Tile / Texture blending techniques.

[Aylorian]

I have a "C" program that will be used to create maps from a game using ImageMagick. Each room in the game will be assigned a texture and possibly wall textures, other artifacts in the room, a noise layer to mix things up, etc.

I wanted to ask the pros on the board, if you knew you were going to have to blend any number of square textures into any number of other textures, what approach would you use to get the best feel overall? A gradient on a layer mask? Blurring / merging the edges? Something else? Each tile is 50x50 so there isn't much space to work with.

The attached image is just for example purposes, it's not a real map -- the center part of it very well could be though. The square paving onto the grass may be ok if it isn't a ruins, but the light grass to dark grass transition isn't. I can play around with merging (for example) 2 grass textures and get it just right - but that mode won't work when I get to blending the path outside a temple with the desert surrounding it.

In many cases, I may not even know what textures are being used - dungeon creators in the game will be free to use their own textures.

So, what I'm hoping to get is opinions / advice on the best way to approach this that will work overall. I realize this might mean that none of the blending is ever the "best" for the two tiles being blending, but a good compromise that will work overall.

I've read so many different techniques that can be used --- too many options and little feel for what is likely to be the best approach. I'll be doing lots of trial and error of course, but any advice is greatly appreciated.