The Köppen–Geiger climate classification made simpler (I hope so)

[rebelandarunner]

I'm afraid it's not a program. We've created a script that takes the precipitation and temperature maps for January and July as input and outputs the climate map. There's the original version of the script made for PhotoShop by Azelor, and the more recent GIMP script myself and Azelor created in collaboration (and which is slightly updated from the original, I guess). There's also an unpublished version by AzureWings (which is written in Python, I believe, and should be compatible with GIMP, not sure about PhotoShop).

Running the script saves you the trouble of manually creating the climate map, but you still need to create the aforementioned precipitation and temperature maps.

Sorry guys, lurker on the site and new to this thread. Apologies in advance, but I sort of skipped 3 years of messages on the thread, however, as I've been going through the steps of building a world of my own, I'm fascinated by the script and the inputs required to run it.

Is there an FAQ somewhere that I can read through to figure out what I need?

Thanks!!

[Charerg]

Sorry guys, lurker on the site and new to this thread. Apologies in advance, but I sort of skipped 3 years of messages on the thread, however, as I've been going through the steps of building a world of my own, I'm fascinated by the script and the inputs required to run it.

Is there an FAQ somewhere that I can read through to figure out what I need?

Thanks!!

You need to create four maps: January Temperature, January Precipitation, July Temperature, July Precipitation. Ideally in .png format, and make sure they're all the same size, and only contain pixels in the appropriate colours (ie. the category-specific colours covering the landmass, and the ocean as either a separate colour or transparent). There are several optional colour codes, although you can also use a custom code if you want (Azure's script is easy to modify to use whatever colour profile you want, and also accepts alternate colour profiles as inputs).

Other than that, I posted a quick guide on how to use Azure's script (linked in the OP), and there's also a readme file included that provides further instructions.

[rebelandarunner]

Ah, Ok. Thank you. I'll have a go at this and see how I do.

[Naima]

Since quite a few users seem to have some problems with using the script, I guess it might be worthwhile to attempt to give a precise step-by-step guideline. Here's my attempt at providing some detailed instructions (feel free to copy anything you find useful):


A. Prerequisites

To use the script, you need to first install two things: Python 3 and Pillow. Python is the programming language that the script uses. Assuming you're using Windows, the latest version can be downloaded from here.

Pillow is essentially an add-on that adds image handling functionality to Python. Since the script uses these functions, you need to install it as well (note that you need to download and install Python before installing Pillow). Pillow can be dowloaded from here. You'll note that there are many different versions of Pillow available. You need to pick the version that matches your OS and the Python version you just installed. Assuming you're using Windows, the windows installers are located at the bottom of the list. In my case, since I installed Python 3.7, I picked Pillow-5.4.1.win-amd64-py3.7.exe (the most recent version as of Jan 2019).


B. Using the script

The script itself is activated through the command prompt. The simplest way to launch the command prompt is to press "Windows+R" to open the Run Window, then write "cmd" and press enter. Now that you have the command prompt open, you need to navigate into the folder where your script is located (I also recommend storing the source maps in the same folder to keep things simple). This page provides instructions on how to do that. As an example, here's my window after navigating into the right folder (this is just one way of doing this):

Attachment 112515

Now you can activate the script. There are several optional flags, such as telling the script to use an alternate colour profile for the climates or for the precipitation and/or temperature maps. All the relevant commands are detailed in the script itself (which you can easily read or modify with NotePad++), as well as in the ReadMe. As an example, here I've run the script without any optional commands:

Attachment 112516


Hope this was helpful to those who were struggling with Azure's script. Feel free to ask if something was left unclear.

What is this script for?

[Charerg]

What is this script for?

It takes temperature and precipitation maps as input, and generates the Köppen climates.

[Naima]

doesn't consider mountains , winds and sea moisture?

[Azélor]

doesn't consider mountains , winds and sea moisture?

These elements needs to be taken care of in the previous steps, before using the script.

[Clemens]

For some reason the GIMP script does not output a proper map. I have no idea why. If someone could figure it out for me I'd be much obliged. Attached a zipped up .xcf file.

I found some transparent pixels in my precipitation maps and some wrong coloured bits from a mistake with an anti-aliasing bucket fill in the temperature maps, but now that I've done select by colour on each layer I have no idea anymore why it would put out this mostly white map.

Climate.zip

EDIT:
Colours were slightly off, never mind. Issue got fixed.

[acrosome]

Hi, All, I'm back.

What is the functional difference between Charerg's GIMP script and AzureWings' Python script? Are they interchangeable- just different implementations?

EDIT-- It looks like Charerg's uses Azelor's original six precipitation levels whereas AzureWings' uses eight? I don't see instructions anywhere for changing precipitation with altitude for eight categories. Are there any?

Is one or the other now considered the "official" best solution by you three gurus? I ask because I see that AzureWings' has a link in the OP whereas Charerg's does not.

[Azélor]

Hi, All, I'm back.

Is one or the other now considered the "official" best solution by you three gurus? I ask because I see that AzureWings' has a link in the OP whereas Charerg's does not.

I have no idea why I've chosen one over the other.
The only thing I know for sure is that the precipitation placement is completely messed up but that's the part before using the script.
Ideally we would be using formulas to figure out the precipitations and temperatures.