What the Heck is going on with Fractal Terrains?

[moriturimax]

On the quest for getting the Israh Tutorial to work again, I thought I wasn't using the Span command and this was throwing off the map, but it seems like it goes wonky in Fractal Terrains before I even get to Wilbur. At least the tutorial starts with FT.

So to summarize, in the Israh Tutorial, we are good up to the point where we run this command:
- - - -
Planet Settings >> Secondary (tab) >> Continental Shelves = 300m >> Apply
- - - -
this actually brings them up from the world starting altitude of -304.8m, to simulate an event in the past where massive glaciers formed. This is where I am at this point
Before 1st Incise Flow.PNG

So now I run the 1st Incise Flow called for by the tutorial:
Incise Flow: Select all, 1 / 0.5 / 1 / 8 (I flipped the tutorial values which were reversed. I so hoped that would fix it)

which gets me this result:
After 1st Incise Flow.PNG

It has completely eaten away my coastlines.. when we compare it to what the tutorial says we should have:
After 1st Incise Flow in Tut.PNG

I am absolutely dumbfounded how it can go so far astray.....

I am including my map in ftw format at the point just before I run the 1st Incise Flow command after setting the Continental Shelves to 300m here: http://www.worldofgotha.com/PF_TUTORIAL/israh2.html

The map is here in compressed form, from 200mb to 5mb..
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5r...ew?usp=sharing

I am really at a loss and am about to just chalk up that tutorial as a failed resource. Much as I love their results, I simply cannot get past the 1st part without a total failure recreating it or even knowing WHY I can't recreate it. If I knew WHY it was failing so completely I might learn something.

Hopefully someone can point me at something I am just missing.

[johnvanvliet]

Guessing here so.........

i would GUESS here that it is how different Microsoft OS's do math

XP 32 bit VS. Windows 8.1 64 bit
(the floating point calculations WILL be different )

and how a NEW OS handles the OLD code

[moriturimax]

Guessing here so.........

i would GUESS here that it is how different Microsoft OS's do math

XP 32 bit VS. Windows 8.1 64 bit
(the floating point calculations WILL be different )

and how a NEW OS handles the OLD code

Hmm, not sure if I am running a 64-bit version of Fractal Terrains... interesting guess, sounds like a plausible guess.

[waldronate]

You're not running a 64-bit version of FT3 unless I've given you a development version.

It's also not a difference in the how the different OS versions do SSE2 math, despite what MS-bashers might tell you. All retail versions of FT3 have been compiled with the SSE2 instruction set enabled and will refuse to run on any CPU without that instruction set, which is why it won't work on older systems. FT3 was developed on Windows 7 64-bit and shows the exact same behavior on that OS as you describe above.

The most likely culprits are that I broke something during a bug fix cycle or that there is a missing feathered selection. I don't know what version of FT was used in the original tutorial or what version you are using, so there's no way to control for that. I can say with certainty that there haven't been any changes to the incise code since the retail version was released, however.

[moriturimax]

Roger that. Thanks, I couldn't recall what version I downloaded and installed.. I even tried selecting a certain altitude and up to restrain it to the land, same result.. it just seems like such an interesting style is why I have been sticking with it. The only reply I got from someone who might have been involved directly or indirectly (the facebook page of a group that uses those maps) was to try Span, but span doesn't even come into play until it goes into Wilbur.

Thanks for the info.

[a2area]

Hi there ... I did create that tutorial a while back, so i will have to take a look at what the deal is and get back to you. I saw your facebook post as well, sorry for the slow response, i've been a bit busy lately.

-Brian

[moriturimax]

Hi there ... I did create that tutorial a while back, so i will have to take a look at what the deal is and get back to you. I saw your facebook post as well, sorry for the slow response, i've been a bit busy lately.

-Brian

No problemo, it looks like an awesome tutorial, it just falls apart on me, and I can't figure out what I am doing wrong. Thanks for the reply back, anything is appreciated. I L O V E the maps you guys make, beautiful style, lots of excellent things about it.

Cheers!

[moriturimax]

Just quick note, the single biggest thing that kills me is the very first SELECT ALL > INCISE FLOW... it just wipes out my higher elevations and from then on most of the selections don't have anything to select.

I stayed as close to the settings and such as possible and it looks just like your world until that accursed incise flow with the one value at 8.