A while back I posted a sample of an overland raster map made with Fractal Mapper 8. In some of the discussion that followed, there was considerable interest in what FM8 can do on a raster level with city and town maps. Our raster mapping tutorial for FM8 is in an advanced stage now, and I got an okay from the rest of the group to release a preview here of a town map that one can make with step-for-step illustrated instruction in the tutorial. It's a good specimen for this posting, because it demonstrates the power of FM8 as a mapping tool. FM8 deals with raster objects in a different manner than many cartographic programs. As a result, there really is no such thing as the resolution of an FM8 map. Instead, each raster object in the map has its own resolution. This plus FM8's ability to use symbol presets without resolution loss makes it possible to create large raster maps with fine detail that allow very tight zooming-in with little or no quality loss or pixilation problems. Anyhow, the following views might make this more clear. First, the complete town map, with a scale size of 5760 by 4500 feet:



Now let's zoom in on the town center:



Next we'll zoom in on a few farms:



And finally, we'll zoom in on the bell tower atop the town hall.



I should add that everything in this map is scaled precisely.

Our tutorial will tell how to make this map and other kinds of maps in FM8, with step-for-step instructions and full color graphics. It will be open, free and released under the OGL. For those interested in testing FM8 before buying, the tutorial also will work with the free FM8 trial version.