Belandir World Map - Fractal Terrains/Wilbur Import

[im_sparticus]

So for the Fargoth Worldbuilding Project (formerly Fargoth.com, now at rabiki.com/fargoth/) we have a smattering regional of maps derived from Fractal Terrains, but not the original hight map for them or the world. We have continental outlines for the world, as well as some climate/rainfall/temperature stuff that we've already put up, but not the source for all of it.

What I'm trying to do is reverse engineer something with the same continental shapes we have, and that will at least be close with the rest of it (temp/climate/precipitation) into a hight map master file. This would then be used to make all the smaller area maps and the like.

How would y'all go about doing that? Put another way, how should I? I just discovered Wilbur's Tessellation tool, which might (with a fractal background at least sort of close to where Belandir's continents are, and the height clip tool also in Wilbur) serve. I hope that works, but I have already tried a number of different approaches and been unsatisfied with them all. Has anyone ever had a similar problem and done anything other than scrap the whole heap and start over?

[waldronate]

It's a common problem. I'm pretty sure that I have the original FT file for Fargoth. Unless you have a machine circa 2000 with its corresponding OS and a copy of FT 1.23 then it won't do you any good. The original images were done with versions of FT that have a processor speed-sensitive bug, meaning that you won't necessarily get the same values without the same machine and the same (ancient) version of FT.

My recollection of the ancient times (1997-2002) when Fargoth was starting out tells me that the continental information generated by FT from the early version had very little to do with later items because the artists took great license with the height maps. FT has some characteristic artifacts that were deemed inappropriate. I am also thinking that maps were pulled from different FT worlds and put together into a single CCx file.

I'll take a look at the maps you have posted and see if there's something I can figure out.

[waldronate]

I fiddled about with the Fargoth map in Wilbur for a bit and got the attached output. It basically just requires a mask for land/ocean and a mask for mountains. Offset the base terrain map from 0 to make the basic land, make a mound out of the mountain mask to get mountains, then add noise, fill basins and incise flow. A bit more fiddling about and the output above (or something similar) pops out.

The Fun With Wilbur series at http://www.ridgenet.net/~jslayton/software.html (on the main software page) has the general technique in volume 4 and volume 1.

[im_sparticus]

Wow, you did more in one night for the continent of Fargoth than I've accomplished in a few weeks for the world as a whole. Of course for me, most of the time has been re-learning the software that I never learned how to use 3 years or more ago. I had already found your tutorials 1 & 2 (the ones with the 5 star rating on this sight) and tried to use them and the There and Back Again tut to take a color to altitude conversion out of FT into Wilbur and fiddle. It failed. Your mound suggestion was the thing I was going to try if the tessellation method didn't suit me. Given your results for Fargoth, I might start with it, though.

In short, thanks.

[im_sparticus]

The continent of Fargoth was done with a number of CC2 maps, touched up in PS. The world as a whole I assume would have been done the same way, but whether they came from different FT worlds or all one, I couldn't say. Trying to get a somewhat consistent base values to expand off-continent mapping is all we're going for for now.

[im_sparticus]

Once I get one that I like as a starting point (or perhaps earlier), I'll post a couple of my failed attempts (and what I was trying) and the one that I want to proceede with.