Quote Originally Posted by Renacido View Post
Hai-Etlik, thank you for the input! I was aiming for a global map, is there a better shape than a rectangle to use for a globe sort of map that you recommend? I've made some changes to the WIP that's posted here, though I'll be putting that in the WIP/critique area, and not here.

I'm pretty new to maps, so I'll take whatever pointers I can get.
It isn't the shape by itself, it's what the shape implies about the projection used. It's impossible to draw a flat map of a globe without causing some form of distortion. So if you are making a map of a globe from scratch, you have to draw the correct distortion into it, otherwise it means that the features of your map, on the globe itself are what are distorted.

Cylindrical projections (Those that make global maps rectangular) are fairly simple, and have their uses, but they also have some problems. Consider that the width at the middle, is the entire circumference, while the width at the top or bottom, is 0, as it's just a a single point, the north or south pole, stretched out.

That's why your icecaps are wonky, If they circle the poles,then they should span the entire map and their edges should never touch the top or bottom edges of the map.

I'm afraid I don't have time to go into details but you can look at the Wikipedia pages on Projections Map projection - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia or look up some of my previous posts with the forum search function.