Texture Pack Better Ambiance Texture Pack (now for 1.4, but NOT on the workshop... yet)

[Lunatic Lobbyist]

​

Texture Pack - Better Ambiance Texture Pack (now for 1.4, but NOT on the workshop... yet)

Good work! I dowloaded.)

forums.terraria.org

^^^ The Better Ambiance 1.4 update has arrived!! The download file is attached in the post linked above.
For Terraria 1.3.5 users, you want the version at the bottom of this post you're currently reading (for now).

Have you ever noticed how Terraria's skies have turned a bleak shade of dark indigo over the years?

Ever noticed how the sky's purple-ish hue no longer matches up with brighter distant scenery such as mountains in the background like it used to?

Does it bother the crap out of you? And if it didn't before, does it now?

Do you like pretty things?

Do you like immersion?

Are you a lunatic like me?

If you've answered "yes" to most of the above, then this texture pack is for you!






Summary / Contents:

This pack offers something a bit different from others you might've seen.
The intent is to keep Terraria's original aesthetic, but breathe some life into it. Originally this was considered to be purely a 'color-correction' texture pack, but it became a bit more than that.

- I began by modifying the dreary color of the sky. After much tweaking, I then focused on adding more color variation which added a LOT of depth, better-matching background elements and clouds than vanilla, and providing a brighter, more vibrant atmosphere at daytime overall

- The sun itself was edited to be slightly more detailed while keeping the original style, less 'rotten-egg-like', and tweaked to match the new sky

- Some backgrounds have been made more vibrant and detailed -- specifically the Ocean Biome

- All standard water textures have been modified as well, to harmonize with the above changes




vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Spoiler: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - CLICK HERE FOR BEFORE AND AFTER SCREENSHOTS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- 1 -

- 2 -

- 3 -

- 4 -

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Installation:

Typical texture pack installation, except for ***one additional IMPORTANT STEP***. This pack will require you to install an additional file to where you installed Terraria. My folder for this file is here:

C:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Terraria\Content\Images\Misc

This is needed in order to change the color of standard water -- you must overwrite a file in the above folder called "water_0.xnb". I also help guide you to this location in the download. I recommend backing up the original "water_0.xnb" somewhere safe if you wish to revert to the original water. The rest is standard procedure, but if this is your first time installing one:


Standard Texture Pack Installation:

https://forums.terraria.org/index.p...ack-support-and-world-seeds.51452/#Activation


Mod Users:

If you're using tModLoader and would like to use this pack along with all those glorious mods, you'll want to place the "Texture Pack.zip" file into where your ModLoader folder is. Mine is here:

C:\Users\(your name)\Documents\My Games\Terraria\ModLoader\TexturePacks








Credits/Thanks:

All textures have been created/modified by yours truly, mostly from Terraria's original content if not completely new.

A shout out to @Mirsario for incorporating my work into the brilliant Terraria Overhaul mod.

A huge thanks to @Murphmario for helping me solve the problem of editing water -- that would've taken a lot longer to figure out on my own.

Thanks to @Brutallama for being an inspiration in making this -- showing how much texture packs can drastically improve this game.

And last but not least, a thanks and shout out to @ChippyGaming for kindly giving this its own spotlight video on his mighty-fine Youtube channel.



Feel free to let me know what you think of the changes -- especially after playing in-game. I'm open to suggestions, if they seem in-line with the theme.


And most importantly, enjoy Terraria with Better Ambiance!
​

 

[Eli10293]

View attachment 175339
Better Ambiance Texture Pack

Have you ever noticed how Terraria's sky has turned an odd shade of dark indigo over the years?​

Ever noticed how the sky's purple-ish hue no longer matches up with brighter distant scenery like mountains in the background like it used to?​

Does it bother the crap out of you?

Are you a lunatic like me?​

If you've answered "yes" to most of the above, then this texture pack is for you!






- This texture pack offers something a bit different from others you might've seen. It was started by editing the color and vibrancy of the sky, in order to help bring Life to the game's ambiance, adding a LOT of depth, better-matching background elements, and just looking nicer.

- The sun itself has also been edited to look more detailed, as well as to match the new sky

- Some backgrounds have been edited/brightened/improved, namely the Ocean biome

- All standard water textures have been edited as well, to match the other changes

Spoiler: Before and After

Spoiler: 1

View attachment 175324 View attachment 175326

Spoiler: 2

View attachment 175327 View attachment 175328

Spoiler: 3

View attachment 175329 View attachment 175330

Installation:

Typical texture pack installation, except for ***one additional IMPORTANT STEP***. This pack will require you to install an additional file where you installed Terraria. Mine looks like this:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Terraria\Content\Images\Misc

To change the color of standard water, you must overwrite a file in the above folder called "water_0.xnb". I also help guide you to this location in the download. I recommend backing up the original "water_0.xnb" somewhere safe if you want to revert to the original water, or I may just include the original in the download at some point.


Standard Texture Pack Instsallation:
https://forums.terraria.org/index.p...ack-support-and-world-seeds.51452/#Activation



All textures have been edited by yours truly, modified from Terraria's original content

Let me know what you think of this texture pack -- I'm open to suggestions, if they seem in-line with the theme.


And most importantly, enjoy!!
​

I really enjoy the look of this, it feels livelier and I didn't think such a small touch could make a big difference.

 

[darthmorf]

These look really good!

 

[Mr. Melon]

This is nice! I approve of these touch-ups!

 

[Gameraiders101]

I like

 

[SnailsAttack]

I never noticed how how much better terraria's sky could look lol

 

[Nioffe]

I just tested it in game and this is so awesome! 'tis a huge improvement than vanilla's!

Thank you so much for making this awesome texture pack and for making me even more lunatic about little details than I already am

 

[DontEatSocks]

Sorry i'm still new to the whole 'texture packs' thing, so will this work with tmodloader?

 

[Asteroidal_Assassin]

Your texture pack is nice but I think the darker ambience in terraria is intentional. The focal point of terraria is your immidiate surroundings. The ambience is just there to spice things up.

 

[Lunatic Lobbyist]

Thank you everyone for the kind words! It goes a long way.

In the meantime, I do plan on making some additions and further improvements at some point. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to let me know. I'm just glad to see others are enjoying this, which made it well-worth sharing with everyone.

Sorry i'm still new to the whole 'texture packs' thing, so will this work with tmodloader?

Yes, absolutely! I'm using Thorium armor in the screenshots. The only difference is where they're installed when using tModLoader -- which I'll add to the OP. Using mods, you'll want to place the Texture Pack.zip right in this folder:

C:\Users\(your name)\Documents\My Games\Terraria\ModLoader\TexturePacks

You can even combine my work with other texture packs as well, such as Brutallama's Vanilla Revamp. As long as all the textures stay in one "Texture Pack.zip", they're 100% compatible!

Your texture pack is nice but I think the darker ambience in terraria is intentional. The focal point of terraria is your immidiate surroundings. The ambience is just there to spice things up.

That's one way of looking at it. My primary motivation for making this was to get rid of the gloomy, flat, un-matching colors in the background -- because that very thing distracted me from my surroundings. But you're certainly free to your opinion.

I just tested it in game and this is so awesome! 'tis a huge improvement than vanilla's!

Thank you so much for making this awesome texture pack and for making me even more lunatic about little details than I already am

One perk to having OCD is having higher standards! Thank you for the overwhelmingly-positive and helpful feedback. This is what I really like to hear -- and it's much appreciated.

 

[Battle Bee]

I'm using TModLoader. Installed this as such;

The folder 'TexturePacks' didn't exist, so I created it myself. It doesn't work.
What am I doing wrong?

 

[Lunatic Lobbyist]

I'm using TModLoader. Installed this as such;

The folder 'TexturePacks' didn't exist, so I created it myself. It doesn't work.
What am I doing wrong?

Did you remember to set "UseExperimentalFeatures" to "true"? You can do this using the config.json file found in Documents\My Games\Terraria and find the line about 12-down. Alternatively, you can also enable this in-game if you find the experimentalfeatures option on the main menu, but I find the .json file more reliable. You'll need to enable this in order for texture packs to work. Here's a more detailed description found in my OP:

https://forums.terraria.org/index.p...ack-support-and-world-seeds.51452/#Activation


I believe the TexturePacks folder should've already been there if you've already installed and activated tModLoader in-game, so there could be another problem.

 

[Battle Bee]

Did you remember to set "UseExperimentalFeatures" to "true"? You can do this using the config.json file found in Documents\My Games\Terraria and find the line about 12-down. Alternatively, you can also enable this in-game if you find the experimentalfeatures option on the main menu, but I find the .json file more reliable. You'll need to enable this in order for texture packs to work. Here's a more detailed description found in my OP:

https://forums.terraria.org/index.p...ack-support-and-world-seeds.51452/#Activation


I believe the TexturePacks folder should've already been there if you've already installed and activated tModLoader in-game, so there could be another problem.

Turning on experimental features in-game did the trick. Thanks!

 

[ReptileDysfunction]

I've turned on experimental features in both the game and the config file, but the modded game doesn't seem to have any changes, aside from the water (which looks slightly dodgy when on slanted surfaces).

Am I doing something wrong? Here's what my files look like, and here's what water looks like for me (I have tried adding .zip to the end of the Texture Pack file, but that didn't work either):

 

[SnailsAttack]

I've turned on experimental features in both the game and the config file, but the modded game doesn't seem to have any changes, aside from the water (which looks slightly dodgy when on slanted surfaces).

Am I doing something wrong? Here's what my files look like, and here's what water looks like for me (I have tried adding .zip to the end of the Texture Pack file, but that didn't work either):

For me there's a folder that says "Texture Packs" but whenever I put anything in the folder it crashes and the game continues to do so until i delete the texture pack folder, even if i've removed whatever was in it. I'm not sure lol

 

[ppowersteef]

It's looking nice, but I feel like this texture pack takes away the depth of the background layers that they had before.
Because the furthest mountians only seem to blend worse with the sky.
The background of the ocean water doesn't seem to match close to the actual water texture either. I'll prefer to stick with the vanilla version.

I love the sky and sun details though.

 

[Lunatic Lobbyist]

I've turned on experimental features in both the game and the config file, but the modded game doesn't seem to have any changes, aside from the water (which looks slightly dodgy when on slanted surfaces).

Am I doing something wrong? Here's what my files look like, and here's what water looks like for me (I have tried adding .zip to the end of the Texture Pack file, but that didn't work either):

For me there's a folder that says "Texture Packs" but whenever I put anything in the folder it crashes and the game continues to do so until i delete the texture pack folder, even if i've removed whatever was in it. I'm not sure lol

Yeah, water looks like that when you've only installed the water correctly -- you're both installing the texture pack folder in the wrong place. As it says in the OP, when using mods, install here:

C:\Users\(your name)\Documents\My Games\Terraria\ModLoader\TexturePacks


ReptileDysfunction, you installed it directly into the ModLoader folder here: C:\Users\(your name)\Documents\My Games\Terraria\ModLoader\

You want to make an extra folder there called \TexturePacks. Most people (myself included) will have this folder automatically appear upon installing tModLoader, although for some odd reason, some people must make this folder manually. Any place other than the correct folder will certainly crash your game. I can include a readme file with the download if you think it'll make things easier. Anyway, hope that solves all your problems!

It's looking nice, but I feel like this texture pack takes away the depth of the background layers that they had before.
Because the furthest mountians only seem to blend worse with the sky.
The background of the ocean water doesn't seem to match close to the actual water texture either. I'll prefer to stick with the vanilla version.

I love the sky and sun details though.

Hmm... blending in those areas should look significantly better, rather than worse. Are you sure you installed the separate water file? Because the ocean water won't match at all if only the texture pack is installed without the additional water file. As far as blending mountains, does it look a lot different from my screenshots? If so, something was installed incorrectly.

 

[ppowersteef]

hmm... blending in those areas should look significantly better, rather than worse. Are you sure you installed the separate water file? Because the ocean water won't match at all if only the texture pack is installed without the additional water file. As far as blending mountains, does it look a lot different from my screenshots? If so, something was installed incorrectly.

At the moment I'm only judging from the screenshots on the thread. I was wondering if these screenshots are exactly the same as the difference in-game. Because the different water texture doesn't seem to be present.

 

[Lunatic Lobbyist]

At the moment I'm only judging from the screenshots on the thread. I was wondering if these screenshots are exactly the same as the difference in-game. Because the different water texture doesn't seem to be present.

Ahhh ok, that makes a lot more sense. Your own in-game appearance may vary a bit (for all sorts of reasons), but it should be pretty close.

As for the water, keep in mind the snow biome's water hasn't been altered, so screenshot 2's water looks identical to vanilla. What you're looking for specifically are the "after screenshots" 3 and 4. The primary thing that's being changed is the hue/tint of the water -- it's far less purplish, indigo/blue, and more of an ocean blue. This is far more noticeable with the sky and ocean biome's background -- what was closer to a purplish color, is now closer to a more a realistic sky blue (among other improvements to contrast and detail). It's all designed to match together that way. Now in screenshot 3, you'll notice the water is much darker-looking than the background's water, although the reason for this is clearly seen when you're in-game. If you look at screenshot 4, the water in the background gets much darker as the gradient continues downward. So if I jumped up in screenshot 3, or the surface of the sand was lower (which it frequently is with other worldgen) in screenshot 3, the foreground water would be the identical color and brightness of the background water fairly quickly. This creates the illusion of depth and perspective. If this isn't making sense, let me know. But it all comes together in-motion.

Of course it still may not be to your tastes, and that's perfectly fine. But if you're still interested, I'd encourage you to try the pack -- as that's the only real way to have an educated opinion on whether or not the changes work for you.

 

[ReptileDysfunction]

Yeah, water looks like that when you've only installed the water correctly -- you're both installing the texture pack folder in the wrong place. As it says in the OP, when using mods, install here:

C:\Users\(your name)\Documents\My Games\Terraria\ModLoader\TexturePacks


ReptileDysfunction, you installed it directly into the ModLoader folder here: C:\Users\(your name)\Documents\My Games\Terraria\ModLoader\

You want to make an extra folder there called \TexturePacks. Most people (myself included) will have this folder automatically appear upon installing tModLoader, although for some odd reason, some people must make this folder manually. Any place other than the correct folder will certainly crash your game. I can include a readme file with the download if you think it'll make things easier. Anyway, hope that solves all your problems!



Hmm... blending in those areas should look significantly better, rather than worse. Are you sure you installed the separate water file? Because the ocean water won't match at all if only the texture pack is installed without the additional water file. As far as blending mountains, does it look a lot different from my screenshots? If so, something was installed incorrectly.

I've followed your instructions and the results are still the same.

Are there any other possible reasons as to why this is happening?
[doublepost=1501836119,1501836051][/doublepost]Image: