[GRAPHICS] Blue Marble for Colonization

[ACEofHeart]

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

 

[larchy]

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!

 

[cephalo]

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.

 

[ColdFever]

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

 

[ColdFever]

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:

 

[Civ.exe Error]

Looks good

 

[ACEofHeart]

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

 

[snv]

yay i can recognize hills again! thanks

oh, btw: i prefer the wooden look, too

 

[ColdFever]

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!

 

[ACEofHeart]

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

 

[OnmyojiOmn]

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.

 

[ColdFever]

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".

 

[Reveilled]

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!

 

[Toxi]

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

 

[ColdFever]

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.

 

[OnmyojiOmn]

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.

 

[ColdFever]

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.

 

[DWOLF]

wow, pure sweetness ColdFever!

 

[Reveilled]

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]

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.