How to get your rivers in the right place

[anstett]

I think that lots of people would be interested in such a resource.

A simple one page "do's and don't's " and then additional detail for those that want it would be a great way for beginning mappers or world creators to learn some good info.

BOB

[Kafei]

http://www.mediafire.com/?e6t9adhdarhocme

Here you go, I'll add all the other things posted in this topic later.

[waldronate]

I'd love to see the document, but I'm not much in the mood to install things from third party sites. Any chance that it could be directly uploaded here, instead?

[rahta]

I already downloaded it (i am not really the cautious type, heehe ""XD) and it is a really useful document. Like this thread itself. I hope it is not a problem if i upload it here for you, Kafei. It will be just much faster for the others. Here ya guys go.

[Schwarzkreuz]

Oh thats realy great, thanks for the afford (+Rep)

[vorropohaiah]

this seems quite handy!

[Realmwright]

All very good points. I remember only a little from jr high Earth Science, but I remember lots from college geography courses. The bottom line is that, as our illustrious post leader pointed out, water must flow downhill and/or gather in lowland areas. It is very good advice to figure your terrain features and mountains BEFORE placing rivers because I tend to think you only get a say in one or the other. Mountains tell you where rivers can be, and vice versa. As for the bit about water tables and springs, it makes sense, but it's also pretty deep (no pun intended). If most other mappers are like me they get a blank outline and then stare at it dumbfounded about what to do next. Great, I have a shape of the landmass......now what? Figuring out the surface terrain is enough of a task without trying to incorporate soil density.

[Redrobes]

Hi Caenwyr, that software was my own and its unreleased. Its a total PITA to use and it has no GUI so it would be a problem releasing it. However, there is Wilbur which is written by another member here and the author of Fractal Terrains. Wilbur is free and downloadable and also calculates river path predictions based on similar criteria to my app simulation. So check this link out:

http://www.fracterra.com/software.html

[Midgardsormr]

I found an interesting factoid that probably only the most ardent of us will apply: The ratio between the length of a meandering river and the length of a line drawn from its source to its mouth approximates pi (3.14159…).

Pi -- from Wolfram MathWorld

[RobA]

I found an interesting factoid

Sounds more like a "fractoid"

-Rob (not very punny) A>