WIP - Batai

[Master TMO]

Just a check, to see if anyone watching this thread is knowledgable with the Incise Flow command in FTPro - I am wanting to use it to create wider riverbead channels across the many flat areas of my map, but it really only seems to show any visible changes to the sloped areas. Any suggestions on what settings to use to get a visible channel across the areas filled in with the Basin Fill command?

Thanks in advance.

[waldronate]

http://www.ridgenet.net/~jslayton/CGTutorial/ shows that the Amount setting on the Incise Flow tool will make flat-bottomed channels but they will end up at 0 altitude; the Effect Blend setting will push that up by an amount intermediary between the valley bottom and original landscape when varied between 1 and 0. You have to interpret the visual results a little, but that's what seems to happen.

[Master TMO]

I followed that tutorial's steps in the original map, and it carved out the mountains just fine. But what I was looking to do was put in riverbeds on the flat plain areas. It is carving gullies in the sloped areas, but I'm not seeing any effects at all in the flat plains. I've got those two flat areas right next to each other, the southern Great Desert and the Rainforest just south of it, and the mountains surrounding both are etched when I run it, but there is no apparent change to the plains themselves.

[waldronate]

Do you have a picture? Incise Flow works with aggregate flow, meaning that if either the flow isn't connected or if there is insufficient flow then there won't be an effect. http://www.ridgenet.net/~jslayton/Fu...ol1/index.html shows how the effect should work across relatively flat areas (the code for incise flow is the same in both Wilbur and FT).

If the flow isn't connected (which is quite likely if there hasn't been a basin fill operation recently) then there will be odd "pits" at the end of rivers.

[Master TMO]

I will collect and post some pics for you. I'll make sure to do a Basin fill and smooth of 2 before running it, too.

[Master TMO]

Oh, and while I'm here, I'll post the super-pretty output of the world. I don't think there's a lot left to do to it other than rivers. It uses a2area's climate image map. I have Waldronrate's climate image map also, but it didn't seem to mesh quite as well in the arctic regions. There were long strands of black rock running in patterns throughout it. Probably a quick randomization pass on temp/rainfall would have fixed it.

[Master TMO]

Ok, here are the pictures. They are, in order:
1: Base image of the Rainforest. I picked it because it won't have the possible excuse of not enough rainfall.
2: After a Basin Fill
3: After a Global Smooth 2
4 & 5: After Incise Flow with settings 1, 0.667, 1, 1, with and without rivers. I picked those settings because I knew they'd be strong enough to have *some* effect.

You can see the carving along the sloped edges, but there is no visible change to the flatlands. Any ideas if I'm doing something wrong?

PS - Since the rivers typically run from NW to SE, I changed the sun to the NE to maximise the chances of highlighting a trench edge with shadow.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[waldronate]

FT's rivers won't cut below sea level. It's a "feature" of the algorithm. It's also a feature of real rivers. If you drop the sea level a bit and do the river cuts, they will do quite a bit to your terrain in those areas.

[RobA]

It's also a feature of real rivers.

ROFLMAO!!

-Rob A>

[su_liam]

Well, in his defense, the sea level in FT is defined as a raster, so, you know, Death Valley and the low areas around the Dead Sea(apparently some variation of "dead" is a word meaning "way down there") are above sea level. Locally.