I'm not sure how old the images in the OP are, but there are some tiling issues in your GUI. Which is an odd place for tiling issues, but there they are. Your texture overlays on some of them are in a very obvious grid, You might want to look into trying to make your overlays seamless somehow.
I'm also not too thrilled with the gem textures. They look very flat. Even with the simple faceting, you can get them to look a little more 3D by avoiding pillow shading around the edges of each facet, and having a very clearly defined light source. As light refracts through the gem, the facets further away from the light source will be darker, while those closer will be brighter.
And if you're not using it yet, Optifine supports random mobs. You can get all the cats you want using the exact same setup MCPatcher used, complete with the MCPatcher folder. Optifine and MCPatcher are pals like that.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
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First off, I want to thank you for the honest feedback! I very much appreciate it.
You actually touched on the two main things I've been thinking about revamping. I'll admit, I actually flood filled the stone based GUIs with my textures, and I haven't been 100% happy with them from the start. Thanks for pointing that out from a second perspective. It gives me some real insight into the fact that I do need to fix them.
I've also had in mind to totally redraw my gems, as well; as most of them (at least the ores) are older textures from years back. When I started this, I was using pictures of actual gemstones I have; I've since attempted to draw them, which worked better...but I've recently noticed that my skills back then don't quite make the cut. I LOVED my diamond when I did it... but after finishing my prismarine ore I looked back and realized I'm going to need to redraw all my gems and fix the ore forms. Most notably, the lapis. It makes me angry. lol
I'm still somewhat happy with my block forms, though any real feedback on them is also appreciated. I think the only one I refuse to change is the Quartz ore, as it makes a lovely marble like flooring in game. lol
As you can see.. the older ores are the main problem (iron, gold, redstone, lapis, and "amethyst" mainly). I'm sure if I added a bit more light and sharpness to the coal and diamond, and cleaned up the quartz a bit they may work... but I'm ready to throw in the towel and redraw the lot of them if I have to.
I'm going to have to look into Optifine, in that case. I'd heard it was now capable of all the things MCPatcher used to do exclusively. Sounds like it's come quite a long way.
Yeah, the developer of MCPatcher went away, and I wouldn't be surprised if frustration with Minecraft's ever changing ways had to do with it. It's unlikely to be updated at all at this point, from the looks for things.
And I'm just at the stage with my main pack now where now that I've got everything done, I'm finally going back and changing all the things from two or three years ago, back before I knew what I was doing. It definitely feels better to finally do it. As for the gems, I'm gonna direct you here: http://www.deviantart.com/browse/all/resources/tutorials/?q=draw gems&offset=0
I was stuck on mine for a long time as well, because it wasn't anything I'd ever drawn before. But there are loads of tutorials for how to design the faceting and how to shade them.
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Oh yes! I've seen some of the tutorials on DeviantArt. Some of them blow me away. I've just been focusing on other aspects and haven't gotten to it yet. I think I just needed to decide if I should redo them ALL and go all out, or just try and redo a couple and touch up others. It's going to end up being an all out redraw, at this point. Especially when those tutorials make drawing gems look so easy and so clean.
I would wish you luck in your changes, but I don't think you need luck. Looks like you have quite a handle on your art style. :3
If you would like, or have time, to give me more feedback I wouldn't mind letting you test my pack out. Just let me know.
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MANY thanks to loki_of_sassgard for the helpful criticism which inspired me to redo all my ores..some have the same base, but they all got an upgrade, and some were totally overhauled. MUCH happier with them now. :3|
I may still replace my redstone "dust" pile with the little bobble jems, just because. Not sure yet if I will or not.
They look much better! I like how all the ores in the stones are completely different shapes, too. Really helps them stand out against one another.
Thank you so much! I'm really glad they came out so well; accidentally spooked myself once in game while walking over coal blocks (in the sense that I thought something was above the layer and I had to stop and look back), so I guess that's a good sign? haha
How did you approach your flowerpots? Using the old variants which would need a model for each pot with each possible flower or using the new multipart feature where you'd just need a model for all your ports and all your flowers as if they are in a pot (without pot) and just compile them together something like in the example?
I actually used the old method, which has been a pain, but it works. I may stick with it for backwards compatability; I also hadn't realized yet that there was a new method. I'm thinking the code on that actually looks pretty easy compared to the old method? But... You just said compile... lol the sad part of all of this is, is that I'm not a programmer. I'm much more visually inclined, and though I can code, the idea of too much text based stuff gives me a headache. If this new method would help against headaches with the flower pots, please do enlighten me (a link to a helpful thread would suffice). :3
Aaaaand on that note, I've been busy; still not done, but I've been working on those guis. Trying to not only clean them up but really overhaul them. I'm focusing a little more on the medieval/norse appeal for the most part to stay true to the game, while simple enough in some cases to not clutter. Hopefully these will give a more immersive feeling rather than my old "stone or wood box over the game" GUIs; I want these to actually feel like part of the game. So far, I'm happy with them.
And last but not least... My oh my, what is all of this??? Not a mod... though it would be awesome to have them as separate plants. Just alt textures for what used to be the dead bush (I've since renamed it to "desert plant" to incorporate my alts).
I have the dead bush, desert sage, desert reeds, aloe vera, prickly pear cactus, and silverleaf nightshade.
Trivia: The inclusion as well as basic style of my aloe was actually inspired by a dream where I'd textured it.
From what I've been told, you can have biome-specific textures with Optifine now. Those would be great to have as the desert variants of your textures.
I was holding out for 1.10 to give us that, but it doesn't look like it we're ever gonna get that in Vanilla. Oh well.
Looks very nice! Do you know that you can change the names of stuff, or did you already know that?
Thank you!
Oh I know! I've known about that for a while. If I wasn't changing names of things all my custom glass would seem very awkward, and my Amethyst would still be called Emerald. LOL Can you imagine that? Find Emerald but it's just purple? Kind of silly really. heh
From what I've been told, you can have biome-specific textures with Optifine now. Those would be great to have as the desert variants of your textures.
I was holding out for 1.10 to give us that, but it doesn't look like it we're ever gonna get that in Vanilla. Oh well.
They all look great, though!
If...I can even get Optifine to work. The way things install and load has changed so much that I can't seem to figure this one out. I tried manually installing it only to read after the fact that doing so no longer works anyway. Going to have to actually read through the thread and take a bit more time to look into it. I really want to add my sky back properly, but my attempts to use optifine have failed me thus far.
It's just too bad that even Optifine can't let you give multiple names to alt textures for one plant or I would be naming all of my desert plants appropriately in game. Maybe one day we'll get more features to play with in vanilla. I'm right there with you on staying hopeful for that.
I think my next update here will be the finishing touches to ALL my GUIs. I've been having so much fun texturing them that it's looking like I'll finally finish them all.
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So yesterday was my birthday and this is kind of a present to myself... I've uploaded my pack onto my Deviantart account and the upload link is in the first post. So it's officially released. Not 100% finished yet, but you can actually play around with it and test it out yourselves now!
Please, please let me know if you have any feedback, questions or critique! At this point I'm going to keep on working on the stuff I haven't finished yet, but any real, honest opinions will help me keep this pack looking beautiful. ♥
Any mod who is able, also, this is a formal request to move my thread out of the WIP area since I have a download link up finally. Please.
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You mean the jar? I don't think it works in Windows 7.. I double clicked it and it said it had no program association; I'm so oldschool. I'mma try Forge or something, that's bound to work. I kind of miss when you could just load mods right into the monecraft.jar, but eh. Times change. I'll work it out. Thanks~
On a sidenote, if you want to give me more feedback I'd LOVE anything you have to say. So far you've been a big help in inspiring me to push my skills a little and better my pack. :3
Got a couple things I've already changed up a bit that will be in the next upload:
I did a couple minor edits to my pig when I realized I wasn't 100% happy with it; going to have a couple other mobs ready before the update as well. Not saying what though! Mide ae mudora~ (that means "it's a secret") ^_~
You mean the jar? I don't think it works in Windows 7.. I double clicked it and it said it had no program association; I'm so oldschool. I'mma try Forge or something, that's bound to work. I kind of miss when you could just load mods right into the monecraft.jar, but eh. Times change. I'll work it out. Thanks~
Right click on the .jar file and select "Open With" from the menu. It might have an arrow pointing to the right. If it does, select "Java(TM) Platform SE binary". Otherwise, select "Choose default program..." and select it in the box that comes up.
If it doesn't show in the box that comes up, you'll need to browse for it and select it manually. Unless you changed it, the default path will be "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_45\bin\java.exe", or something similar depending on your particular version of Java.
Once you've done one of these, it should default to using Java as the default program. If not, go back to the "Choose default program..." menu and make sure that "Always use the selected program to open this type of file" is checked.
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*double face palm* Can you believe I'd never opened a jar file? So of course the association wasn't properly set. My goodness. I apparently need to stop trying to do even the simplest of tech stuff late at night. That should have been so obvious.
FINALLY seeing what others are seeing.
Looks like it's time to format my sky for the new style, and rethink my main glass texture since the transparency is broken. o_O
Oh my.. I see what you mean; I'm sure that would be easier in the long run for current editions. For now though, I think I'll stick to the old style for backwards compatibility. I'll probably switch over at some point to update and streamline them, though; thanks for the info! :3
Sorry I haven't done an update now in ages, everyone; life has had me busy and I don't want to update with like, three things done. Going to find some time to make a few more items and/or a mob or two before my next update. Sorry to make you guys wait so long for the next update but I very much so appreciate your patience! Just wanted to drop a line so you all know I'm still alive. :3
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Wow... been way too long since I updated this; so sorry! I didn't realize they changed the pack versioning so I made sure this works again in newer versions! Not that I doubt anyone using this didn't do that a while back anyway. ^_~
Got a nice little (but nifty) update; details and screenshots in the first post. :3
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Curse PremiumI'm not sure how old the images in the OP are, but there are some tiling issues in your GUI. Which is an odd place for tiling issues, but there they are. Your texture overlays on some of them are in a very obvious grid, You might want to look into trying to make your overlays seamless somehow.
I'm also not too thrilled with the gem textures. They look very flat. Even with the simple faceting, you can get them to look a little more 3D by avoiding pillow shading around the edges of each facet, and having a very clearly defined light source. As light refracts through the gem, the facets further away from the light source will be darker, while those closer will be brighter.
And if you're not using it yet, Optifine supports random mobs. You can get all the cats you want using the exact same setup MCPatcher used, complete with the MCPatcher folder. Optifine and MCPatcher are pals like that.
First off, I want to thank you for the honest feedback! I very much appreciate it.
You actually touched on the two main things I've been thinking about revamping. I'll admit, I actually flood filled the stone based GUIs with my textures, and I haven't been 100% happy with them from the start. Thanks for pointing that out from a second perspective. It gives me some real insight into the fact that I do need to fix them.
I've also had in mind to totally redraw my gems, as well; as most of them (at least the ores) are older textures from years back. When I started this, I was using pictures of actual gemstones I have; I've since attempted to draw them, which worked better...but I've recently noticed that my skills back then don't quite make the cut. I LOVED my diamond when I did it... but after finishing my prismarine ore I looked back and realized I'm going to need to redraw all my gems and fix the ore forms. Most notably, the lapis. It makes me angry. lol
I'm still somewhat happy with my block forms, though any real feedback on them is also appreciated. I think the only one I refuse to change is the Quartz ore, as it makes a lovely marble like flooring in game. lol
As you can see.. the older ores are the main problem (iron, gold, redstone, lapis, and "amethyst" mainly). I'm sure if I added a bit more light and sharpness to the coal and diamond, and cleaned up the quartz a bit they may work... but I'm ready to throw in the towel and redraw the lot of them if I have to.
I'm going to have to look into Optifine, in that case. I'd heard it was now capable of all the things MCPatcher used to do exclusively. Sounds like it's come quite a long way.
Updated: Aug. 24 2023 See thread for details
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Curse PremiumYeah, the developer of MCPatcher went away, and I wouldn't be surprised if frustration with Minecraft's ever changing ways had to do with it. It's unlikely to be updated at all at this point, from the looks for things.
And I'm just at the stage with my main pack now where now that I've got everything done, I'm finally going back and changing all the things from two or three years ago, back before I knew what I was doing. It definitely feels better to finally do it. As for the gems, I'm gonna direct you here: http://www.deviantart.com/browse/all/resources/tutorials/?q=draw gems&offset=0
I was stuck on mine for a long time as well, because it wasn't anything I'd ever drawn before. But there are loads of tutorials for how to design the faceting and how to shade them.
Oh yes! I've seen some of the tutorials on DeviantArt. Some of them blow me away. I've just been focusing on other aspects and haven't gotten to it yet. I think I just needed to decide if I should redo them ALL and go all out, or just try and redo a couple and touch up others. It's going to end up being an all out redraw, at this point. Especially when those tutorials make drawing gems look so easy and so clean.
I would wish you luck in your changes, but I don't think you need luck. Looks like you have quite a handle on your art style. :3
If you would like, or have time, to give me more feedback I wouldn't mind letting you test my pack out. Just let me know.
Updated: Aug. 24 2023 See thread for details
MANY thanks to loki_of_sassgard for the helpful criticism which inspired me to redo all my ores..some have the same base, but they all got an upgrade, and some were totally overhauled. MUCH happier with them now. :3|
I may still replace my redstone "dust" pile with the little bobble jems, just because. Not sure yet if I will or not.
Now what was next...? Oh right, those pesky GUIs.
Updated: Aug. 24 2023 See thread for details
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Curse PremiumThey look much better! I like how all the ores in the stones are completely different shapes, too. Really helps them stand out against one another.
Thank you so much! I'm really glad they came out so well; accidentally spooked myself once in game while walking over coal blocks (in the sense that I thought something was above the layer and I had to stop and look back), so I guess that's a good sign? haha
I actually used the old method, which has been a pain, but it works. I may stick with it for backwards compatability; I also hadn't realized yet that there was a new method. I'm thinking the code on that actually looks pretty easy compared to the old method? But... You just said compile... lol the sad part of all of this is, is that I'm not a programmer. I'm much more visually inclined, and though I can code, the idea of too much text based stuff gives me a headache. If this new method would help against headaches with the flower pots, please do enlighten me (a link to a helpful thread would suffice). :3
Aaaaand on that note, I've been busy; still not done, but I've been working on those guis. Trying to not only clean them up but really overhaul them. I'm focusing a little more on the medieval/norse appeal for the most part to stay true to the game, while simple enough in some cases to not clutter. Hopefully these will give a more immersive feeling rather than my old "stone or wood box over the game" GUIs; I want these to actually feel like part of the game. So far, I'm happy with them.
And last but not least... My oh my, what is all of this??? Not a mod... though it would be awesome to have them as separate plants. Just alt textures for what used to be the dead bush (I've since renamed it to "desert plant" to incorporate my alts).
I have the dead bush, desert sage, desert reeds, aloe vera, prickly pear cactus, and silverleaf nightshade.
Trivia: The inclusion as well as basic style of my aloe was actually inspired by a dream where I'd textured it.
Updated: Aug. 24 2023 See thread for details
Looks very nice! Do you know that you can change the names of stuff, or did you already know that?
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Curse PremiumFrom what I've been told, you can have biome-specific textures with Optifine now. Those would be great to have as the desert variants of your textures.
I was holding out for 1.10 to give us that, but it doesn't look like it we're ever gonna get that in Vanilla. Oh well.
They all look great, though!
Thank you!
Oh I know! I've known about that for a while. If I wasn't changing names of things all my custom glass would seem very awkward, and my Amethyst would still be called Emerald. LOL Can you imagine that? Find Emerald but it's just purple? Kind of silly really. heh
If...I can even get Optifine to work. The way things install and load has changed so much that I can't seem to figure this one out. I tried manually installing it only to read after the fact that doing so no longer works anyway. Going to have to actually read through the thread and take a bit more time to look into it. I really want to add my sky back properly, but my attempts to use optifine have failed me thus far.
It's just too bad that even Optifine can't let you give multiple names to alt textures for one plant or I would be naming all of my desert plants appropriately in game. Maybe one day we'll get more features to play with in vanilla. I'm right there with you on staying hopeful for that.
I think my next update here will be the finishing touches to ALL my GUIs. I've been having so much fun texturing them that it's looking like I'll finally finish them all.
Updated: Aug. 24 2023 See thread for details
So yesterday was my birthday and this is kind of a present to myself... I've uploaded my pack onto my Deviantart account and the upload link is in the first post. So it's officially released. Not 100% finished yet, but you can actually play around with it and test it out yourselves now!
Please, please let me know if you have any feedback, questions or critique! At this point I'm going to keep on working on the stuff I haven't finished yet, but any real, honest opinions will help me keep this pack looking beautiful. ♥
Any mod who is able, also, this is a formal request to move my thread out of the WIP area since I have a download link up finally. Please.
Updated: Aug. 24 2023 See thread for details
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Curse PremiumOptifine has a one-click installer now. Download the jar file, run it, and hit install. It'll create its own profile in the Minecraft launcher.
You mean the jar? I don't think it works in Windows 7.. I double clicked it and it said it had no program association; I'm so oldschool. I'mma try Forge or something, that's bound to work. I kind of miss when you could just load mods right into the monecraft.jar, but eh. Times change. I'll work it out. Thanks~
On a sidenote, if you want to give me more feedback I'd LOVE anything you have to say. So far you've been a big help in inspiring me to push my skills a little and better my pack. :3
Got a couple things I've already changed up a bit that will be in the next upload:
I did a couple minor edits to my pig when I realized I wasn't 100% happy with it; going to have a couple other mobs ready before the update as well. Not saying what though! Mide ae mudora~ (that means "it's a secret") ^_~
Updated: Aug. 24 2023 See thread for details
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Curse PremiumYeah it does. I'm running 7. This ought to do it:
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Retired StaffRight click on the .jar file and select "Open With" from the menu. It might have an arrow pointing to the right. If it does, select "Java(TM) Platform SE binary". Otherwise, select "Choose default program..." and select it in the box that comes up.
If it doesn't show in the box that comes up, you'll need to browse for it and select it manually. Unless you changed it, the default path will be "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_45\bin\java.exe", or something similar depending on your particular version of Java.
Once you've done one of these, it should default to using Java as the default program. If not, go back to the "Choose default program..." menu and make sure that "Always use the selected program to open this type of file" is checked.
I hope that helps you.
*double face palm* Can you believe I'd never opened a jar file? So of course the association wasn't properly set. My goodness. I apparently need to stop trying to do even the simplest of tech stuff late at night. That should have been so obvious.
FINALLY seeing what others are seeing.
Looks like it's time to format my sky for the new style, and rethink my main glass texture since the transparency is broken. o_O
Updated: Aug. 24 2023 See thread for details
Those GUIs are epic.
Let me just...leave this here for now.
Thank you SO MUCH! ♥
Oh my.. I see what you mean; I'm sure that would be easier in the long run for current editions. For now though, I think I'll stick to the old style for backwards compatibility. I'll probably switch over at some point to update and streamline them, though; thanks for the info! :3
*grins* It's coming along very nicely!
Sorry I haven't done an update now in ages, everyone; life has had me busy and I don't want to update with like, three things done. Going to find some time to make a few more items and/or a mob or two before my next update. Sorry to make you guys wait so long for the next update but I very much so appreciate your patience! Just wanted to drop a line so you all know I'm still alive. :3
Updated: Aug. 24 2023 See thread for details
Wow... been way too long since I updated this; so sorry! I didn't realize they changed the pack versioning so I made sure this works again in newer versions! Not that I doubt anyone using this didn't do that a while back anyway. ^_~
Got a nice little (but nifty) update; details and screenshots in the first post. :3
Updated: Aug. 24 2023 See thread for details