Quadria -- More Topo Practice

[Peter Toth]

Hello Guild,

First of all, I want to express my appreciation for everyone who has ever critiqued one of my maps. Thanks to your feedback, I've been able to gradually improve my craft.

This image was originally part of a larger map intended to test my computer's capabilities, but the test looked so aesthetically pleasing that I decided to submit it AS IS. Note that for this particular project, I wasn't aiming for tectonic and climatological accuracy; I only intended to produce something that appealed to my eye.

Yes, once again, I've produced this project with Wilbur and GIMP.

By the way, I've merged a bump map and a basic altitude map, lowering the opacity of the former as one of you suggested.

I hope you like it!


Quadria4.png

Peter

[Eilathen]

That is a pretty cool layout of the landmasses. There are a lot of seas and fjord-like things...seems to be a fantasy-finland

Do you only do the mapping or do you also write background for your settings?

[MrBragg]

I really like the subtle bump map you've got here, it give the mountains some definition without overpowering them.
If you want a critical comment, to my eye you seem to have a lot of lakes all ~ the same distance from the coast along the northern / western margins of the main peninsula, which was bit visually distracting for me. Otherwise I think the shape and layout of things are quite nice.

[Peter Toth]

Thank you Eilathen and MrBragg for responding. For now, besides merely mapping out my fantasy worlds, I am designing hard science-based geological and astronomical parameters, such as the density gradient and exact chemical composition of the planet, right down to Mg/Si and Mg/Fe ratios. I suppose that later, when I've created a particularly beautiful world, I will start defining the peoples and the civilizations that dwell on its surface. However, that won't happen for a while, as learning the physics and chemistry of designing worlds is a very difficult and time-consuming undertaking, especially when you thirst for precision. Yes MrBragg, I believe more thought could have gone into the placement of my lakes, as the layout is quite haphazard and careless. All in all, I appreciate both of your comments. Thank you.

[MrBragg]

...and exact chemical composition of the planet, right down to Mg/Si and Mg/Fe ratios.

Well, if you ever need someone to bounce ideas off, chemistry is kinda my day job, so feel free to reach out

[waldronate]

I am designing hard science-based geological

You should beware what Wilbur shows you, then. It looks physically plausible, but the precipiton erosion has physics akin to a rectangular lattice-based pile of mud populated by wormholes at random lattice points. It's very lossy, the lattice shows through easily, the whole surface is uniformly soft, and the metric for moved material isn't plausible. There aren't terms for water in those parts of the program at all! The nature of the algorithm means that it's only really plausible at certain scales, so beware that as well. The Wilbur precipition filter and related recommended operations were an attempt to get the simplest thing that could possibly work into operation and they do generate something that largely looks plausible at first glance.