Westeroscraft Texture Pack Megathread

DutchGuard

Shadowbinder
Staff member
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THE PINK BLOCK PROBLEM

2020-09-30_19.20.55.png

I think we're all in agreement that the pink stone blocks need a little work before they become more widely adopted. I personally hope they can be used more widely along the Red Fork and help set that area of the Riverlands apart from the rest. I know Emote is playing servant to two masters with this block, Arkilstorm and Veggie , but I'm confident we can reach a happy medium. Feedback from either party is especially welcome.

Here are some suggestions of mine and others:

- Lighten the joints between stones. It's quite evident in the above image how black the joints are when compared to other sandstone varieties.
- Speaking of our other sandstone varieties, I think it would be of great benefit to make the pink palette more compatible with smooth red sandstone, coarse red sandstone, and KL dun brick (as seen above). These darker colours would, again, be useful in a gradient where the walls meet water, or a dirtier stone look is desired. The lightening of the joints as aforementioned might be enough to achieve this.
- Add a pink light stone variant, the same shade as the "pink faint light brick" to help with gradients as is often seen in Reach palettes.
- Remove the Pink Light Brick, the faint version of the pattern should suffice. Do this only if it is agreed there are too many pink blocks.
- Make the Large Brick variant slightly darker.
- Change the cobblestone to the reach cobblestone pattern (aka the "vanilla" pattern). At the moment the pattern results in a heavy dark contrast.

Would be great to get this right as I can see it being used in several future projects.
 

Arkilstorm

Dowager Countess of Grantham
Staff member
I agree that they still need a little more work, but I'm colourblind and don't feel entirely comfortable with making very subtle changes to the hue, as I can't accurately determine how they are working appropriately with other blocks. The initial plan was to make a pink that worked with the Dun set, but it seemed a little cold, and so we moved away from that idea entirely. Instead, with Riverrun it's mentioned as being made of sandstone, and so I wanted to find a way for them to work nicely with Vivid Dark Sandstone to create a palette closer to 'Chateau Haut Koenigsbourg' which appears pink in some lights, and almost red in another - this is probably more appropriate for the Red Fork, than using KL/Dun and smooth Sandstone blocks. The deep, deep red of our smooth RK sandstone is a little too vibrant and I think difficult to employ in the area.

I've attached a couple of reference images for what I would like to achieve with the palette for Riverrun, but I don't think I'm the best person to actually create or make changes to the blocks - last time I did they came out a little orangey! But this salmony sandy pink is 100% the direction I think we should take with Riverrun. Finding a way for them to be complementary to the existing sandstone blocks would be an additional win!

thio-chateau-haut-koenigsbourg-jonathan-sarago-740x567.jpg
chateau-haut-koenigsbourg-wilhelm-ii.jpg
Pink sandstone2.png
 

DutchGuard

Shadowbinder
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Scubooty had a go at pink gradients

2020-10-01_20.47.46.png

I think the problem we identified is that there is just too much contrast between the blocks. As mentioned before, lightening the joints between the bricks/stones should help.

Compare the pink sandstone and coarse red sandstone. The red has much lighter joints.

2020-10-01_20.49.04.png

The bricks (small and large) and cobble have the same problem

2020-10-01_20.54.30.png

2020-10-01_20.57.36.png

I personally think the colors atm are pretty good, the contrast with the joints just needs adjusting.
 

Enah

Skinchanger
800px-Basler_-_Basler_M%C3%BCnster_Westfassade.jpg
 

DutchGuard

Shadowbinder
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Just bare in mind that a lot of these pink sandstone examples use a lighter/white mortar that may be difficult for us to use and blend with our dark mortar blocks
Absolutely but at the moment the mortar looks black, IMO it should just be a slightly darker pink than the rest of the set.

the light pink test in the swatch you posted doesn’t look pink to me, and doesn’t match the intensity of the colours in the images Ark and Enah have posted.
 

Elduwin

Skinchanger
Staff member
The Darker Pink test you made CashBanks is the exact same texture than the current pink set we have in production?
Because, idk if it's me, but it doesn't look the same at all to me :eek: in game it looks like bubble gum and too flashy. The salmon-ish hue of the Darker Pink is better imo.
 

Renly_Baratheon_

Envoy
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Hey everybody. I wanted to suggest that it might be interesting to create a green glazed ceramic tile block. My idea stems from the Swiss Kachelofen (tile stove) which has been used in Swiss and German buildings since the 12th century. Since the Vale on the server is partially based on Switzerland, these ovens could be an interesting and unique feature across the region. Although lots of later examples are very decorative and colourful, they were originally almost always green and rather basic so a simple block design would suffice. The cool bit about them is that they had an oven part in the kitchen of the house, where it was attached to an interior wall. On the other side of that wall was usually a sort of living room, which was then heated by the fire used for the cooking. Because they were made out of tiles, the heat from the fire was retained for quite a while. Often they also had built in benches, where one could sit or holes, where you could put food in to heat it up.

Here are some pictures (sadly there's very few medieval surviving Kachelöfen, so these aren't medieval):
Kachelofen 2.jpg
Kachelofen 1.jpg
Kachelofen 3.jpg

(I'd also assume that glazed tiles could come in handy for projects in Dorne. Although the decorative tile-work in Spain seems rather more elaborate than the tiles on a Kachelofen.)
 

CashBanks

A Knight at the Opera
Staff member
I've tried desaturating the pink a bit and lightening the mortar, also threw in a pink stone block which I think is worth considering to complete the set.
Compare 1.png

Thinking Pink Brick still isn't quite right, the darker mortar might just be impossible to blend nicely with the lighter pink.

I also tried a super pink Maidenpool with these bricks (works for a Riverrun test too)
1601697639144.png
Close up, (maybe the darker small brick needs to be lighten a bit to blend with the light small brick a bit more.)
1601697920246.png

Also just tried swapping in the stone/light pink brick to see how that looks
1601697732132.png
 
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DutchGuard

Shadowbinder
Staff member
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Imo this is a massive overall improvement, and I think the addition of a pink stone block is key.
Maybe swap the colors of the large brick and small brick? The joints on the large brick still appear too dark, though a color swap might help lessen the contrast.
Would it be possible to make the mortar lighter on the small brick block without changing the tone of the rest of the block?
 
I've tried desaturating the pink a bit and lightening the mortar, also threw in a pink stone block which I think is worth considering to complete the set.
View attachment 5274

Thinking Pink Brick still isn't quite right, the darker mortar might just be impossible to blend nicely with the lighter pink.

I also tried a super pink Maidenpool with these bricks (works for a Riverrun test too)
View attachment 5275
Close up, (maybe the darker small brick needs to be lighten a bit to blend with the light small brick a bit more.)
View attachment 5277

Also just tried swapping in the stone/light pink brick to see how that looks
View attachment 5276
I'd make the arched window slits a more pale texture and the big stone brick darker so it's a darker contrast instead of lighter. If not the same hue as other blocks at least.
 
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AerioOndos

Donkey Lord
Staff member
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Hey everybody. I wanted to suggest that it might be interesting to create a green glazed ceramic tile block. My idea stems from the Swiss Kachelofen (tile stove) which has been used in Swiss and German buildings since the 12th century. Since the Vale on the server is partially based on Switzerland, these ovens could be an interesting and unique feature across the region. Although lots of later examples are very decorative and colourful, they were originally almost always green and rather basic so a simple block design would suffice. The cool bit about them is that they had an oven part in the kitchen of the house, where it was attached to an interior wall. On the other side of that wall was usually a sort of living room, which was then heated by the fire used for the cooking. Because they were made out of tiles, the heat from the fire was retained for quite a while. Often they also had built in benches, where one could sit or holes, where you could put food in to heat it up.

Here are some pictures (sadly there's very few medieval surviving Kachelöfen, so these aren't medieval):

(I'd also assume that glazed tiles could come in handy for projects in Dorne. Although the decorative tile-work in Spain seems rather more elaborate than the tiles on a Kachelofen.)

This is brilliant! thanks! I'd love for this to become a cool thing in Vale castles and middle class houses. I'd perhaps say that brick ovens might be the lower class way to go and then glazed tiles would be for upper class. Hmmm. Lots of potential. thanks again!