August/September 2017 Challenge: Revealing Dido

[Redrobes]

I was trying to think of ways of making the cliff seem more like a rocky cliff. I know you don't have much time, but more rugged would look good - deeper crevices and more of them, perhaps - a more jagged effect? I don't know...

Maybe if you make a mixed rock, mussels and barnacle texture, and then use it instead of the bare rock texture at a certain level?

I have been looking at the image and I think your right. It definitely needs more... crag - yes thats the word. I'll look out for some craggy cliff photo. And I also think your spot on with the idea of the texture for the mussels. It needs more and not so Mr Blobby.

I've never heard of plebs but I've just looked it up and I must find it! I tend to avoid ITV channels so that's probably why it passed me by.
The Time Team are obsessed with anything ritual. It's still a great programme though. Can you believe it's been 4 years since we lost Mick Aston?

Plebs is great - its one of the few times when I watched it and I wasnt sure what the eck I was seeing. Its off the wall !
Mick Aston was sorta local around here and did some in depth studies of some fields a (long) walk from here. He is part of the reason I moved to this spot in the UK. He is sorely missed in this house.

I just got back from Canada's West coast and spent some good time tromping around tidal pools and shore rocks. There were mussels all over! They seemed to make mats in places where the water was moving gently and then they would be missing from other areas. They are also super sharp and because they're densely packed, it's like dozens of tiny razors. Who knew mussel beds were so dangerous!

The map looks really cool, I'm digging the boat and diver too, adds some life to the map. Like, aside from the sea life…

Thanks Meshon - I recall as a kid feeling those edges on my feet over the rocks. Now that I am an old codger I have to carry my car keys and other adult gumph etc so no more flinging myself into the sea and running around barefoot over the rockpools. I am wondering if the map would look good if it had a lot of mussels or whether I should limit them. Part of me wonders whether they are more hassle than they are worth. This is one of those realism vs artistic things. Since the map is supposed to be realistic maybe I should stuff the rocks full of them.

[Mouse]

Meshon is right about them preferring the less battered rocks.

If its any help, the mussels at Portland Bill tend to be stuck in the crevices in the rocks, where they aren't smashed to pieces by the tremendous waves we get in the storms that roll unhindered up the Channel straight off the Atlantic.

[Redrobes]

I had a bit more play on the cliffs today and also decided that this particular bit of coastline is strangely devoid of any mussel of any variety

So more crag, a bit better grass on the cliffs, added some more pebbles to the base of the cliff too.

### Latest WIP ###

[Mouse]

Good decision *nods approval*

Those mussels were proving to be a bit difficult!

Great map, Red

[Ilanthar]

I like the land and sense of depth. The boat is well done but right now, it's way too bright compared to the rest, imho.

[Redrobes]

I thought the boat would be all shiny and new like with that high gloss fibreglass hull etc. But I decided to drop the brightness a bit anyway.

I have modelled up a dinghy since I could not find one online anywhere and its bright orange like some kind of rescue dinghy. He's swimming back in with the dinghy to load up the gold statue before anyone else gets to it.

I put in a rope anchor to the boat too but it came out worse than I thought it might have. Maybe I should have used more res and done it with a chain or something but there it is - its staying.

I needed a border and tried out several types but ended up taking the one from the original roman mosaic photo. Had the devil of a time extracting the rope tesserai from the photo but with some perspective correction and some tortuous seamless tile blending I eventually got it to a level I am happy enough with. So its all done. I think this will be a final rather than a WIP. I can't think what else ill do to it and I never have enough time to devote to these things. Ok maybe ill fiddle with it again but if this ends up as the final I think I would be satisfied.

### Latest WIP ###

[Mouse]

That's some neat work with the border, Red.

I think that finishes it off nicely

[Redrobes]

Thanks Mouse, thats taken most of this evening to do just that bit of it !

[Redrobes]

Now that the map is done I had to have a play with it.

Given that the map is entirely procedural and now that I have done all the hard work on it I thought it would be nice to see how it looked with some variations in the way it is textured.

I added a bit of code to my height map generator to make sine waves where I can position it and set the wavelength, amplitude and phase. So it generates height maps like this :-



Then I wrote a little perl script to keep rendering the map by calling the makefile but just changing the phase of a sine wave within a height map source I use to modulate the sea. Then I generated a load of frames and used image magick to turn them all into an animated GIF. I could do with animated textures too so that the caustics and sea foam change but this is kind of cool and fun.

(You need to click on the image below because the forum scaling the preview has damaged the animation)

[Mouse]

Wow Red! If this challenge had been about the idea I put forward for animated maps, then I don't think anyone would have been able to out-do you.

That's really amazing