Okay, I apologize if im not grasping something here and theres an easy fix but atm I'm stumped and this will be an issue that makes or breaks this software for me.

I'm attempting to do some highly detailed painting on my map and everytime I change a texture it changes that texture across the entire map- For instance, I want to make a path using the yellow brick and I add the yellow brick texture and suddenly I have yellow brick all over my map- Is there a way to "lock " my map concerning textures so that when I add a new one it changes nothing and allows me to paint the details I want?

It seems I'm missing something here- I have to be- But I cannot figure it out. The thing is, I will need far more than 16 textures i a map since I want my volcano to have a volcano texture and my jungle to have a jungle texture and paths to have whatever texture I want, etc... As it stands if I add some textures from my volcano texture pack , then based on elevation or whatever I end up with volcano textures in my jungle (which is fine for the first painting phase but the problem is if I try to then change the texture back for doing work on the jungle, my volcano now automatically gets the jungle texture)

Hope that makes sense- I have no idea the tech terms for what I'm trying to say here.

Thanks.

Edit- I have another question then if anyone can help me- My wife just gave me a great suggestion but i'm not sure its allowed.

The game I'm trying to create is a turn based RPG/adventure game- I already am having to do quite a bit of work to make this viable in GG (with Moshrooms script as a base and my own scripting as I learn It is working though) but RPG maker is far more suited towards what I'm wanting to do with the exception of the graphical issues with that system which I cannot overcome...

However, what I could do is build my worlds with GG, take screenshots every couple meters at all 4 compass directions, and then put them in paint.net or photoshop (which im really quite proficient at using those) and really tweak the screenshots to look nice, then correspond the screenshots to the movement grid in RPG Maker- In effect making a First Person game on RPG maker but done with still images - That part I know will work an wont be difficult...Wont be exactly what I want but beggars cant be choosers.

So what would happen if I did this and released my game- TBH this would really allow me to probably have a good chance of doing so because the tech parts I need are something I can feasibly do and the graphics part (using GG) would be perfect. But can I use these assets and stuff I build here in another game system?

Don't think so, 16 textures is for the entire map, you would probably need to create your more detailed areas as models (like the volcano) and use the terrain paint for the more general ground areas.

Dang- Thanks, thats a bummer .

I'm sure doing things as models would probably be better for many reasons but I have no idea even where to start and no real desire to try and add that to learning everything thats on my plate- In the scope of things it seems minor but I was really wanting to offset my lack of tech skills with artistic skills and between trying to learn the software, learn Lua scripting and everything else I dont want to attempt another to take on another skillset right now- having a 16 color pallet (essentially) means I cant have a couple snowcapped mountains in the distance or all the tiny touches I was hoping to have that have nothing to do with gameplay but with immersion factor.

Thanks , I'm trying to evaluate my situation now =P

Your Lucky ... Not long back we only had 3 textures to play with ...
But even then users got incredible effects ....

Also read the Terrain Palette.pdf in GG's Docs folder for extra info

Well yeah, I'm getting pretty incredible effects as is (I'm quite proud of what ive done for my first map) even my old screens look pretty nice and ive done a ton of work since then- I'm not complaining , but its just not going to work for me because its not enough textures unless I decide to make tons of maps for 1 scene.

For instance, If I want snow capped mountains in one are and volcanic mountains in another I pretty much am forced into making 2 maps for the 2 biomes or skimping highly on detail- And the more biome types the less control I have...Thats why I figured there was a way to set things and then "lock" what you have and then change to a different textures without affecting your previous work.

I have an awesome volcano texture set but its all 16 textures and I can make one hell of nice volcano thats nearly photorealtic but then I cant have a jungle floor around it with a sandy beach etc, because changing any texture changes the whole- So to really take advantage of my volcano texture I have to use that set on the whole map- Again, not complaining about it just trying to figure out the best way to proceed with (what to me) is a big limitation on one my main strengths (which is the world development)- In the Volcano case, its not even an area the player can get to but just essentially a background image but this isnt attainable because youre locked into a series of textures that will affect the entire map if anything changes.

You really should try Blender for this, it's a difficult program, but once you get into it is really powerful. You won't have texture limitations either. Then you can simply export your model as an x file or fbx and import into GG. You are better off making it a single texture bake if possible, GG can support multi-texture but I wouldn't recommend it though in all honesty.

I dislike the new terrain system myself and prefer the old one despite only having 4 textures. I think the blend system it used worked great and looked far better than they do now. I always wanted more than 4 textures, but as it stands I wish we had left well alone 16 blended textures as before would be awesome, now we have more textures but have to manually make sure they blend well, which isn't so awesome

Yeah, with you there DVader.

The old system was way better in terms of blending and usability. The basis is there for a much better system with some work, but we still only have 4 textures anyway since you can't really have 16 different textures because of the way they blend.

I worked quite a bit with it for a while, making a couple of different textures sets, but gave up in the end because:
1) of the lines and shadow bugs that make developing textures tedious at best
2) painting maps with the old system was easy and fun, now it is tedious and just plain annoying - well to me anyway.
3) now the best maps are ones where you add a variation texture, but don't paint anything at all - just leave it as is.

I know Lee just put this in as a quick start for 16 textures - and said he would come back to it later, which I am sure he will - but honestly that was the worst thing, it would have been better to leave it as it was imo, until you had time to implement it properly. Maybe I am just a grumpy old fossil, but I really dislike half bake features.

I think it would be awesome if the 16 textures could be implemented as 4 texture sets, giving you 4 different layer groups, for example:
1) beach sandy
2) meadows
3) forrest
4) mountains

Then maybe we could create some pretty awesome maps

But I have no idea if that is even possible, especially performance wise with GG.

I have been playing Recore, which visually is pretty cool, but just sand (terrain) and rocks (models) everywhere - there is also quick sand which you sink into and die . While there are some variations in sand textures (like ripple, smooth, darker, lighter) I doubt there are anywhere near 16 textures on any given map.

Reliquia....

We're on the same page reliquia. I have old maps that used to look pretty cool with the old system. Load them in now and they look way worse. I imagine we are limited per terrain to the size of the texture atlas being used. 32 textures are probably possible, but they would be a quarter of the quality we now have.

My gripe as is yours is now we have to load images to get the blends to work and that literally is a huge amount of work in comparison to before. Especially for people who aren't that arty. Even when you leave GG to texture according to terrain sculpting, it is inferior compared to how it used to look. We all wanted 16 new textures but I think everyone thought they would behave in the same way as before

Let's hope DX11 helps, the PBR terrain looks okay from the initial shots. Maybe it will give Lee more options to work with.

The 16 (4x4) texture blending works identically to the old 4 texture blending, there are just more of them. I know you want textures to stack in any order, but that produces a performance hit. The only solution the terrain system ever had was to stack them one over the other with built-in blending. To simulate the old way in the new 16 texture system, just make the first four with one texture, second four with another texture, third four with a third choice and forth four with your last choice. They will blend like the old system, traversing over 4 unique textures instead of 16. If this is not the case, perhaps send me an FPM I can load in the old (pre-16-terrain-textures) GameGuru and I will show you how to create the same terrain visual in the new one. A blank map works best as I can focus in on the issue reported. The feature to have textures in any order is not on the voting board, so perhaps this is something you wish to see added so users can vote on it?

Hi Lee, thanks for the input - surprised you have time to frequent the forums you must be a busy man

I am playing with a new map now and making models and terrain for it as as I go - Will give you suggestions a look see - thanks

What would really help the system as it is, would be to fix the bugs we get when adding textures for the terrain pallet. We get grid lines everywhere and a shadow follows you - which most of the time can only be fixed by saving and reloading the map, and sometimes close\start GG.

You also get the distant terrain not matching the rest - like we used to get before and we had to delete the superpallete to fix the mixed terrain problem.

That along with a better way to add the alpha image (so we can see the texture when selecting it), and being able to select all textures in test mode for painting.

Of course I don't want much. . . .

Reliquia....

Speaking of textures. How do you get your custom textures to have assigned material sounds and debris?

Yeah, not sure if that can be done. Haven't been able to hear footfalls on the terrain at all ever since the EBE came our (or there about)

Reliquia....

I sympathies with the pain of this new user and others concerning tools and functionality. Also this statment:



The new user indicates proficiency with Photoshop = "best image manipulation tool" with layers/selection resizing etc. it would be wonderful if GG would take that model to be tantamount to features with the best "Game Manipulation tool" . I think Lee is doing his best in some areas to live up to that second notion.