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Thread: A WIP aka My tortured dream.

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    Guild Journeyer hohum's Avatar
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    Wip A WIP aka My tortured dream.

    As promised here is my world map that I've been obsessing about for the last 3 weeks, give or take.



    The method is based on Torq's tutorial using Wilbur and GIMP.

    I have to go meet the bus so I'll post more later. Comments and criticism greatly appreciated.

    ***The code is there directing it to my album but I don't see it either.***
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    Last edited by hohum; 12-03-2009 at 05:55 PM. Reason: Looking for image problem

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    I'm not sure if I am doing something wrong, but I cant see the map.
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    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    When you post there is a button labeled as "Manage Attachments"...click on that and then browse your hard drive to the file then click upload. When editing a post you have to click on "Go Advanced" then proceed.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

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    Alright, I can see it now...

    I'm not sure if this is the intended look, but it looks like your land masses are cutouts from a larger landmass. Thus the terrain doesn't seem to flow. Others can probably explain better than I.
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    Guild Journeyer hohum's Avatar
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    Now that I look at it on the guild I see one problem I was ignoring. The continents definitely look like cut outs on top of the sea. That is because they are. I used the load selection function in wilbur after I had mad a mask of my continent shapes.

    I started with using the GIMP. Create > Pattern > Render Map and got gimp world 1.

    I then loaded it into G Projector to get a rectangular projection and rotated it to look at the different continents.

    I then moved a couple of continents around and filled them out in GIMP and then reloaded them into G Projector just to check for spikes towards the poles. I think it came out okay.

    I spent the Thanksgiving Holiday, after eating a lot of pie, doodling tectonics, currents and climate zones.

    When I got back I began using wilbur in earnest to make the sea floor and the elevation for the continents. I encountered several problems which has left me where I am.

    I am somewhat wedded to the continental shape, having spent so much time massaging it, and I was trying to use wilbur to dictate the rivers. I was going to make my own height map but went with one generated by wilbur after I found the directions for load selection.
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  6. #6
    Guild Journeyer hohum's Avatar
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    Davros1: I'm not sure if this is the intended look, but it looks like your land masses are cutouts from a larger landmass. Thus the terrain doesn't seem to flow.
    You are correct and it is not really my intent, primarily an editorial oversight. I'm also not totally sure how to fix it.

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    Administrator Redrobes's Avatar
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    Firstly welcome to the guild - I should say that in the intro thread but then Id have to post twice... anyways. Good effort on the world map. Heres my thoughts. I think that you could do with more detail on the land which I would think means running at a higher resolution if you are able. Then for the sea it depends what kind of style map your going for but it looks like your trying for a realistic satellite view. In which case I personally think that the subsea depth map should be almost entirely hidden. Almost because the sea is a little bit translucent in clear water. Of course I have seen maps where you get the depth on the same chart too tho.

    Also at world scales you just dont see rivers. At least on earth you dont unless you are running at very high res indeed. I think the nile is about a mile wide at its widest (bar its delta) so a mile on 26000 or whatever it is means 1 pixel wide rivers when you render at 26000 pixels wide. So at the scale you are hitting, concentrate on the mountains, big forests, deserts etc

  8. #8
    Guild Expert rdanhenry's Avatar
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    There is also a mismatch between ocean and land. You've got mid-ocean ridges, fine, but if your ocean shows depth, there should be continental shelves around the land. The ocean and land appear independent of each other, whereas in a real world, they are one piece, just flooded up to a certain elevation.

    Oops. I was commenting on the original post. New stuff got posted in between my opening the thread and posting my own comment. The newer images suggest a much better look developing.
    Last edited by rdanhenry; 12-03-2009 at 06:42 PM. Reason: Posts made while I was composing led to possible confusion

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    Guild Journeyer hohum's Avatar
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    rdanhenry:
    Oops. I was commenting on the original post. New stuff got posted in between my opening the thread and posting my own comment. The newer images suggest a much better look developing.
    Actually I back tracked so I went away from the initial images a little.

    Redrobes:
    Also at world scales you just dont see rivers.
    I have noticed that. You have to zoom in quite close to see the Nile and the Mississippi, the Amazon you can see traces of a little farther out.

    I had been meaning to ask some questions about scale and resolution before I got to work, but I just got this map under my skin and couldn't let it alone.

    I need to look at some planetary scale stuff again. I also need to be a little clearer in what I m trying to achieve. I want to know where the rivers are, but I get it that my world is roughly earth sized so the erosions shown dwarf the grand canyon. Perhaps I need to develop the continents more and then stitch them back into planetary scale.

    I tried fooling around with Wilbur to make continental shelves but they didn't work right, ie they weren't under water. Also the image that I manipulated looks screwy as a height field.

    I'll finish by including the world map I made using RobA's regional map method. The problem for me was the sea. I hated how it looked. I used the topo palette in Gimp to color it. It is vaguely Earth sized and has a 25 degree tilt.

    ***Also part of the issue may be what I called it. It's a combined Bathymetric, Topographic map. I just have an idea that the bathymetric heights may come into play as landforms change do to "magical?" forces. I'm thinking Middle Earth over the various ages, which were not on a geologic time scale. But the input so far is what I needed to hear, I got caught up in what I could do, not what works. I was going to include a link, but it was too big, and I'm sure you know what a bathymetric map looks like.***
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    Last edited by hohum; 12-04-2009 at 08:16 AM. Reason: found another example of style

  10. #10
    Guild Journeyer hohum's Avatar
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    Started over again and increased resolution and size.

    I went back to the drawing board and basically re-did everything after scaling up the basic land forms from 1200 X 600 to 2500 X 1250. I like the overall look of it, but my main concern about it is how pixel jaggy the coast looks at even just 100%. Also the shoreline smear doesn't look quite as nice.

    Mountains are putting me off right now. When I was trying to make a sensible depth map I was getting awesome results on individual depth layers, but couldn't make them blend together. Now when I do mountains on land they just look like turds. I think I just stayed up too late and a fresh start on them will help.

    Anyhow I'm going to let this sit a little before my wife loses patience with me.
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