There a few reasons why we should change some of the original textures;
Firstly the clarity and legibility of some textures can be improved. The computer blocks having a rather ambiguous motherboard or wiring on the sides / bottom / top, or the astrotech\' computer being almost unreadable as a form for example.
There is a huge amount of repeat textures. The computer\'s side texture is used on over 50 faces, all 7 \'action\' blocks (thrusters, AMC, salvage, powerdrain etc) ALL have the same texture, with colour hue being the only indication of what the block is... and even then the 32x32 textures stretched over a 64 pixel tile leaves a lot to the imagination.
This new pack im making will also repeat a base texture for computers too, but using different graphics, icons or input/output textures on all sides should set them apart from any angle.
Default shield, ship core, docking, turret docking, faction and build blocks again, all the same textures with colour as the only indication.
The lights border are set to tile with standard hulls, not but hardened or inbetween computers, placing them in terrain or anything but your ship looks annoyingly out of place.
The decoration blocks are 4 of the same idea, used mainly (like in your example) as filler on a bridge, or generic rooms. Just little squares of colour.
Giving the player a multitude of decorative blocks with different purposes allows the player to create more appropiate and creative interiors. Engineering bays or maintinence with tubing, power conduits and wiring, server racks... or living space objects, shelves and such. It\'s a more immervise experience for the players who build detailed ships.
As for ships being compatible with different texture packs / default? I have tested this pack with a multitude of ships, even Saria giving me a copy of her new ship to see how it would look.
The only stick out difference between the hundreds of textures was decorative blocks. The rest was seeminly intuitive. If you play with blueprints only, sure that one block might not line up correctly. But decoration blocks are so sparsely used its not a big deal to correct a few blocks is it?
Personally I like the default textures better, at least in this current release they just seem so dull and flat to me and I\'m not a fan of the hull texture either. ... Fire also doesn\'t burn in space as there isn\'t enough O2 so that doesn\'t make much sense to me...
Thats absolutely fine. Texture packs really are down to personal taste. The previous pack was meant to be a little flatter, cleaner and a little more colourful. Cartoon like in appearance. The main goal was to remove the harsh tiling effect of the standard hulls. Patchwork hulls *shudder*.
As for the fire effect? It\'s important damage information is legible from a distance within seconds and visible on all surfaces. Not to mention obviously detrimental. Fire / melting metal is inherintly bad.
It also looks badass (
Cheers Crusade )
Black cracks or smoke / scorch effects are not as viable from a distance on all surfaces.
The number of people who like and stick to the default is probably more than the people who choose to switch to a texture pack, so I don\'t really support any texture pack becoming the \"official textures\".
Yea, without a doubt default settings will always be played more than modded games. (Although I am constantly suprised by the huge number of downloads and unique blog hits i get looking for that texture pack...)
As i have previously said, it really is not my prerogative to change the default look of starmade. Just add an option for those who would like it.
I don\'t think it\'s a case of people banding together to get this officially adopted haha, It\'s just a very nice compliment.
Hopefully that explains a little more my reasoning to those of you interested.
Thanks for the input! (athough can we resize the images to 500 pixels wide :D)