Here is another test with some texture tiling refinement and the first real tree.
I've settled on the look I'm trying for - which is a pretty much
Rose Online. If you havent heard of
Rose its an Americanized Korean RPG. You could call it a WoW ripoff but it is far more anime oriented than that. Anyway - I like the look and its very uplifting especially for children. Here is a decent Rose cap
. When the first walking jelly bean tells you "
I may never be a real Jelly bean but at least I won't be eaten alive" you know its pretty out there. Its a wierd game. Anyway - enough about Rose Online.
I'm really starting to love
Paint.NET. developing that tree canopy texture was a breeze. I started with photo of a real vine wall and simply applied some blurr and "oil painting" effect. I think it looks pretty decent. The bark started out as real limestone, and the paths 2 different real dirt photos. The grass started out as a FRAPS screen cap from PacMan World 2 but then modified with hue adjustment and oil painting effects and blurring. the only weakness of
Paint.NET is the lack of an airbrush and the bizzarre attitude of the developers refusing to add one. I don't get that. I have to resort to the dreaded GIMP for airbrushing. I havent needed it here though yet. The memory footprint for
Paint.NET is pretty bad too (~200MG).
That screen was taken with both 3DMax and Paint.NET up - the real FPS is about 190.