Terrain Texture Enhancement 2k

[black_rider]

I have question, why grassland sometimes have a green color, and sometimes kinda brown-ish color? Is due to climate, region or something ?

 

[Estebanium]

I have question, why grassland sometimes have a green color, and sometimes kinda brown-ish color? Is due to climate, region or something ?

Yes it depends on the biome. First two pictures are Europe, then comes Asia, followed by America and Africa. So that are the biome groups. Africa is brownish, Asia very yellowish, Amerika has a slight yellow touch. I guess that it will look a bit different on map generators that could mix those biomes. I used YnAMP for my showcase.

 

[Amask]

Did you activate the mod in the Mods menu and hit next for creating a game?

It wasn't even in the list.

I'm not sure what I'm doing differently than everyone else, but downloading the file and placing it in the MODS folder does absolutely nothing. And this exactly what the instructions tell me to do.

However, double clicking on the file opens it as an archive (????), then putting all the contents in the MOD folder works for me.

 

[Edaka]

Ah OK, yes they can. I accidentally implemented this texture for coastal water, because I thought that it would be the one for marshes. So there is one ground texture for coastal water and one that defines the water color in general.
So would you like to see a change in watercolor, or in ground texture? Last one is noticeable but you don't want it, trust me, because changing it in a way that will not attract too much attention is like leaving it vanilla.

Oh, so you've changed the visuals of coastal waters accidentally already? I guess I haven't looked close enough to notice the difference.

Anyway, I'll clarify just for good measure what I wanted to say initially, since revisiting my previous post convinced me I wasn't too clear. So, currently coast and ocean tiles have different shades of blue - coasts are brighter and oceans are darker. Bearing that in mind as an example, I meant to ask if lake tiles could have their own shade of blue that would be different from both coast and ocean tiles. For what it's worth, lakes could have the same texture as ocean tiles - that would make distinguishing them from coast tiles easier already.

I trust you with the way of changing the visuals, should you decide to do it. I'm certainly not qualified enough to decide what would look better. I don't even know the difference between water colour and ground texture.

 

[Estebanium]

Bearing that in mind as an example, I meant to ask if lake tiles could have their own shade of blue that would be different from both coast and ocean tiles. For what it's worth, lakes could have the same texture as ocean tiles - that would make distinguishing them from coast tiles easier already.

OK, I have a feeling that we a running in circles. So yes there are ocean- and coastal-water tiles, that have dark blue or light blue water.

Now comes the confusing part: Your request for lakes..
"Lake definition, a body of fresh or salt water of considerable size, surrounded by land."

I can not see that Feraxis took this into account, so I don't see any textures that could do that. I mean how could the game know if a tile is an ocean/coastal tile or a lake?

Is it possible that you mean rivers instead of lakes?

Oh, so you've changed the visuals of coastal waters accidentally already? I guess I haven't looked close enough to notice the difference.

No, this never found its way into the release.

However, double clicking on the file opens it as an archive (????), then putting all the contents in the MOD folder works for me.

You did too much

You download the file and put it just into the mods folder. By starting the game, hitting mods and waiting for a while, CIV will unpack the file by itself visible by a small "Download bar". You can activate the mod afterwards.

 

[Edaka]

I can not see that Feraxis took this into account, so I don't see any textures that could do that. I mean how could the game know if a tile is an ocean/coastal tile or a lake?

Well, the game knows if a tile is a coast or an ocean, right? They are different terrain types and that's why they can have different colours. At least that's how I think it works, correct me if I'm wrong.

Lakes are also a different terrain type - they have different yields than both coasts and oceans, they say 'Lake' when you hover over them, so the game knows there's a difference between them and coasts/oceans.

Lakes are currently the same colour as coasts, but can they have their own colour?

I'm sorry if my points aren't clear enough. I'm trying the best I can

 

[Estebanium]

Ok, now I am with you. I will have a look..

 

[notque]

The problem with changing the colors there is that some maps use ocean as large lakes, so that needs to be kept in mind.

 

[Edaka]

Ok, now I am with you. I will have a look..

Thank you kindly!

The problem with changing the colors there is that some maps use ocean as large lakes, so that needs to be kept in mind.

Yeah, but there's most probably nothing we can do about that. The game treats those large inland seas as proper seas anyway - they can contain sea resources like fish, they're boosted by buildings like lighthouses, etc. That's why I personally have no problem with these inland seas looking the same as 'open' seas.

 

[Estebanium]

I came to the conclusion that it is not possible to change the water color of Lake-Tiles. There is no evidence that it uses a special texture for that, so I think that it will share the water with Sea-Tiles.
Moreover it was not possible to see a change in watercolor by changing the waterdepthcolor.dds. This file is doing something, but I don't know what.

Until someone finds out any interesting things about the game and textures, I will maybe continue to create new ones.
For now there is nothing more possible than changing the terrain textures and this is in my opinion already a lot.

I am still open for feedback and I will update the pack if it is necessary, but for now I will not put any more work into finding new mod-able textures.

 

[Gazebo]

I came to the conclusion that it is not possible to change the water color of Lake-Tiles. There is no evidence that it uses a special texture for that, so I think that it will share the water with Sea-Tiles.
Moreover it was not possible to see a change in watercolor by changing the waterdepthcolor.dds. This file is doing something, but I don't know what.

Until someone finds out any interesting things about the game and textures, I will maybe continue to create new ones.
For now there is nothing more possible than changing the terrain textures and this is in my opinion already a lot.

I am still open for feedback and I will update the pack if it is necessary, but for now I will not put any more work into finding new mod-able textures.

I think you've done solid work. If you are itching for more textures to enhance, I do think that the city/improvement textures will look a little fuzzy next to your sharper textures. That's a big task, though.

G

 

[Estebanium]

I think you've done solid work. If you are itching for more textures to enhance, I do think that the city/improvement textures will look a little fuzzy next to your sharper textures. That's a big task, though.

G

Thank you G! Yes I already thought on that, but my Framework is waiting
If I find some time to play a game, I will take care of the ..let's call it imbalance, but that are heavy words.

I mean you can tweak a lot on one texture, but how often do you look at a specific wall or a stone?
The general impression is much more important and in my opinion this impression is secured.
I think that most of you guys will only zoom in to see a fight..
So time will tell

 

[Estebanium]

Sorry for using Double Post. I released a small patch for v8, that will decrease specularity of marsh.

 

[Gazebo]

Thank you G! Yes I already thought on that, but my Framework is waiting
If I find some time to play a game, I will take care of the ..let's call it imbalance, but that are heavy words.

I mean you can tweak a lot on one texture, but how often do you look at a specific wall or a stone?
The general impression is much more important and in my opinion this impression is secured.
I think that most of you guys will only zoom in to see a fight..
So time will tell

It isn't critical, however even in the images in your original post I can see a clear difference in sharpness b/w cities and terrain. Also, your textures are a little bit darker, thus the absence of shading on the cities becomes quite apparent.

One easy solution is simply to force hardware SSAO on the driver level. Adds self-shadowing to buildings, quite nice!

G

 

[Estebanium]

Ah ok, you mean that one can see the difference in resolution of cities and terrain?



LOL I always used SSAO in older Games like Battlefield 2, I wonder why I never got this idea for CIV. Thx.

 

[Gazebo]

Ah ok, you mean that one can see the difference in resolution of cities and terrain?



LOL I always used SSAO in older Games like Battlefield 2, I wonder why I never got this idea for CIV. Thx.

Yeah, you can tell. Not a huge problem, though. Mainly a difference in texture styling (yours are darker and a little noisier).

SSAO is great in civ.

 

[Estebanium]

Yeah, you can tell. Not a huge problem, though. Mainly a difference in texture styling (yours are darker and a little noisier).

SSAO is great in civ.

Yes you are right. It could be possible to increase the size of those textures, if the game supports it. As we saw at the example of the mountains (Machu Picchu, Cerro de Potosi), this was unfortunately not possible. Maybe someone would like to start a mod that goes into this direction, or I will do it someday if the full German translation of Vox Populi is released.

 

[Edaka]

I came to the conclusion that it is not possible to change the water color of Lake-Tiles. There is no evidence that it uses a special texture for that, so I think that it will share the water with Sea-Tiles.
Moreover it was not possible to see a change in watercolor by changing the waterdepthcolor.dds. This file is doing something, but I don't know what.

Until someone finds out any interesting things about the game and textures, I will maybe continue to create new ones.
For now there is nothing more possible than changing the terrain textures and this is in my opinion already a lot.

I am still open for feedback and I will update the pack if it is necessary, but for now I will not put any more work into finding new mod-able textures.

Ah, bummer. Anyway, wanted to say that I love how you made terrain in different parts of the world different. Was it also like that in vanilla? If so, I never noticed.

 

[Estebanium]

Ah, bummer. Anyway, wanted to say that I love how you made terrain in different parts of the world different. Was it also like that in vanilla? If so, I never noticed.

Thank you! Yes most textures are just a shifted version in color and saturation.. Some have additional details like the American Desert. The biomes (speaking of Continents or climate) can be recognized by their coloring: Yellowish, blueish, brownish (? can I say that) and something between red and yellow..



Yes you are right, it isn't very noticeable, because in vanilla they are very light with minor details.

 

[Klisz]

Ah, bummer. Anyway, wanted to say that I love how you made terrain in different parts of the world different. Was it also like that in vanilla? If so, I never noticed.

Yeah, but it was more subtle:

Spoiler :