Rockies: cliff vs. gravel problem (:

[NoQ]

I'm still haunted by the problem of distinguishing between cliff and gravel in rockies tileset, which has become pretty hard with the new renderer.

After a few attempts, i came across some cliff texture that i really like.

The texture originates from here, so it's GPL.

Here is 2048x2048 version of it packed as a mod (too big to attach; compatible with 3.0beta4; i hope there will be no problem in unpacking it).

A stock 'Valley' map with new cliff texture

My 'Tranquil' map with new cliff texture

One of my unfinished maps with new cliff texture

[NoQ]

The same thing, a little more polished. No more of those symmetric things! (:
Also, softly scaled it down to 4.8, but i'm not sure it's necessary.
http://www.filedropper.com/rockiesmod_1

'Mountain'

[CyclonatorZ]

Very nice work, hao. The contrast between the flat land and mountains looks great.

[NoQ]

Bump. My name has changed, but I'm still looking into this. This one is based on one of the WZGM textures, blended with the current in-game texture by mangust.

[NoQ]

This probably looks better with a bigger scaling factor. On this screenshot, i put 9.6 instead of 6.4 in tileset/tertilesc3hwGtype.txt

[Jorzi]

Almost forgot to mention it, but I recently took some pictures of cliffs. I can post them when I come home tonight

[NoQ]

I just tried to make a mod that transforms cliffs into decals and it worked and was pretty easy (proof of concept, lol). Probably we you could try painting it again? What we actually need is just 2 (two!) decal tiles: the straight one and the diagonal one, but not the half-diagonal you posted here, but rather a totally-filled diagonal cliff, since the original cliff texture will still be visible on the empty area, and it doesn't seem to look good.

[MaNGusT]

fake shadows are the enemies of diffuse textures.
You want me to do another try on rockies' textures?

I just want to mention that the solution could locate in code but not in textures. The "fade" range should be much shorter than we have now.

[Jorzi]

Pro tip: if your camera can handle low light levels or you have access to a tripod, take your texture images on a cloudy day or in shadowed areas. Ths will eliminate all disturbing directional light, giving you only the omnidirectional ambient light you want.

These are tileable cliff textures I made for another game project (we ended up using number 2). Feel free to make requests or modifications, I release them as CC0

[Jorzi]

Made a quick one with alpha transparency that can be used as a decal.

[Shadow Wolf TJC]

I was able to tell the gravel textures from the cliff textures not by color, but by patterns. Generally, whereas the gravel textures would be more or less uniform because of how flat it's supposed to be, like with NoQ's example of the gravel texture 6 posts above mine, the cliff textures seem to have these almost uniform vertical line streaks, but also seem to have few, if any, horizontal line streaks, which seem to give us the impression that the texture itself is steeply sloped, with rocks piled on top of other rocks, much like with what you see in Jorzi's cliff textures.

[NoQ]

I just want to mention that the solution could locate in code but not in textures. The "fade" range should be much shorter than we have now.

I agree. In fact, there are two sides of the problem. One is the fluffiness of cliff texture spreading that makes some passable areas look unpassable. This problem is code-related and not rockies-specific, but cliff decals could solve it as well. The other side of the problem is that on rockies tileset gravel and cliff seem to be a bit too similar. I don't think the whole texture pack needs rework (it's very beautiful!), but probably just a slight touch is needed to make those two textures more distinguishable.

One sec, i'll give the new cliff decals a try.

[NoQ]

An attempt on cliff decals. Decals are still bad, just yet another proof of concept and room for improvement.

[MaNGusT]

I'll try to create a more adequate textures but changes to code is also required. Devs?

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

THIS I like. More defined cliffs = win (for me, anyway).

Awesome job