GIMP can make random world maps out of the box!

[RPMiller]

The script-fu actually leaves the greyscale heightfield as a layer under the coloured one. You could just use that

But if you've already got FT, it can do this sort of stuff right out of the box, no?

I don't have FT, but random HF generation is pretty basic, even Wilbur does it (and much better than GIMP), and my understanding is that Wilbur was the start code fro a lot of FT.

-Rob A>

Yes, they were developed by the same person.

While FT can do this out of the box, the colors are more aligned to CC and not quite as pretty.

Don't forget with FT you can change the color palette and there is the Gaia view which uses more "typical globe coloring" but doesn't do much with climate.

[ravells]

That's interesting. I've got FT and thought that although you can convert FT maps to grey scale height maps (which I import into Bryce to make 3d maps - very handy), you can't actually make an FT file out of height maps because it uses vector point data (I think) like the USGS use to make their maps.

Not sure it can be done, but I'd love to see if it can.

[RPMiller]

Ok, I found the instructions:

To create the binary file:

For each contour level

1. Hide all layers but the contour level (or hide everything except the entities you want at a specific altitude level).
2. Save AS a PNG file (JPEG is probably a bad idea) Note of the size that you're making - write it down.
3. Next, start up a program like Photoshop or PSP.
4. Create a grayscale image the same size as the output image (that's why you wrote it down!)
5. For each output image (contour level) load it into something like Photoshop or PSP, convert to grayscale, preferably with the non-interesting areas black and the interesting ones as a dark gray (value 10 or so on a 0-255 scale)
6. Optionally: blur the image slightly.
7. Add the current contour interval to the growing image. Do this for each contour level.
8. Save the file as a 256-color Window bitmap (BMP) file.
9. Use Wilbur (included on the FT CD) to open the bitmap as a surface file (File->Open:8-bit BMP Surface)
10. Scale the altitudes to the desired level (Surface->Point Process->Scale:To Range)
11. Save the image as a Muse DTED file (a 16-bit binary format)
12. Alternatively - save a copy of your CC2 map under a different name. Delete all of the symbols, text & non-contour stuff. make the sea & rivers Black & recolor all of the contours in shades of gray - starting with #242 at the coastline & increasing up as the contours go up.
13. Some preplanning helps here. Separate the different contours by putting them on different layers.
14. Remember each contour will be a different altitude. Once the map is grayscaled, export as a BMP 24bit file (write down the dimensions). Also note - you will get better results if you are working with your world map & not a section of your world map. FT maps are based on a sphere!

To load the binary file in FT:

• Use File>>New:Binary File. Select the DTE file you created and set the Per-sample info to 2-byte, LSB First, Signed, Header Length=1024, Line Width to image width*2 (the image with times 2), Width and Height to the image width and height, and Map Edges to the locations on the globe where you want the map to be placed (use Min/Max to find these coordinates)

That's it. Your map should be present in the FT display.

[RobA]

The other big difference I noticed is that the FT map is a globe (2:1 ratio) and all "cuts" in the algorithm map to a globe. Using the GIMP noise algorithm (even seamless) would lead to pinching at the poles if mapped to a sphere. So it all depends on what you want to do with it.

-Rob A>

[Airith]

great find, but what... well ok i'm still new to GIMP, so I have no idea at all as to what to ask, but I want to know what to do to get that water effect. I think it looks great. Anyone? xD

[RobA]

great find, but what... well ok i'm still new to GIMP, so I have no idea at all as to what to ask, but I want to know what to do to get that water effect. I think it looks great. Anyone? xD

The water effect is generated by the script-fu (the whole map is).

The color is provided by the palette map used from greyscale noise function, and it is (I believe) lightly bump-mapped (parameters are in the script-fu).

-Rob A>

[su_liam]

I've been playing around with this myself. I think the Clouds filter in Photoshop is based on a 1/f frequency synthesis algorithm. In my opinion, it makes some of the prettiest topology, but it has a big problem, even for local area maps. It tiles. This is great for doing a cloudy background on a webpage, but it's a mess for a planetmap, unless your planet is a torus.