General software capability question

[Vigilus]

Is there any software out there that can combine free form map making of Photoshop with something like fractal terrains, where I can choose to designate areas (in incredible detail) that can be randomly generated across the multitude of functions Fractal terrains has to offer(not necessarily all of them), yet the generation area isn't limited to the entire map at once. Can a generator like fractal terrains be made to fit within existing shapes designated by the user?

[waldronate]

You can (sorta) make Fractal Terrains use an arbitrary world shape by starting with an image of the shape that you want, loading that as a binary world (scaled to, say, -10000 to +10000), burning that into the surface, then setting the roughness channel to something like 0.2 to get a little of the altitude onto the binary image. Naturally, the better the image you start with, the better your results will be.
https://cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=29412 has a lot of examples of using a different tool to generate high-resolution random surfaces as well using exact surfaces to control the shapes of what you get.

[Vigilus]

How do you load an existing file into fractal terrains? I've looked at tutorials on this site and others and I haven't been able to do it. I'm sure it's some arcane technical requirement that I have no formal understanding of.

[waldronate]

https://www.cartographersguild.com/a...chmentid=70259 shows how to go from FT to Wilbur and back again. The simplest solution is to read the image file in Wilbur and save it from there as an MDR, which FT loads natively (you'll need to flip it vertically in Wilbur before saving due to a very old bug in Wilbur). The second-easiest option for grayscale images is to load the file as a selection in FT (the file needs to be a whole-world image in the Equirectangular projection) and then fill the selection.

[Vigilus]

Well then that bug was my problem, along with the proper file type. I spent a lot of time on my Wilbur file as well, so it'll be great to finally use it!

Thank you once again Waldronate!

[Vigilus]

I didn't start with a Fractal Terrains file, I created my map by hand. Since this is the first prerequisite of your tutorial I imagine that it won't work, is there a workaround or is it irrelevant?

[Vigilus]

Here's a detailed response to this issue that I found, any additional suggestions would be helpful!

jslaytonjslayton Mapmaker Moderator, ProFantasy August 2017
Ah... I thought you meant acf for the height map, not acf for the color to altitude conversion.

There are a number of ways to convert the grayscale image into a binary file that FT3 can use, but the simplest is probably via Wilbur ( http://www.fracterra.com/software.html ).


In Wilbur:
1) Use File>>Open to load your PNG file as a grayscale image file
2) Use Filter>>Mathematical>>Offset with a value of -128 to drop the oceans below sea level. Your terrain is now ranging from about -128 to about +127.
3) Use Filter>>Mathematical>>Scale with a value of 70 to scale your terrain from about -9000 to +9000 (assume meters for units in FT).
4) Use Surface>>Rotate>>Flip Vertically to account for a bug in the Wilbur to FT transfer process
5) Use File>>Save As with file type MDR Surface to save your file. Accept the default parameters.

In FT:
a) Use File>>New to bring up the new world wizard
b) Select Binary File and click Next to bring up the Binary Data page
c) Click Choose Elevation File to bring up the Binary Data dialog
d) Click the ... button to bring up a file picker
e) Select your MDR file saved in step 5 of the Wilbur process and click OK. You should see information about your world
f) Set the Map Edges to Top=90, Left=-180, Right=180, and Bottom=-90
g) Click OK to accept the data definition and dismiss the Binary Data dialog
h) Click Next to bring up the Summary page
i) Click Finish to finish the world operation
j) Enjoy your new world

If you would like to eliminate the external dependence on the binary file:
Use Map>>World Setting to bring up the World Settings property sheet.
Select the Editing page.
Select Custom and enter 6000 (your world's editing resolution) as the value.
Click Apply to accept the new editing value.
Use Tools>>Actions>>Burn Into Surface to convert the altitude into offset editing values.

You can now use normal FT editing operations.

[Vigilus]

ANNNND Here it is!!!

Thanks for the help!

First Import into Fractal Terrains!.PNG

[waldronate]

That jslayton guy seems to know his stuff! Congratulations on getting it working!