarble leaderheads (color adapted and "aged")

history:
2008-09-23: V1.00 - initial release
2008-09-26: V1.50 - new wood interface, improved deserts, plains, greens, trees

terrain screenshots:
http://civilized.worldserve.de/download/civcol/mods/images/BlueMarbleMap640.jpg
http://civilized.worldserve.de/download/civcol/mods/images/BlueMarbleTerrain640.jpg
http://civilized.worldserve.de/download/civcol/mods/images/BlueMarbleJungle640.jpg

comparison screenshot:
http://civilized.worldserve.de/download/civcol/mods/images/BlueMarbleGraphicsComparison.jpg

looks sweet! :)

Hey, is it possible to use Colonization main game interface in a BtS?

Noob question here, will these mods work w/ the game purchased on Steam?

The new terrain looks good to me, guess I will try it. But the original background for the Continental Congress ist looking way better then the metallic new one and the original fits much more into the time span of the game. Just my 2ct.

Noob question here, will these mods work w/ the game purchased on Steam?
Sorry, I cannot tell. I do not purchase games via Steam, so I cannot test these versions. My mod has been tested with the DVD version. I am confident in your case, but if the mod installer does not find your Steam game via the regular registry entries: try placing the mod installer into the program directory where "Colonization.exe" is located.

The new terrain looks good to me, guess I will try it. But the original background for the Continental Congress is looking way better then the metallic new one and the original fits much more into the time span of the game. Just my 2ct.
No problem. To disable this part of the mod, just disable the option "Backgrounds" in the installer. For myself I did not like the original "Old Wood" design so much, because it looks old like coming from a museum - while during the time of the game this wood has been brand new. The "Colonization" times were revolutionary, fresh times, and as a player I'd like to experience this. For this reason the metallic interface tries something completely new: applying modern knowledge (NASA satellite maps) on old tin art, trying to generate a kind of "Tin Platter" experience.

No problem. To disable this part of the mod, just disable the option "Backgrounds" in the installer. For myself I did not like the original "Old Wood" design so much, because it looks old like coming from a museum - while during the time of the game this wood has been brand new. The "Colonization" times were revolutionary, fresh times, and as a player I'd like to experience this. For this reason the metallic interface tries something completely new: applying modern knowledge (NASA satellite maps) on old tin art, trying to generate a kind of "Tin Platter" experience.

No need to defend your opinion (with weak aguments btw. :D). I dont change my mind, just becouse I know what you where trying to do. To me metallic plates based on sattelite maps will not fit - no way for them to find into my game. But I bet, many fanatis here will love your metallic looking backgrounds. I don't. Anyway, keep up this good work. :)

If my weak personal arguments won't do, how about a historic argument for Metal as background as alternative for Wood in a Colonization game: During the Colonization period - how many people have been killed with wood weapons, how many people have been killed with steel weapons? I cannot recommend the following book enough. It even has been used by Soren Johnson for the development of CivIV:

Guns-Germs-Steel
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393061310

Both Wood and Steel have been essential for the Colonization era.
So I guess it comes down to personal preference again.

I agree with Henry, the wooden background feels more "Colonization" - Let's chop some wood and build up a colony :)

I agree with Henry, the wooden background feels more "Colonization".
Hmmm, if this would become general consensus perhaps I should drop the Steel/Silver/Tin design for Colonization. But first I will gather some more feedback from people who actually haved played the game and had the chance to compare both versions. In the meantime I can look for some wood textures. At least I would want modern wood, not museum wood.

Hmmm, if this would become general consensus perhaps I should drop the Steel/Silver/Tin design for Colonization. But first I will gather some more feedback from people who actually haved played the game and had the chance to compare both versions. In the meantime I can look for some wood textures. At least I would want modern wood, not museum wood.


I'll give it a shot tonight. Looks very interesting.

Noob question here, will these mods work w/ the game purchased on Steam?

Yes, mods do work with the Steam version (AoDII was developed on a Steam version). The only diff between a digital version and the DVD version is instead of checking the disk, it checks with Steam.

I installed only the terrain textures and the leader heads (i dunno what those change, really.)

just putting my two cents in.

leader heads - i dunno what those change.
The leaderheads received subtle changes in the color (less red&yellow) and the textures (aged). This way the leaderheads fit better to the Blue Marble's color scheme and the leaders look a bit more of their real age. Some older leaderheads received a higher resolution.

oh that's cool!

you're a really talented guy, great work!


i must have installed it wrong, but the game interface is now the one you've made, but all the other backgrounds and such stayed the same. I must say, after playing it for a while I DO prefer your style. :D

If my weak personal arguments won't do, how about a historic argument for Metal as background as alternative for Wood in a Colonization game: During the Colonization period - how many people have been killed with wood weapons, how many people have been killed with steel weapons?


Why does it got to be about death? ;)

Seriously, think of it this way: colonists travelled to the new world on wooden boats, not metal ones. When they landed, they built houses out of wood. Sure, metal predominated their weapons, but wood predominated their lives. That's why I think it's a more contemporary option for the game.

EDIT: Agree the wood should look fresh (although rough-hewn), not old and museum quality.

I like the wood look better myself, although the rest looks fantastic.

Ok - after all the feedback I really tried all day to create a wood look I would prefer over the Silver/Steel/Tin look. I tried all kinds of woods: bright woods, dark woods, colorful woods, less colorful woods, new woods, old woods, more or less maser - but so far not with convincing results. Being a musician, wood even is my favorite material in daily life - I really love its structure and warmth. But so far my texturing results for Colonization are not good enough:

Always when the wood itself looks great and realistic, it detracts from the game. But choosing a look that is less great and realistic appears not advantageous enough to me over the Firaxis solution. So currently I think that it should stay as it is: who prefers the look of wood can keep the Firaxis version, who prefers the look of Silver/Steel/Tin can use the current BM backgrounds. I always will release only what I like best, and so far I prefer the metal background with the unmodded wooden/paper elements of Firaxis on it. Please check yourself too - you can always uninstall the metal backgrounds with two simple clicks in the Blue Marble installer.

ok so what folder do i need to save this in?

ok so what folder do i need to save this in?
Just extract the exe installer from the zip file into any directory and run it. The installer then will try to detect your CivCol installation and prompt you with comfortable installation and uninstallation options.

I like the UI color but I think a solid cherry wood would look better and more elegant than that plaid grainy style...

The new interface is great - really amazed you've so quickly modified that, and very pleased as the normal one is a horrible bitmap that blocks a massive area of the screen for no reason. It looks very blurred/stretched at 16:10 too.

I prefer the normal terrain though - I love bluemarble for civ4, but the colonization terrain just seems warmer.

Great work though!

It looks great, but I'm thinking the conifers should be a bit darker than the deciduous trees. In the U.S. the difference is usually very pronounced.

EDIT: Also the 'light forest' that comes with the game looks awful, you might try something different for that.

I like the UI color but I think a solid cherry wood would look better and more elegant than that plaid grainy style...
Coincidence - I just am experimenting with something like that for BM V1.1

I'm thinking the conifers should be a bit darker than the deciduous trees. In the U.S. the difference is usually very pronounced. Also the 'light forest' that comes with the game looks awful, you might try something different for that.
In V1.0 I had to work fast and so I did not change those trees yet, only the jungle. So apart from the jungle you currently see the original trees. Perhaps I will try some changes in BM V1.1

Ok, you finally convinced me. As nobody here wants Steel/Tin, after experimenting for hours with different woods, vanishes and lightings I finally found a working Wood prototype.

This is how BlueMarble V1.1 will probably look:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=189683&stc=1&d=1222380811

Looks good :goodjob:

Very Nice ColdFever... that's almost exactly what I had in mind.. :)

yay i can recognize hills again! thanks

oh, btw: i prefer the wooden look, too

New version is up with lots of optimizations:

2008-09-26: V1.50
- new wood interface
- improved deserts via new detail map
- improved plains, greens, trees via color optimizations

Have fun!

Great work as always.. thank you for your efforts !! :)

I like the wood background a lot more than the silver, but the wavy grain looks really fake. I was playing around with it earlier, but it occured to me that you might already have someone working on the background. I'd like to help with it, though.

Sorry, I currently have no plans to change the wood. I experimented for hours with all kinds of woods, grains, vanishes and lightings, and so far this result works best for me. Of course there are other possible woods and there are other possible settings, looking even more impressive or more decent. I like the current balance; this texture is easily recognizable as precious wood and brings a lot of character, without being too distracting or arbitrary. Developing textures to me means is a tradeoff - to meet different demands and preferences. However, thanks for your opinion - regarding "balancing graphics" other opinions and balances are always valid, similar as regarding to "balancing gameplay".

Honestly, I think the UI is the least important part of this mod. In a couple of weeks there will be loads of UI mods catering to anything you could possibly want.

The terrain is what matters for this mod, and I think it looks beautiful as always. Nice work! :)

can i overwrite the old version with the higher version of BlueMarble 1.5?

can i overwrite the old version with the higher version of BlueMarble 1.5?
Yes, you can simply install any new BlueMarble version over old ones.

Sorry, I currently have no plans to change the wood. I experimented for hours with all kinds of woods, grains, vanishes and lightings, and so far this result works best for me. Of course there are other possible woods and there are other possible settings, looking even more impressive or more decent. I like the current balance; this texture is easily recognizable as precious wood and brings a lot of character, without being too distracting or arbitrary. Developing textures to me means is a tradeoff - to meet different demands and preferences. However, thanks for your opinion - regarding "balancing graphics" other opinions and balances are always valid, similar as regarding to "balancing gameplay".

I understand. This is something I made for myself, take it or leave it. :) It's just your background with some more color and texture.

I understand. This is something I made for myself, take it or leave it. :) It's just your background with some more color and texture.

Your version is looking excellent! In real life I would love all the wood detail. But I cannot use such a detailed image as a background, because the texture detail is too strong. Please remember, I have been there some days ago:

I tried all kinds of woods: bright woods, dark woods, colorful woods, less colorful woods, new woods, old woods, more or less maser... Always when the wood itself looks great and realistic, it detracts from the game.

So I deliberately had to take away details to make the wood less expressive to stay in the *background*. This is what I meant with "balancing": To take away detail, so that the wood still is recognizable as precious wood and bringing character, without being too distracting to serve as a background. Your version is the better pure wood. But for a background I had to apply more "polish". Please understand.

wow, pure sweetness ColdFever!

Coldfever, I'm working on a mod that adds in some new terrain types. The way I'd like to do it is use the Blue Marble textures as a base, and use the original terrain textures for the new ones, i.e. using the vanilla plains texture as Prairie, and the vanilla Grassland as Savannah.

Would you be okay with this?

Coldfever, I'm working on a mod that adds in some new terrain types. The way I'd like to do it is use the Blue Marble textures as a base
Would you be okay with this?

Hmm, I would prefer if you would release only your textures; this way future releases would stay independent. If this is not enough for you, please add info to your credits about the Blue Marble source and where to get updates for it.

Hmm, I would prefer if you would release only your textures; this way future releases would stay independent. If this is not enough for you, please add info to your credits about the Blue Marble source and where to get updates for it.

That's okay, if you'd prefer I not do this, I won't touch it. Not a problem. :)

Actually, would it be okay if it was a mod for Blue Marble?

I wouldn't include any of your work in the download, just my own files. Blue Marble would be listed as strongly recommended, with links to this thread and the download page.

EDIT: What I mean is, the description would say something like "This terrain changes in this mod was made with Blue Marble users in mind, so it is strongly advised that you install Blue Marble before using this mod.", but there would be no Blue Marble files in the mod.

Sounds plausible, Reveilled, thanks.

Is there a scaling tool available also? I would LOVE to be able to change the size of the things in the game :)

(If someone already mentioned this, just ignore: ) Mod doesn't appear in the DL Database.

Is there a scaling tool available also? I would LOVE to be able to change the size of the things in the game
Sorry, no, there won't be a graphics scaling tool from me. I also do not support the graphics scaling tool anymore that I once wrote for Civ4, because the way Firaxis enabled scaling via the XML files created too many problems for users. Especially the lack of multiplayer compatibility and faults where certain gameplay items strangely enough were not affected by the scaling parameters lead to frustrations.

Mod doesn't appear in the DL Database.
This is because the DL database was created after the mod. The missing entry now has been fixed.

I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to create these very good-looking new graphics for colonization.... :)

Sorry, no, there won't be a graphics scaling tool from me. I also do not support the graphics scaling tool anymore that I once wrote for Civ4, because the way Firaxis enabled scaling via the XML files created too many problems for users. Especially the lack of multiplayer compatibility and faults where certain gameplay items strangely enough were not affected by the scaling parameters lead to frustrations.


Yeah, I know what you mean, I was trying to manually scale some of the bonuses, improvements, and found it to be a lot more complicated than it appears. :crazyeye: But with help from others, in changing (and adding) scaling values in the CIV4PlotLSystem.xml, I have been able to scale most of the (unscalable) units.

:)

(so far)

*Headdesk* I was looking at the screenshots from the original game, and wondering what the difference was...

Then I saw the actual mod. Looks beautiful.

Good stuff. Thanks for the effort.

Hi.

I have some problems with the mod.

I installed it several times and backgrounds and themes get changed.

...but not the terrains.
they seems to be the same as vanilla's.
especially the sea plots: they don't like the ones in the screenshots at all.

how can be this possible?

could be there some important instructions to follow before execute the .exe?
I couldn't find a F.A.Q. anywhere.