Mod patch community dead?

Want hints or tips about creating textures or other resources? This is the place for you.
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Post 15 Apr 2021, 12:11

AndyPimms wrote:
23 Mar 2021, 18:51
Okay, I was saddened by reading HanFox's comment.
I am one of those who take without giving in this community. It's unfortunate and so I tried to start porting some mods to a more recent version (1.16.5) and even some 'creation' (mix of certain texture).
I already made a pack some time ago (just put together some mods already done), so I was able to create a post in the corresponding forum. But how do I update mods that I'm not the author of the first post?
So for others who don't / can't do the creative side of creating content for packs, what would you guys like to see so that you can contribute more (if you want to)? Is there something that we could provide that would help? Or, if we were to create a more organized structure of creators, what type of role would fit? I want to hear from the people that would be doing this stuff, so please let me know your thoughts and ideas! I'd love to help make the process as inclusive as possible; this community wouldn't be what it is without y'all, and if we can support you guys in some way I want to try and facilitate that.
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Post 15 Apr 2021, 15:49

Hi Sticker, thanks for asking. For me, I struggled with having to find all the different "templates". The Useful Resources to Sphaxify thread has slowly dwindled to having a fraction of templates available. The Github is scattered to hell and breakfast, the only tools .PSD is deep in a random mod pack (Redstone Arsenal) for example. The Sphaxified github is all .png, which basically limits us to hue/saturation recolors.

Speaking for myself, being able to open up the original PSDs and learn how they were put together, play with what's there is the best way to learn how to create my own. Or to repurpose layers/pieces that are there. Maybe I'm just ignorant, and the .png are fine, but I find that layer styles are huge, and you can't learn how those work (for this project) from a .png! :)

While this is more a pipe dream, tutorials would be a massive undertaking, but would also greatly open the accessibility for people to learn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7_wNQ5LnTI Sparkster made some ~8 years ago, and while they do have some great pieces, they are incomplete, to say the least. Appreciate his effort, there's a reason professional training videos are expensive to produce :)

Really, if you want the community to be able to contribute, the bar of entry needs to be lowered. Make it stupid easy. That's my 2 cents, anyways.
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Post 15 Apr 2021, 22:54

Sparkrdom wrote:
15 Apr 2021, 15:49
Hi Sticker, thanks for asking. For me, I struggled with having to find all the different "templates". The Useful Resources to Sphaxify thread has slowly dwindled to having a fraction of templates available. The Github is scattered to hell and breakfast, the only tools .PSD is deep in a random mod pack (Redstone Arsenal) for example. The Sphaxified github is all .png, which basically limits us to hue/saturation recolors.

Speaking for myself, being able to open up the original PSDs and learn how they were put together, play with what's there is the best way to learn how to create my own. Or to repurpose layers/pieces that are there. Maybe I'm just ignorant, and the .png are fine, but I find that layer styles are huge, and you can't learn how those work (for this project) from a .png! :)

While this is more a pipe dream, tutorials would be a massive undertaking, but would also greatly open the accessibility for people to learn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7_wNQ5LnTI Sparkster made some ~8 years ago, and while they do have some great pieces, they are incomplete, to say the least. Appreciate his effort, there's a reason professional training videos are expensive to produce :)

Really, if you want the community to be able to contribute, the bar of entry needs to be lowered. Make it stupid easy. That's my 2 cents, anyways.
Those are all really helpful and thoughtful suggestions, thank you! I'll have a chat with the other artists and see if we can't do a video series.
At the moment we're working on a text / image styleguide and a new GitHub repository with sample PSDs as well as links to the existing modpacks! There will also be some text guidelines to help with the nitty gritty of exporting, along with a file of resources (like the "patch" icon and basic mcmeta rules) so people can easily add them to their packs.

Like you mentioned, my goal was to make this as accessible as possible.

If you have any other ideas, please let me know! I'm actively working on the style guidelines now and as soon as I get the okay from the big man, I'll post the pages I have done for some feedback from you guys :D Tonight I've done an item guide for Pure, with plans for doing Entities / Blocks as well, then both guides for Vanilla and Grunge.
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Post 15 Apr 2021, 23:29

Videos are difficult, but would give people something to follow along, rewind, and many people, myself included, learn from imitation + adaptation. This kind of tutorial is potentially a much larger project, so I don't think it's a good short term plan/fix, clearly.

I think what you've expressed sounds good! Collating what is available, and giving a good central spot to start learning is essential. Just showing us photoshop plebs how to do things is huge. The tricks the real artists have learned are valuable to those willing to hear; giving those tips a place to not be lost is a worthy endeavor.

The only thing I would suggest beyond what you've got planned is to seek feedback from all avenues. Twitter, Discord, a new forum thread to be highlighted (most people probably ignore this thread), maybe on the front page of the website? Where else does Sphax have a presence - Curseforge? I am only one - loud - voice. ;)

Real talk? I actually heavily prefer VanillaBDcraft, so I actually am super eager to see some guides on that.
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Post 16 Apr 2021, 02:45

Sparkrdom wrote:
15 Apr 2021, 23:29
Videos are difficult, but would give people something to follow along, rewind, and many people, myself included, learn from imitation + adaptation. This kind of tutorial is potentially a much larger project, so I don't think it's a good short term plan/fix, clearly.

I think what you've expressed sounds good! Collating what is available, and giving a good central spot to start learning is essential. Just showing us photoshop plebs how to do things is huge. The tricks the real artists have learned are valuable to those willing to hear; giving those tips a place to not be lost is a worthy endeavor.

The only thing I would suggest beyond what you've got planned is to seek feedback from all avenues. Twitter, Discord, a new forum thread to be highlighted (most people probably ignore this thread), maybe on the front page of the website? Where else does Sphax have a presence - Curseforge? I am only one - loud - voice. ;)

Real talk? I actually heavily prefer VanillaBDcraft, so I actually am super eager to see some guides on that.
I'll make a new thread when I post the first guide for y'all! And honestly, the Vanilla guide will be similar to the Pure guide, except I'll have some more information on colors used in base MC and whatnot.

Videos aren't actually that difficult to do (my husband and I both have streaming setups and have recorded tutorials before), it's more time consuming in terms of writing a script and editing. I think it's for sure doable, though!

And nothin wrong with being a squeaky wheel ;)

Thanks for all of your feedback and input! I can't wait to show you what we're working on :D
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Post 16 Apr 2021, 14:49

For those of you following this topic, I've just posted a new announcement! Go check it out and feel free to leave any feedback or ask any questions over there.
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Post 08 Jan 2022, 02:11

I've never been great at creating textures from scratch, but decent at recoloring, or using elements from a few textures to make something that looks ok. I also had a few threads in the past, but life and work got busy. I also found with the constant mod updates I was spending more time updating patches than actually playing. That said, I'm in the process of putting together a 1.18 personal modpack. I have 44 Sphax patches updated to 1.18 file structure. For most I do not have any new textures added that did not exist in 1.12/1.16 patches. I've created a Mediafire account and will be uploading all patches and sharing them in their respective threads.
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Post 18 Feb 2022, 12:48

I for one would like to see all the psd shared from vanilla as a lot is used in mods, now i do have like most of the blocks but when asking for the missing ones you get a no.
Why if you want a community to help out you still dont wanna share the sources (this is also directed to everyone who creates textures from scratch), it would help out noobs like me a lot cause you can just add the color and block done. This makes it A: a lot faster and B: it motives more. Recoloring blocks isnt always good enough or simply wont cut it and if you want great patches it be better to have the source.

So in all fairness, you can have ppl help out the easy way or have none at all.
I released BYG at 90% done, 700 downloads so its prolly good enough as i havent had any complaints about it and i got way more packs halfway done but i aint gonna release half ass packs and a few of them would be near completion by having the vanilla sources i dont have and recoloring isnt a option on those.

But this is from my perspective and my opinion.
Working on BYG (90% done) and Age of Exile (60%) done.
Making textures with a friend of mine.
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Post 20 Mar 2022, 16:30

StickerMonster wrote:
16 Apr 2021, 14:49
For those of you following this topic, I've just posted a new announcement! Go check it out and feel free to leave any feedback or ask any questions over there.
I am looking forward to seeing your post or videos you do. I have been using sphax for years and have always wanted to dabble in trying to create my own patch for a smaller mod and work my way up from there. I tried making a texture for a block once before but it just didn't look "right" and blend in with the rest of the world when I saw it in game.

I have seen many posts about how creating the sphax texture isn't hard. But I think when you are starting from 0 with little to no knowledge it can be overwhelming and dishearten.
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