Hello!
It's been a while since I posted an update, but here's a new release, and as always the textures were decided through a poll on my Discord community.
What's New?
Mangrove stuff, Mud stuff & Updated both Sand Biome(again) and Red Sand Biomes with the addition of long awaited dead_bush texture.
Mangrove Biome
Making this biome was harder than what I had anticipated, and I couldn't manage to fully complete it and a few textures are still left which I now plan to add in a future update when I will update the Jungle Biome.
First I started with the lily_pads, and they were really fascinating to make because although they look simple, it took some good effort which was fun as I also learned a better way to make leaves because while I worked on this.
Next I started with ground, to get the mud right I knew it had to be wet so at first I tried different variations with CTM with random water patches, but it didn't look great, so I increased the amount of water, and it just worked right away, the tiling looked better and everything, to finalize the texture I added some stones.
Then I started with the mangrove_log texture in which I was able to reuse some parts from other log textures to get a head start and quickly managed to finalize it very nicely, afterward I used the same technique that I used to make roots for the mangrove_log texture for the mangrove_roots so they can sort of blend in with each other, although I managed to make the roots texture I am not really satisfied with them and I plan to update them in the future.
As I mentioned previously, I managed to find a better way to make the leaves while working on Lily Pad texture, because of that I'm now planning to gradually update all leaves textures over the upcoming updates and make them better than they currently are, or just update them all at once on the December update which if you don't know, in the final update of the year I don't introduce any new textures and focus solely on updating existing textures and fix issues if any. The new leaves textures make uses of the spline nodes that were recently added in Substance 3D Designer.
Sand and Red Sand Biome
Everything started come to life but a texture which was really standing out was dead_bush, so I just did it, it took a long time and a few failed attempts but then I found a way to sort of automate the branch making process and after figuring that out it didn't take long to finalize it, not sure how it wasn't textured for so long though, after completing the dead bush I started working on updating the Red Sand Biome, as the Sand Biome had recently been updated it was necessary for Red Sand Biome to provide the same feeling as it's Sand Biome family, and while doing, so I found some better techniques which made me update the whole Sand Biome (again i know) for better, the new textures have blended sand on top textures which was made possible because of CTM.
Mud Stuff
To finalize the update, two main textures were left which were decided on this month's poll, Packed Mud and Mud Bricks, I took a reference of some dried cracked mud lands online as they seemed to fit the Packed Mud texture, I took a few things from my cobblestone texture graph to get a jump start and in a few minutes I manged to get a decent texture, I left it there and started working on Mud Bricks in which again I took a few things from the Stone Bricks texture this time and imported the same noise I used in packed mud to give Stone Bricks the same feel, after spending a few hours finalizing both textures I was satisfied with how they turned out.
And that's it for this update, as always thanks to all the Patreon and Gumraod supporters, I'll try my best to provide you more quality updates of this project and take account of any feedback you provide.
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