We need more difference in map themes!

Sounds ridiculous, cause even if one can't create textures for himself, there are tons of texture sites around with great quantity of free material.

Could you please tell me more about those sites?
I hadnt found yet a page that gives you textures with normal map and alpha channel with high quality.

Btw, what size and ppi (pixels per inch) should the textures have to be considered high quality?

I can indeed create the textures but without norm map or alpha channel, i suck at doing that, maybe if someone helps me with those things....

Gosh, is generating normal map with one of a hundred plugins and editors that much of a trouble? Or drawing an aplha channel for your grate texture by outlining contours? It's not all that hard and does not require pro artistic skillz.

As for sites:
http://cgtextures.com/
http://www.arroway-textures.com/ - Might be a great source if you're fine with lower res textures from previews. Replace catalog with catalog_static in the URL for easier grabbing of textures.
http://www.archibase.net/textures
http://textures.forrest.cz/
http://www.imageafter.com/
http://www.grsites.com/archive/textures/
http://www.texturewiz.com/
http://www.textureking.com/

Do I need to name more? Again, it's not so hard to find them around.
You can't expect any site to provide you with bunch of perfectly tiled textures complemented with normal, height, alpha and gloss maps. But doing this much is a part of regular level designer's workflow. His job is not only all about moving brushes here and there.

IIRC recommended texture resolution for Xonotic is at least 512x512. Plus small scaling when you use it in maps.

Gosh, is generating normal map with one of a hundred plugins and editors that much of a trouble? Or drawing an aplha channel for your grate texture by outlining contours? It's not all that hard and does not require pro artistic skillz.

I'm not english native speaker and sometimes its really hard for me to understand all those things, indeed i dont even understand what you mean by "for your grate texture by outlining contours". Tutorials in spanish are bad and don't help at all and so far you are showing me that asking for help is not an option.

Now, are you wondering why people is not participating as much as you would like?
I think that people like me that tries to help is let down with that kind of attitude. I'm trying my best, i ask for help and you just say: "gosh, is generating normal map that much of a trouble?"

Well, as for me I'll finish the assault map i'm working on and that's it. I've had too many problems with it that i had to solved myself because asking for help didn't work. I was thinking about creating 3 or more assault maps but it seems no one is interested in helping helping with new textures for them so i'm done.

The standards that you are setting are way too high and i don't want to continue trying to reach them.

I'm not english native speaker

So am I.
By the way, your english is not all that bad. I don't think you'd have trouble understanding illustrated tutorials in english or videotuts with subtitles.

i ask for help and you just say:

I don't "just say", I pointed out several useful sites for getting textures, as you asked. Second site, for instance, even has additional maps for textures, just the thing you needed.

I think that people like me that tries to help is let down with that kind of attitude.

And I'm disappointed by this attitude:

The standards that you are setting are way too high and i don't want to continue trying to reach them.

If that was the way I work, I'd be still making crappy 3-roomed maps for some counter-strike zombie mod.
Failing in something is not a crime. Not aiming for a better result is.

Now now. What's this unfriendly attitude here, this does not meet Xonotic forum standards as far as I am informed.

forseti, have you tried getting help on IRC? There's a channel dedicated to mapping, #xonotic.editing, on quakenet. Usually Xonotic community members are willing to help you out, but on the other hand creating textures is not one of Xonotic's main occupations (as you may see from the limited texture sets we have). Just don't expect to receive an answer on IRC within 15 minutes, it may very well take a couple of hours :o)

Yeah... there's really no reason to get upset over this. If you can't do it, it's alright. No one forces you to map something you don't want to. I'm mostly intending this as a guideline, and a request for mappers who have the will to push / diversify the existent style of maps. Any different map style you feel you are able to do works as well.

@ Lord Canistra: Thanks for posting those links! I hope they're GPL textures, and come with normal maps and stuff. Also that they're 512 x 512 at least, otherwise they're not much use for Xonotic. I'm gonna try looking for some punk city textures, as that's an official Xonotic map I plan to try making among others.

As for sites:
http://cgtextures.com/
http://www.arroway-textures.com/ - Might be a great source if you're fine with lower res textures from previews. Replace catalog with catalog_static in the URL for easier grabbing of textures.
http://www.archibase.net/textures
http://textures.forrest.cz/
http://www.imageafter.com/
http://www.grsites.com/archive/textures/
http://www.texturewiz.com/
http://www.textureking.com/

Thanks for posting those links! I hope they're GPL textures, and come with normal maps and stuff. Also that they're 512 x 512 at least, otherwise they're not much use for Xonotic. I'm gonna try looking for some punk city textures, as that's an official Xonotic map I plan to try making among others.

Non of those sites offer GPL textures, in fact some can't be used even in closed source maps.

cgtextures.com can't be used because:

It is NOT permitted to:
...
- Release the Textures or derivative products under Open Source Licences

Unless you keep your map closed source?

arroway-textures.com can't be used because:

2. LICENSE GRANT

Arroway Textures grants you a license to use and modify the textures included in one copy of Arroway Textures.

They don't give you redistribution rights.

archibase.net can't be used because:

All Images and Objects are the property of their Respective Owners

imageafter.com is strange because:

you CAN redistribute or sell our images and textures ALTERED OR UNALTERED as part of printed work
you CANNOT REDISTRIBUTE our images and textures as part of an online resource site like our own, i.e. use them to directly compete with us.

I'd say thats usable.

grsites.com can be used (I think) because:

The background textures, fonts and sound effects found on this site were not created by the webmaster, but were obtained from various sources on the internet that described these graphics as freeware. They are free to use for personal and commercial use

Freeware isn't GPL, idk if you can use it.

texturewiz.com can't be used because:

Non-Commercial Use Only

The images and content on this web site are provided for personal, non-commercial use. You agree not to use the images, text and content on this web site for any commercial purpose, sale, resale or compilation, distribution or re-transmission.

textureking.com can't be used because:

a) Permitted Product Usage

You are permitted to use our textures to design as many projects as necessary, including those you are creating for your clients. You may not resell or redistribute the textures in any other way, modified, unmodified, standalone or combined with another product without prior written (email) consent from us.

c) Unauthorized Distribution

You may not place any of our textures, modified or unmodified, on a diskette, CD, website or any other medium and offer them for redistribution or resale in a fashion that would violate this license.

textures.forrest.cz doesn't state copyright or terms of use, defaulting to "all rights reserved".
However they seem to intend free usage.

Some thoughts:
Most if these sites are for use in CG renders or animations but not really for games where the textures are going to be redistributed.
So that are 4 sites of witch may probably use in your map, 3 who may permit GPL re-licensing.
I don't think any of these sites are going to notice or care that you use there textures, but technically they can't be used.

texturewiz.com can't be used because:
Non-Commercial Use Only

That's interesting. What does fall under term "commercial use" and what does not? I thought it's somehow connected to whether person or organization obtains any explicit profit from selling or distributing their work. Yet my knowledge is poor in this area. Can you explain why "non-commercial use" stuff is not suitable for Xonotic?
Also, could you tell me if this tool can be used for creating textures in Xonotic? Cause that is what I currently use for making my stuff.

texturewiz.com can't be used because:
Non-Commercial Use Only

That's interesting. What does fall under term "commercial use" and what does not? I thought it's somehow connected to whether person or organization obtains any explicit profit from selling or distributing their work. Yet my knowledge is poor in this area. Can you explain why "non-commercial use" stuff is not suitable for Xonotic?
Also, could you tell me if this tool can be used for creating textures in Xonotic? Cause that is what I currently use for making my stuff.

I don't know much about this stuff, sorry if I made it seem that way.
The reason I think texturewiz can't be used is because it states: "You agree not to use my stuff for ... distribution or re-transmission."
I guess the best way to find out if you may use textures from a site is to contact them and ask if you can redistribute the textures under a GPL license. That should clear things up.

As for the program you mentioned: you could ask if a picture made in photoshop automatically belongs to adobe, because you used there copyrighted program to produce said picture.
I don't think so, but I really don't know.
I remember reading somewhere how the output of a program does not follow the copyright of the program. The copyright instead belongs to the person who used the program to make the output. Sadly I need to put a [citation needed] here.
But its obviously not in there best interest to sue there costumers ;-) thus there should be no problem in using programs to make (procedural) textures.

I hope someone smarter than me can comment on this. (in specific what websites we can use)

texturewiz.com can't be used because:
Non-Commercial Use Only

That's interesting. What does fall under term "commercial use" and what does not? I thought it's somehow connected to whether person or organization obtains any explicit profit from selling or distributing their work. Yet my knowledge is poor in this area. Can you explain why "non-commercial use" stuff is not suitable for Xonotic?

GPL does allow commercial use (i.e. you may actually sell copies of Xonotic if you want, or include it in commercial items like game magazine cds or similar). So if you release the textures under GPL, it would be allowed to commercially use it, as long as it is licensed under GPL. But then that would not be conform with the license "not for commercial use" that applies to the textures.

And there's a definite decision that we don't want dual licensing (different licenses for different parts of the game).

forseti, have you tried getting help on IRC? There's a channel dedicated to mapping, #xonotic.editing, on quakenet. Usually Xonotic community members are willing to help you out, but on the other hand creating textures is not one of Xonotic's main occupations (as you may see from the limited texture sets we have). Just don't expect to receive an answer on IRC within 15 minutes, it may very well take a couple of hours :o)

Yeah, i asked for help at #xonotic.editing but since no one knows how assault maps work no one answered me although i waited 3 hours

About textures, i think it'd help if someone creates a "textures thread" o a sub-forum or whatever where people can share their textures, that way if a mapper likes one he can use it.

Also, as i said, i can create textures or patterns, with a 'textures thread' i would be able to post them and maybe someone would create the gloss, alpha, height and normal maps.
Maybe we have people who can create great textures and patterns but they dont do it or they dont share them because they are having the same problems that i have with the normal, gloss and those maps.

---

If that was the way I work, I'd be still making crappy 3-roomed maps for some counter-strike zombie mod.
Failing in something is not a crime. Not aiming for a better result is.

It's not the same when someone says "you have to do this no matter how" than when some says "you have to try to do this, if you can't i may help you"

Creating maps is not my job, i do this on my free time because i like it, i'm not obliged to learn how to create models, how to create perfect textures, how to do this and that. I've tried to but i couldn't, now i'm asking for help.
I need help to get new textures, can someone please provide me some? I can create some patterns but i need help with the maps for them.

I need help with music/sounds, can someone please provide me some?

I need help with testing, can someone please set a server to test the map balance?

I won't learn everything just because you tell me to do so. I've spent more than 50 hours with the assault map i'm creating, please don't ask me to spend another 50 trying to learn how to create a new texture because i won't.