Fractal Terrains Pro Features

[ravells]

3. Perhaps preference files (the program should remember where they are) for saving/outputting images of the maps. These could include check-boxes to include: a) texturing on/off, b) height map on/off, c) climate on/off, d) render oceans / render lakes / render rivers / render land ... and perhaps a colour setting for those areas not rendered (allow choice of colour, with presets calculated to be as far from the normal colours on the map as possible so that it can be selected easily, and transparency)

It may not be a whole solution, but when I export FT Pro, I do a pass where I use a custom altitude colour file in which the land is all white and the ocean all black, in addition to the 'beauty' render, I then put the two together in photoshop and use the black / white render as a mask / clipping layer if I need it. Sometimes I also do a render of white and black with mountain shading on so I can play with the mountains on a separate layer.

If I want to edit FT as a vector file, I output it to CC2, save it as a .dxf (but CC2 often crashes on this part, it's a bit hit and miss). It would be so much better if the FT could output to vector directly and have everything properly grouped and layered.

P.S. Joe, if you're allowed to, can you tell us what your priorities are in terms of additions / amendments to the next FT Pro version?

[waldronate]

I don't know what the planned features are for the next version, sorry. Beyond sheet support for CC3 and bug fixes, anyhow.

[guyanonymous]

Waldronate,

If you were starting over the whole Wilbur/FT Pro setups from scratch, how would you structure things/what features would you then be able to include that the current designs prohibit?

[waldronate]

There's nothing that the current designs prohibit (anything can be restructured), but there are elements that make some actions much, much harder. The most apt quote here is "The reason that God was able to create the world in seven days is that he didn' t have to worry about the installed base"-Enzo Torresi.

I've been slowly modifying things over the years, but FT development is mostly limited by my available time. The scope of features that I can implement in my limited time are mostly dictated by the need to not break things. There are some sections of the code that are extremely brittle, but I think that they're mostly isolated these days.