On-line fractal world generator

[pyrandon]

Here is a link to Dire Press' free, online fractal world generator:

http://direpress.bin.sh/tools/world.cgi

This would be especially useful, I think, if the resulting map were imported into an application (Photoshop, GIMP, etc.) for altering!

Enjoy!

[pyrandon]

Here's another free fractal world generator, although this one is a download from Raieh Fractal Planet:

http://raieh.homelinux.net/cgi-bin/r...l?FractalWorld

[RobA]

Here is a link to Dire Press' free, online fractal world generator:

http://direpress.bin.sh/tools/world.cgi

This would be especially useful, I think, if the resulting map were imported into an application (Photoshop, GIMP, etc.) for altering!

Enjoy!

I emailed the author and he has added a greyscale option for the palette. This makes it easier to convert it to a heightfield and use for other purposes....

-Rob A>

[pyrandon]

I emailed the author and he has added a greyscale option for the palette. This makes it easier to convert it to a heightfield and use for other purposes....

Okay, get over here right now, young man, so I can slap a dinner-plate sized gold sticker on your forehead! That was a stroke of brilliance. Well done!

[gammamutant]

anyone know where to find a good fractal map generator that outputs a flat geodesic map?

[drow]

where by 'flat geodesic' you mean... ?

[thespiritcoyote]

since the icosahedral is implemented in these fractal world maps already...

a 'something else' might be very useful. http://www.progonos.com/furuti/MapPr.../geodesic.html

I have personally found it most frustrating when looking for polar biased projections from such generators...
I recall there were calculations I had seen once for allowing a paired sphere projection /or/ polar projection, to distribute deformations equally over a hex grid, and thus be able to tilt a view easily to any degree in both longs and latts... such an implementation would be very handy in a world generator that has the implementations of the fractal algorithms. This would be useful as a 'flat geodesic' projection, that doesn't have the aesthetically hard triangular angles or the warped pents to keep track of, as the icosahedrals have...
The fractal world generator seems to have an algorithm in it's code-base that would be supportive of such a possibility, considering the number of widely varying projections made available.

...I confess, my first thought of the intended meaning of 'flat geodesic' was something more like a Robinson or Mollweide style projection, as even the Mercator and Square (appearing to be close to an equidistant cylindrical though I have not measured a comparison for certainty of this... is it?) are already available... but as I have been hopefully passing this post since the querry, and in search of my own projects, waiting to see now that some other ansewer did not come... I'll just add my own thoughts...

Most impressive visually is the animated gif, most impressive professionally is the many projections with very little deformation discrepancies between them... asking for more is like asking for candy when you have the cake, but such is one of the demons inherent to human conditions... so we go unsatisfied into paradise... industrious little buggers that we are...
I have many thanks for those that have offered these tools, possible improvements are always appreciated never demanded...
I also keep an eye for variations, and an ear for anyone else who has spoted one.

[drow]

yes, the 'square' projection is equidistant cylindrical.
the fractal world generator can now do icosahedral and sinusoidal projections,

icosahedral.gif sinusoidal.gif

still working on mollweide and possibly transverse mercator (messy).
cheers!

[drow]

imperfect mollweide; elliptical, but not homalographic (then again, it's a made-up world map)

mollweide.gif

[selden]

Torben Mogensen's Planet is a free command-line fractal planet generator available at http://www.diku.dk/hjemmesider/ansatte/torbenm/Planet/. You have to build it yourself, though. It runs under Windows, MacOS and Linux. I have Cygwin installed ( http://www.cygwin.com/ ), which made building it for Windows relatively easy. It can generate maps with about 10 different projections.