Thanks DavidWebb! I'm glad you like it!

Once again you showed,, that you are one of the best around. Top work as usual. Thanks.

Hi me22ca, I've made better map themes since, but glad you like it :) Definitely have recommendations:
This pack of LUTs has beautiful LUTs for vanilla and modded users https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1889738001&searchtext=

and this LUT is hands down one of the best for clarity and realism https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1605134064&searchtext=

Love the cliff texture in this! Have a recommended LUT to go with it?

Cool! I hope the most recent update looks nice. I totally forgot about making pictures of the new version :D

LOVE this theme. Boreal was always my favorite theme, it looked the most real to me, but this one is even better! It's really really good.

Been busy with life and otherwise lazy recently. Haven't made much progress. I'm also one of those who is easily distracted. I started two more maps since starting this one. I seem to get tired of the difficult, tedious work of laying out the network and end up going to build more terrain instead. Need to find a magic focus pill.

Great! Do share the link when done, I'll be glad to go over and press that thumbs up button!

I heavily reworked my map. It works much better with the theme now. I'll post a link to the full map when it's finally finished. But here's a screenshot for now. I forget what LUT I'm using at the moment.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1652705711

It looks great, just have to be picky about what map to use it on. I'm not sure the screenshot I shared was the updated version. I think you updated after I created that map. I rebuilt the map after taking that shot and it looked very different. The updated theme looks much better both up close and at a distance.
Once I get the heightmap tweaked the way I want it I'll start playing with the terraforming to see if I can break up the walls a bit. I don't want to mess with it in World Machine any further since I'm, new to that as well and would most likely screw up what I already have. On the upside, that wall is outside the 25-tile area. So it isn't a huge issue.

Okay, instead I saw how awful it looks in a very mountainous map, so I changed the cliff texture size back to the original and uploaded it here. If it hasn't updated for you, just restart Steam and it should download the version updated just now.
Hope it looks good again for you!

Oh :/ yeahh, you discovered the downside of making a map theme's textures crisper. Turns flat, large exposure of cliffs into tablecloth :D The larger the tiling (pattern repetition) gets, the less of the problem seen in your picture that one has, whereas the smaller the tiling, the crisper and sharper the result.
The only way it's going to look better is with a lot more roughing up and trees interspersed on the sides, too.
Hold on a few minutes, I'll change that back, then share with you the original theme file so you can fine tune the theme to whatever sizing looks best for you :)

I need to rough up my map a bit. Even with the terracing I got huge flat walls that don't play well with the cliff texture.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1646899407

Minor update Feb 2 2019, sharpened sand texture and rock texture. More improvements possible

"look like an old gym sock." LOL :D

I just converted my vanilla boreal map to this theme and, wow! Beautifully done. I actually enjoy playing now that the map doesn't look like an old gym sock.

yea... update please

and holy cow, the sand on this theme is awful :D must update

Hey Trexula, no problem at all. Luckily all you need is either PS or GIMP because they are 2D. You use lots of different things like masks, but no coding required.

The best place to start looking is this guide by Hadece: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=875340826&searchtext=map+theme

Then from there I've seen a lot of helpful stuff by Ronyx69. It was either on Reddit or Simtropolis, and he's made a great youtube video on making these textures by hand. That should be all you need to start fiddling with textures and making themex! :)

Hey... if I were interested and found the spare time to start creating texture packs or something, would you have any advice or guidance on where I might start? Maybe point me in the right direction? Any recommended websites with loads of help? What programs do you use? I have Adobe Photoshop... but the objects are 3D, right?

Sorry to bombard you with questions lol ... I've just been wanting to do something more productive as a change of pace from just gaming hours on end. :) Thought about trying to get into Visual Studio... but I haven't coded since 2003! Haha... I thought creating textures might be a bit easier.

I'm better at textures since I published this... shoot I've never updated this one. Yikes, well I hope it looks okay but let me know if something looks terrible :D

Gonna check your theme out... just going by the screen shots, it looks effing awesome

Thanks! :) Hope the brightness change improved things

Thumbs up

Great Job

Thumbs up