Cities: Skylines use the grass texture to fill the map where there is no water or rock. The desert theme replaces the green color of the grass with light brown. So the “grass” texture is still the background on the map, but the color is not green.
The ground resources tool is able to paint fertile land, but it also uses the grass texture. The tool can paint ore, so if we change the texture of ore to green grass, we can paint green areas in the desert.
To paint grass in a desert-themed game, create a new theme with green grass as the texture for ore.
Texture file
- Create a texture file, or download one from the internet.
You can download free seamless game texture files from https://opengameart.org
Grass texture: ground_grass_gen_10.png
Save the texture file at “C:\Users\YOUR_USER_NAME\AppData\Local\Colossal Order\Cities_Skylines\Addons\ThemeEditor\ThemeTextures”
Create a new theme
- Open the Theme Editor and load an existing theme.
- Open the Terrain Properties tool
- Select the Ore icon
- Select the texture file and click the Select button
- Create a snapshot
- Open the Snapshot tool
- Click with the left mouse button to take a snapshot
- Save the theme with a new name, don’t forget to change the name from “New theme”
Install the mod
- Install and activate the Extra Landscaping Tools mod by BoodyPinguin. It will allow you to place natural resources in the game.
Paint the grass
- In the game open the Natural Resources tool
- Paint ore where you want to show grass.
- You can use the sand tool to trim the edge of the grass.