[WIP] Please critique

[cantab]

Yes. In more detail, to keep the maximum height the same, you need to do

y = x^n / x_max^(n-1)

Where x is the original height, x_max the original maximum height, and y the output height.

(So if you square it, then divide by the maximum height. If you cube it, divide by the maximum height squared.)

For my map "A Region Like Great Britain" I used this approach.

[Master TMO]

The FTPro math tool won't work on absolute altitude, only Offset or Prescale Offset, so I have to burn the surface first, to convert everything into the Offset channel. It will restrict itself to a selected area though, so if I select all land with elevation >0 it won't affect the seabottoms (not that FT's seabottoms are particularly accurate, but it avoids issues with negative numbers). I'll have to muck about more with this to get numbers that do about what I want. My initial trial I moved all elevation up 1000' (to keep the continental shelves attached), squared the offset, divided by 22000 (approx max height, since there's no quick way I know of to find the actual max height). Then I goofed and dropped the elevation by 1000' again, which was just plain stupid, since almost everything promptly sank beneath the ocean. I have this feeling there's a guy in an ark down there shaking his fist at me.

I'll keep playing with this and see what I can get. It doesn't quite work on world continents as is, as it really calls attention to the fact that the mountains are singular blobs - each continent looks totally flat except for one mountain off in a corner somewhere. Exponents <2 would do a less drastic job and probably look better cosmetically. But I also see that I can also Math on selection boundaries, which sounds very intriguing.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like the Global Math tool is accessible through scripts. If I get something neat, it would be nice to be able to record the steps as a script for re-use on other maps.