November/December 2024 Challenge: The archipelago of endless wrecks

[Diamond]

Well, it looks pretty good so far. I think if you can get the bathymetry right, this will kick a$$.

[Redrobes]

I had another go at that and I don't think its going to happen. The issue is an old perennial one in that in order to get the bathymetry right it needs the sea bed raised and to do that means getting the undersea height to within a few m or 10's of m from the surface. If I break through the surface then it changes the coastline. Its so much easier to start with a 3D landscape and mess about with it as required and then at the end you have whatever coastline it gives for sea level. Trying to do this where you are setting the sea level coastline and trying to figure out the above sea level and below sea level relief to make that sensible is almost impossible.

I have been running the erosion passes and that in itself alters the landscape and changes the shape of the coastline too. A further complication is that because I created the relief from blurs and so on then its a bit blobby. I am finding that there are multiple lakes and spots which are highly unrealistic even with a sort of basin fill. That and my erosion app is a total pain to operate. Its like fitting a saddle to a velociraptor. On the one hand its quite powerful but one false move and it will eat you alive. Its good at generating deserts and flooded terraforms which look nothing like what you wanted from it.

I think I will bin my latest attempts to mess with the bathymetry and go back to where the last images here showed. Perhaps its best if I render it as an atlas style and not worry about the 3D effect of it so much. I'll keep going for a bit and see if leads to a dead end or not.

[Chashio]

Interesting progress. The process sounds almost more painful than doing it by hand, but the results have a nice look to them.

[Diamond]

I would pay a large amount of money to watch RedRobes saddle a velociraptor.