[GRAPHICS] Infinite Terrain Pack

[orlanth]

For your modding enjoyment.. over 200 new Terrain Textures for use in Civ4 or Civ4 Colonization!

This pack contains dozens of unique terrains, from picturesque agricultural landscapes to searing magma fields and freezing arctic wastes, fetid swamps and misty moors for fantasy fans, a wide variety of otherwordly planetary surfaces and rare rocks & minerals for scifi mods, and even a few exotic choices like circuit boards or glowing plasma for truly adventuresome total-conversion modders.

Of course I could never have drawn these myself - a huge thanks to SpiralGraphics.biz for making a set of royalty-free seamless texture jpgs available for download. Also thanks to the makers of the mod Master of Mana; from which I learned the trick of using a single "blend" and "grids" dds file for a large set of textures. Thanks to this I was able to quickly convert a big set of jpgs to useable Civ4 terrains using a Photoshop macro.

To use a terrain texture:

Spoiler :

1) copy your desired textures (and the included LandBlend.dds & LandGrids.dds) into your Assets/Art/Terrain/Textures folder
2) edit your Assets/XML/Art/CIV4ArtDefines_Terrain.xml file, create a new entry for your terrain and set <Path> and <Grid> to:
<Path>Art/Terrain/Textures/LandBlend.dds</Path>
<Grid>Art/Terrain/Textures/LandGrids.dds</Grid>
3) set <Detail> to the path for your desired texture, e.g.
<Detail>Art/Terrain/Textures/Fertile/Agrarian.dds</Detail>
4) if modding in Civ4 instead of Colonization, download the attached btsterrain.zip from the top post in the Civ4 forum thread, and copy the included files to your mods Art/Terrain/Textures folder

To make your own new terrain textures, first find a seamless graphic you want to use (e.g. google image search for "seamless sky texture"), then open it in GIMP or Photoshop, resize to 512 x 512 pixels, and save as a dds file.

I've only tested these in Colonization so far, but I think they should work in basic Civ4 as well.

argh it won't let me upload a file more than 10MB For now I've uploaded separate files to the database below:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/terrain-pack-fertile.20798/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/terrain-pack-arctic.20796/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/terrain-pack-barren.20797/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/terrain-pack-rocky.20799/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/terrain-pack-scifi.20800/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/terrain-pack-miscellaneous.20801/

Several in-game screenshots are below. With over 200 terrains I don't have enough time & storage space to upload screenshots for every one, but there are several ways to preview them. The best way is to use the free DDS Thumbnail Viewer lets you see thumbnails of all dds files when browsing in Windows Explorer:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/dds_thumbnail_viewer.html
Also the original source images can be browsed on spiralgraphics website:
http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/packs/terrain_civilization/index.htm

 

[orlanth]

An Expert Farmer tills the verdant fields and pastures near the colony of Isabella.

A portly Master Distiller glumly surveys Great Dismal Swamp, while beavers cavort in a nearby lagoon

A Civ4 BtS Spy stalks thru swampland from the Fertile tile pack

A scene from the ill-fated French effort to colonize Hell, presumably in search of the 3 tiles of pure sapphire located mid-screen. The colonists look on hungrily as lava crabs cavort in a pool of magma

Rocky

Arctic

Scifi

Miscellaneous​

 

[raystuttgart]

The graphics look great.

 

[Commander Bello]

Looks very good!

 

[Willi_Tell]

Wow, yes - I definitly like them too!

Thank you, Orlanth!

 

[Androrc the Orc]

Beautiful! Imagine the diversity this could add to Colonization 2071 planets...

 

[orlanth]

Thanks, I'm glad you all like it!

For base Civ4 and most other strategy games, apart from the improved graphical appearance there's not too much point in a variety of terrain types, since the possible differences in gameplay are limited to just a few yields plus defensive bonuses etc.

However in Colonization, especially for more advanced mods with multiple Yield types, having access to a variety of terrains can open up really interesting strategic possibilities if these are balanced carefully. For instance, each terrain could provide one or 2 basic yields and 1 or 2 rare yield types. Techs could provide a slight bonus to particular terrains, so planning would take into account your local environment and strategic gameplay would be different with each game, not being able to use the same strategy each time.

 

[Commander Bello]

However in Colonization, especially for more advanced mods with multiple Yield types, having access to a variety of terrains can open up really interesting strategic possibilities if these are balanced carefully.

A very interesting idea! :top:

The balancing is what causes me some pain.
I don't know if the AI in Colonization is weaker than in Civ4 from a technical point of view. Yet, I would say, it is weaker if one looks at the results.
Its ability to cope with different "offerings" seems to be very weak to say the least.

Improving the AI to handle a variety of different terrains (and/or features) would be a major task. But for sure it would be interesting and most probably worth the effort.

 

[Sanotra]

Nice textures.

 

[Writing Bull]

Hi orlanth, very interesting!

I have downloaded your graphics and tested some of them. Sorry, I have a question: Why is the brightness of the textures extremely different by using LandGrids.dds respectively LandBlend.dds?

 

[orlanth]

Thank you Writing Bull Well, I was afraid the Grids would be too indistinct for some terrains without using more contrast. If you prefer it, here is a LandGrids2.dds which uses the same tone as LandBlend. That should look more similar.

 

[Writing Bull]

If you prefer it, here is a LandGrids2.dds which uses the same tone as LandBlend.

Wonderful! Thank you, orlanth!.

 

[Robert Surcouf]

Great job.
I love them all! Especially the space Terrain!