New Fractal Terrains Planet with a bit of Wilbur thrown in

[a2area]

This is a natural color map of "Gotha", a planet under development as the base for a grand-strategy/geoficiton hybrid. The primary focal point of the planet will be the continent of Anaria, the most technologically advanced region of the planet with a tech-level in the range of early to mid victorian england but with some creative advancements above that period in peculiar directions due to challenges imposed by very limited access to fossil fuels. I call it "Steampunk-Lite". The planet will be in the early phases of a colonial & worldwide-trading age and all of the competition, conflicts, rewards and challenges that come with it. This will play out in-game via choices and mini-sims that are being developed. Under the surface Gotha will be based in hard statistics modified by creative support, choices (economic, military, colonial, diplomatic, domestic) and to some extent; chance.

This map is meant for development and labeling (therefore the light water) rather than to reflect the style of the game.. those maps will come later.
The attached image is at 1/5 scale. Full scale can be viewed through a Zoomify browser via the link below, hopefully it wont take long to load.. not sure how else to show in full res.

http://www.brianestoll.net/misc/Zoomify/MAP1_large.html

[RobA]

Very nice mountain textures and shapes. Did they come from satellite photos?

-Rob A>

[silverhead]

Impressive work! The relief detail of the first map with climates is astounding. Did it come from FT + Wilbur, or just Wilbur?

Because I don't have FT, but if it's Wilbur, I can try to mimic it. I hope :-)

[a2area]

@ RobA: This is all in FT, Wilbur then composited in photoshop. I made my own climate coloring image for FT which you can find HERE

@ Silverhead: what do you mean by the "first map"... or do you mean the Zoomify browser link?

[arsheesh]

I'm really impressed with this set of maps aZarea, wonderful job! Repped.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[alizarine]

I'm always jealous of people who get to use Fractal Terrains ^.^ I messed with a demo at some point in the distant (6 months) past but don't have the money for it and never really figured out how to use it.

This is an incredible map, and the colors/terrain are amazing. Personally the water color, although light enough for mapping, feels a bit saturated, even with the vibrant (and gorgeous) land colors. Just my opinion; looking forward to some of that fluff you mentioned, and more maps of course!

[a2area]

Automatic Seafloor Generator! All right.. so there is no such thing.. or at least that i know of.. but here's a little cut and paste action using NOAA's bathymetric data.

The Equirectangular is at 1/5 scale (orig is 15000px wide).... i scaled the orthographic endviews down to 50% of my original after applying polar coordinates to the equirectangular view.

[su_liam]

I am wrathful with envy of your bathymetry. I can't get sea floor to look like non-crap to save my life.

[a2area]

Wrathful!! hahaa.. yikes. Just steal it from earth like i did. I just overlayed (lighten or screen and play with levels) chunks of earth's seafloor onto my planet's height map and masked out any hard edges.. then did render>>lighting effects (directional of course). Brought it into photoshop and it worked like a charm! Still wasn't perfect so i had a copy of my original seafloor too... from FT and wilbur.. and i masked out the roughness of my newly created floor that crept up onto the continental shelf. I tried to take mostly from similar latitudes or stretch samples if i used them toward the poles to avoid excessive sharpness/artifacts when i did polar coordinates.

Brian

[su_liam]

Maybe not wrathful... If you ever do run across that Automatic Seafloor Generator, let me know.