The World of Agysea, A Fantasy Worldmap

[Agysea]

Hello there!
This is my first ever post on the forum, so i am hoping i am doing this write XD. I have started to finally create a worldmap for my fantasy world with the working title "Agysea". Right now i got the basic tectonics, climate and shape of the continents right. It turned our by accident that the map looks similar to Artifexians map which is a bummer but i really don't want to rework the major composition and tectonic history. My goal for this map is not perfect realism but a general sense of believability. As of right now i am trying to figure out Wilbur, i think i already got something decent, however for some reason Wilbur and especially the texture filters result in really "smoothed" out terrain and coastlines which i am not a big fan of, so if anyone has ideas there its greatly appreciated. I would be thankfull for any criticism or ideas in this process as i feel like its quite the task if you never done anything remotely similar before. I hope i find out how to post pictures here so you can let me know what you think!
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sadly cant upload the relif map because its too large with a whoping 102mb

[Peter Toth]

You've just exquisitely crafted my favourite kind of map, the "realistic atlas" style, with stunning results! The topography is excellent, but probably could use some Wilbur processing, I suppose after you've mastered the process. I highly recommend Miguel's process, which takes your existing topo and makes it almost approach lifelike, although you'll have to add a layer mask if you want to keep certain features like plateaus, for instance.

It also looks tectonically-plausible offhand, and I admire the plate boundaries you've defined, because I never managed to learn that detail from Artifexian's videos.

For a first post on this forum, congratulations! WAY better than my tenth post, LOL! I see huge achievements for you, provided you persevere with your work, which I'm certain you will.

Happy conworlding!

Peter

[Agysea]

You've just exquisitely crafted my favourite kind of map, the "realistic atlas" style, with stunning results! The topography is excellent, but probably could use some Wilbur processing, I suppose after you've mastered the process. I highly recommend Miguel's process, which takes your existing topo and makes it almost approach lifelike, although you'll have to add a layer mask if you want to keep certain features like plateaus, for instance.

It also looks tectonically-plausible offhand, and I admire the plate boundaries you've defined, because I never managed to learn that detail from Artifexian's videos.

For a first post on this forum, congratulations! WAY better than my tenth post, LOL! I see huge achievements for you, provided you persevere with your work, which I'm certain you will.

Happy conworlding!

Peter

Thank you a lot for the great feedback, i already used some wilbur for my topography, but i really wanna expand in that area because imo it all looks a bit "roundish" and "smooth" rn, especially the coastlines. If you have any idea about this, that would be great. I will certainly look up Miguel, it looks like thats just what i am searching.

[Agysea]

also to add to above, can you point me to Miguels process, i think i cant seem to find it, that would be very kind

[Greason Wolfe]

Something to keep in mind, as well, is that at a "global" level, only the larger "nooks and crannies" will be noticable. Secondly, if you could give us an idea of your current wil ur process someone (Waldronate in particular) might be able to offer advice/suggestions that will help you get closer to what you are envisioning. Lastly, for a first map/post, I will echo what Peter said, well done so far.

[Agysea]

Something to keep in mind, as well, is that at a "global" level, only the larger "nooks and crannies" will be noticable. Secondly, if you could give us an idea of your current wil ur process someone (Waldronate in particular) might be able to offer advice/suggestions that will help you get closer to what you are envisioning. Lastly, for a first map/post, I will echo what Peter said, well done so far.

heyhey so i am rn using a modified approach to the process outlined here: https://worldbuildingpasta.blogspot....part-viic.html
basically i first drew up a grayscale hightmap with 255 levels.
I smooth he hightmap out so you dont have these steep terraces
I then load it into wilburg and scale it accordingly.

The guy in the tutorial provided a script, so i ran that however i encountered some issues, namly the script breaks right at the beginning
so i can only run it partially without the priliminary step (its outlined under section automated Wilbur). The results are finish but are very leaking
in the coast areas and somehow the entire results are very smooth and roundish.

I tried to add some noise, then incise flow and then 3 passes of erosion but the erosion i was using is really agressively lowering my mountains. Sadly its really hard for me to properly understand what this script is really doing (or not in my case lol) which is also a reason why i came here.

My goal would be to get a more detailed coastline, especially islands and less "roundish smooth festures" that currently dominate my lowlands.

and thanks a lot for the feedback!

[Greason Wolfe]

Okay, read through the process from the link you provided. Not sure about the hotkey scripting, but waldronate has written several tutorials related to Wilbur that can be found

https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=29412

One or more of them might be helpful to you, and all of them are in pdf format though the last one is a zip file since a forum update a while back seems to have broken the ability to upload PDFs. Hope you find these helpful.

[Greason Wolfe]

So now that I've had a chance to look at your work (so far) on my computer rather than on my phone, I wanted to take some time to address your concerns about the "smoothness" of your results.

To be perfectly honest, I don't think you have anything to be concerned about. In comparing the map you posted to real world maps of a similar size and projection, your coastlines are fairly comparable. You have to remember, you are working on a global scale with a limited amount of room to work in, and that means you are going to have to sacrifice some of the finer detail. That's not a bad thing, its just the nature of the beast, so to speak. In terms of giving it more "character," I would offer the following suggestions;

1) Maybe a touch more glaciation in the extreme north and south

2) It feels as though there is a bit too much land surface and that some chunks of that surface may be a bit too large or too "blobby." I've not tried going through the "pasta" process, so I have no clue how that might be tweaked.

3) Again, you are working on a global scale with a limited amount of room to work in. Try not to get too caught up in the details you think should be there until you start working at a scale that allows for those details. Your islands, for instance. On a global level, they might have a "blob-like" look to them, but when/if you decide to work on zoomed in views of them, you have the option of trying to break them up a little bit. It wouldn't be a stretch if two or more islands that are close together on a "local" or "regional" map appear to be a single island on a global map because that half-mile/mile stretch of water between them is too small to detail on a global level.

4) Lastly, you can always use these results as a model and do a little "forced cutting and trimming" where you think it might be appropriate or where it might serve a specific purpose for your game/story setting. If it feels right to "have a gulf or canal right here," nothing is stopping you from putting that gulf or canal in on your own.

As far as the "roundish smooth features" that currently dominate your lowlands, I am going to toss a few numbers your way....

Earth has a surface area of 197 million square miles. 57 million square miles (29%) of that surface area is taken up by land while the remaining 140 million square miles (71%) is covered by water. We learn those numbers in school. Here are some numbers that we don't always learn in school. Approximately 41 million square miles (21%) of Earth's surface area is taken up by land that doesn't exceed 0.6 miles in elevation above sea level. Put in perspective, that means that 72% of Earth's land surface is less than 0.6 miles above sea level. With those numbers in mind, I'd say you are actually pretty close to the mark from what I can see. And once again, you are working on a global level, so those differences in elevation are going to have a fairly smooth shape to them.

I know I keep bringing up that "working on a global scale" thing, and it's important to keep that in mind. By necessity, detail is limited by the scale of the area you are trying to depict and the size of the "canvas" you are working on. It's alright if your coastlines are not super detailed and have a relatively smooth appearance. The same goes for the various elevations/depths. When you start zooming in to work at, lets say a continental level, you can start detailing your coastlines and elevation breaks a little more. You can even be a little more detailed about your major rivers. Later, if you zoom in to, lets say a country/state level, you can get even more detailed with these things, and so on and so on.

Like I said, I know better, but I still find myself getting caught up in those little details from time to time (well, actually way more often than I like to admit) and know how frustrating/painful it can seem to be.

To conclude, I think what you have works just fine just as it is. A few tweaks here and there might get you closer to what you are envisioning, but just don't let those tweaks take control of your map or, like me (on far too regular a basis), you'll end up overly frustrated and move on to another map before this one is finished.

[Agysea]

i think it somehow didnt send my last replay, either way,

thanks for the detailed response, i agree that i was too timid with cutting away from my initial landmasses because i liked their shape, however i now really wanna finish the map and finally use it, after all like you said i dont wanna get bored and frustrated and just toss it. Its my first time doing a map like this so a lot was learned but i dont wanna fall into the trap of endlessly redoing the map part of my project. I hope it still looks good tho, i tried to go for more land then our world, to achieve a bit of a unique feel.

i have however two question:

1. I noticed that more incise flow and percipitation looks like it allows for better terrain, however that also (obviously) erodes away my mountain peaks. Is there any way to prevent that or reverse that effect ?

2. I am already working in continent sections, thats why i am also concerned with the detail because Wilbur would not be able to handle the whole world map for me, however how would i go about recreating the same river systems when i load the map in Wilburg for a more detailed close up section ?

[Greason Wolfe]

i have however two question:

1. I noticed that more incise flow and percipitation looks like it allows for better terrain, however that also (obviously) erodes away my mountain peaks. Is there any way to prevent that or reverse that effect ?

2. I am already working in continent sections, thats why i am also concerned with the detail because Wilbur would not be able to handle the whole world map for me, however how would i go about recreating the same river systems when i load the map in Wilburg for a more detailed close up section ?

In answer to question 1, you can try using selections in Wilbur (Select-From Terrain-Height Range) from a little below sea level to a little below your peaks with a light feather (maybe 5 pixels) and then rune your incise flow and erosion. Waldronate (if he happens to take a look at this thread) might have a better suggestion.

2 Again, you could use selections. This time though, you would basically have to create an isolation mask that you could that you could load into Wilbur after loading your world file and use the crop to selection tool followed by a simple resample to enlarge the area in question. This might make things a little chunky looking at first, but as long as your resample isn't too extreme you should be able to start tweaking things with erosion cycles and what not. Again, waldronate might come along with a better suggestion and the link Peter provided may prove very useful in this part of your work.

Hope that helps some.

Edit: Also, if you do a member search for su-liam (think I spelled that right) he has a few links in his signature dealing with his work in Wilbur that may also prove helpful. I do believe he may have posted something once or twice in that thread I previously linked.