Westdiep (City Designer 3)

[Gandwarf]

Ok, I am finally able to render my maps in mere minutes. So here's another city I am quite proud of and that I dub finished. For more cities, see my WIP thread at http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...newpost&t=2991

---------------------

Westdiep (Westdeep) is a large fortified town located on the northern shore of the lake and lying between the great cities of Miston and Concetron. It can be considered the bread basket of the north of the Valley. There's a lot of agriculture going on and the harbor and river see a lot of traffic from grain barges. Only Blauwhaven has a larger harbor.

The city has seen a lot of fighting as the wizards from both Miston and Concetron wanted to control the area. There are watchtowers on both river banks and a large castle of the hill overlooking the town. The city walls also protect the islands as the lake will sometimes freeze up during the winter.

The rulers of the city never allowed large concentrations of houses near the city walls (or on the hill where the castle is located), but nowadays people are starting to settle on the shores of the river.

The Alliance maintains a large militairy presence in the city, although not as large as in Meerzicht which is located just east of Westdiep.

[Hoel]

Can't belive noone commented on this. I missed it because I was drunk when you posted.
Nice work, I like it alot
But as with all CD project, the houses looks jagged and the terrain texture is blurred.
The city looks much like my Burgenos. The fortifications are good. There won't be anyone raiding this place. Have you considered a moat around the hill? A canal from the river, round the castle and down to the harbour. It could be a dry moat with a dam by the river. Open it and presto, instant moat.
The harbour is well protected from the sea, a chan across between the island and the mainland stops the ships.
I would add a tower or a bastion to the north wall, that seems to be the main angle of attack, and har a long strech of wall for aming catapults and fireballs at.

/Hoel -has an intrest in fortification

[Steel General]

I'm with Hoel in how could I have missed this (especially as much as I'm in and out of here). This is right up their with all of your other maps.

I'm wondering if their isn't some sort of anti-aliasing function in CD3 that could be applied to help remove at least some of the "jaggies".

Nice work Gandwarf...

[Gandwarf]

I'm wondering if their isn't some sort of anti-aliasing function in CD3 that could be applied to help remove at least some of the "jaggies".

Nice work Gandwarf...

I haven't found that function yet

[Hoel]

I don't use it myself but I'd imagine there would be some AA options when you rasterize it. It's a shame if you can't do it. In high res it really shows, and with such a nice map and all.

[Midgardsormr]

CC is notoriously awful when it comes to aliasing issues. The best solution I have found so far is to export at twice the size you need, give it a 2 pixel blur in a raster editor, and then resample to the final size.

At the size you often work, though, I'm not sure what trying to export at double resolution would do.

[Gandwarf]

At the size you often work, though, I'm not sure what trying to export at double resolution would do.

Not much I think. I have exported these maps at enormous dimensions and when shrinking they still tend to get jaggies. I tried some different techniques in my Concetron map (adding blurs to the houses) and the jaggies are less of a problem there.

[Midgardsormr]

Yeah, Concetron does look much better. I really wish that either PF or FastCAD would come up with a solution to that problem. I might use the software a bit more if the final product didn't look so nasty at times. As it is, I am experimenting with using CD3 for layout and doing all the visualization in Photoshop. I haven't gotten very far with that, though. Maybe I'll buckle down and come up with something for this month's challenge.

[Gandwarf]

Yeah, Concetron does look much better. I really wish that either PF or FastCAD would come up with a solution to that problem. I might use the software a bit more if the final product didn't look so nasty at times. As it is, I am experimenting with using CD3 for layout and doing all the visualization in Photoshop. I haven't gotten very far with that, though. Maybe I'll buckle down and come up with something for this month's challenge.

You are sure this problem cannot be solved? I am thinking of dropping a line on the PF forums to see if they have any tips. It never really bothered me much, so only now I have started experimenting.

[Midgardsormr]

Well, I don't know if it can't be solved, only that I haven't yet seen a solution. There were some discussions on the matter shortly after I joined the Guild, and no one at that time could do much about it, either. I wound up doing all my labeling for Imperial Vendria in Corel PhotoPaint because the CC3 text looked atrocious.

Ravells said that he's been after PF to do something about it for a while. http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...8&postcount=61