Tainted Land

[Jykke]

Thanks alot everyone The positive feedback tells that I'm heading into right direction. I'll try to create a landmass that is worthy of the mountains!

[Jykke]

I did some testing today and got some "ok" results. I managed to create somekind of landmass for the mountains, and here's a quickly textured preview version (note that the material distribution is quite erratic on some occations, as there is forest under the water etc..) The distribution was done quite randomly, because I just wanted to see how the land would look if it has some forest covering it. So, I might want to look at the texture distribution (and the landmass details) again, and tweak them.

Edit: added a second render, a closeup with additional fine detail perlin noise to the terrain. It's quite a mess because of the distributions aren't in order yet, but well.. I wanted to post it anyway. (edit, annnnd took it away for a while.. will post a better one shortly) edit: ok, here's a proper one

[Jykke]

Here's another development version. I noticed the textures were too sharp, so I rendered a new hi-res version of the map and put a small blur on it. Water still looks horrible on some locations.. and well, there's still a long way to go. Oh, and I don't like the continent shape at the moment, too squary etc.

[Steel General]

I like these, but to me at least the last one is to blurry.

[Ascension]

I'm diggin it.

[Greason Wolfe]

I keep looking at this and I keep seeing an island rather than a continent. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing and comes about mostly as a matter of perceived scale.

Assuming it is a continent (say something roughly as wide as North America at its widest) then the mountains come across as being exceptionally wide at the base in some locations. This, in turn, suggests exceptionally high peaks. Again, not a bad thing if that's the intent. But where it really begins to throw the scale off for me is at the shore. If the scale is consistent across the board, then some of those wave/white-cap features are hundreds of miles in width.

Conversely, if I look at this as an island, the perceived scale falls right into place with nothing being too large or too small compared to the rest. It is one of the things I have a problem with when it comes to my own maps. I've always thought a map should give an impression of scale (via landforms) even without legends and such. I find myself struggling to give that impression in my own maps more often than not. Of course, it could just be me, I'm a bit weird like that sometimes.

Mind you, I'm not trying to nit-pick or suggest that you change anything. It is, after all, your map to work with. Just offering some food for thought.

Beyond that, I think things are looking good so far. You've already mentioned not being happy with the oceans and that you may need to do some more texture work, so I'll not harp on those. I am curious, though, if you are building this entirely with Vue and Geocontrol or if you are incorporating other software packages as well.

GW

[pasis]

Great work Jykke. Keep it up.

[Jykke]

I keep looking at this and I keep seeing an island rather than a continent. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing and comes about mostly as a matter of perceived scale.

Assuming it is a continent (say something roughly as wide as North America at its widest) then the mountains come across as being exceptionally wide at the base in some locations. This, in turn, suggests exceptionally high peaks. Again, not a bad thing if that's the intent. But where it really begins to throw the scale off for me is at the shore. If the scale is consistent across the board, then some of those wave/white-cap features are hundreds of miles in width.

Conversely, if I look at this as an island, the perceived scale falls right into place with nothing being too large or too small compared to the rest. It is one of the things I have a problem with when it comes to my own maps. I've always thought a map should give an impression of scale (via landforms) even without legends and such. I find myself struggling to give that impression in my own maps more often than not. Of course, it could just be me, I'm a bit weird like that sometimes.

Mind you, I'm not trying to nit-pick or suggest that you change anything. It is, after all, your map to work with. Just offering some food for thought.

Beyond that, I think things are looking good so far. You've already mentioned not being happy with the oceans and that you may need to do some more texture work, so I'll not harp on those. I am curious, though, if you are building this entirely with Vue and Geocontrol or if you are incorporating other software packages as well.

GW

Thanks for the in-depth view of the map You are right about many things about the map. The mountains look a bit unnatural because they are quite large in overall. Maybe I should take some influence on those from some of the relief maps representing earth (Example). It also bothers me a bit that almost all the mountains have the same style.

The features of the terrain are quite important when it comes to giving impression about the scale. BUT, if I truly want it to be scaled right, it would probably mean less details, and another texture for forests etc. You are correct that it could pass as a island, in the scale aspect.. but not as a continent. This is something I need to rethink, and reflect on. I would want to add those details, but will it set the scale off then..

..About the shoreline, it is abit too unnatural, because of too many rigdes and so on. I need to find a way to do the erosion and landforms just right and more natural looking.

And the tools. I haven't added any features to the terrain etc. with other programs than vue and geocontrol. I did some colour adjustments on some pictures with photoshop, and also added blur to one of the images with it. But that's pretty much all I did with PS.

Thanks again for all who commented on the map!

[Greason Wolfe]

Don't get me wrong. I still think it looks good so far. And once you add in other features (or define them better if that's the approach you're taking) the perceived scale might fall into place. Like I said, I have a problem with this when I'm working on my maps, and I'm having a huge problem with it for the Hearthstone map. It's a touchy area sometimes, and I'm really hoping that when I start laying in other features (besides the mountains) that things will start to fall into place.

In any event, keep plugging away. The coloring is good and I think the textures are fine just as they are. Being unfamiliar with vue and geocontrol, I'm not sure what you can do to vary the style/shape of the mountains. Maybe a bit of noise (if possible) or varied erosion (i.e. heavier erosion in one area, typical erosion in another area and so on).

GW

[Jykke]

It's just that I'm quite critical to myself when it comes to mapping.