Hello everyone, I am Xerocode!

[Xerocode]

Hello

My name is Ingus, I am a 27 year old programmer from Latvia. I have some background in GIS (Geographic Information Systems), but I have never worked on creating maps by myself from scratch. No experience with PhotoShop either.

My only attempt until now was using a world generator from donjon.bin.sh and applying cartography brushes I found on deviantart. Extremely basic
Here is how it looks:

island-0.jpg

Why I am interested in cartography? I am working on a game (browser-based, text-based, medieval/fantasy RPG). I want to create a large and interactive full-planet map. Resolution I am looking at now is 8192 x 4096, perhaps double of that. I don't need to create a full map right away, but I want to start working on some assets which I could use in future, for example, small islands.

And I have still to decide about my map style. I have been amazed by different fantasy maps, have grouped some of my favorites in a favorite folder on deviantart:

I am also interested in contributing cartography related programming guides/tutorials, for example:

• Creating interactive (different zoom levels, map markers etc.) web-based maps
• How to apply map file as a texture to a sphere in a web-based application. So, instead of a 2d map, you have a 3d sphere with floating clouds, moons, rotation, option to zoom in etc.

Would something like that be of any use here?

I'm adding a small island I created today (February 20th). I guess it's my second map. Using texture pack from deviantart. My approach was very simple - drawing black land mass, then painting it with textures, and adding water as background. Now it would take me 5 minutes to reproduce a similar map, but it took me a few hours to get this far (figuring our how to add custom brushes and patterns, using masks etc.).

Posting it for reference, so I can track my progress.

island-1.jpg


And map #3 - this is what I got after battling with Tear's Saderan tutorial
It is quite complicated for a complete beginner like me to follow. I will start from scratch tomorrow since I'm not sure where I got wrong - land elevation does not work... I missed something

island-02.jpg

And map #4. This is what I got after finishing Tear's Saderan tutorial. Did not get lost this time
Step5_finished.jpg

I'll probably be studying different tutorials and guides until I create something worthy of being posted in the "Finished Map" section.

Regards,
Xerocode.