WIP- FT Script development

[ravells]

But of course! That is what the Guild is for and you'll get lots of kudos and much adulation! (and what could be better than that?)!

[Master TMO]

True, I do like the adulation concept...

[Master TMO]

Mmm... found another glitch. My Continental Drying routine wasn't actually applying any drying. No wonder no deserts were appearing.

Just gotta identify each glitch in turn and knock it down. Eventually you'll run out of glitches. Or sanity. Either way is fine.

[Master TMO]

Alrighty, latest glitches fixed and applied, and new maps to show for it. Please feel free to critique, advise, or complain about anything you spot that you think could be better done.

I think it needs a bit more erosion, the mountains are still pretty tall, with 18k and 24k tall ones easily found in the north of the main continent. But that's not something you can tell by looking at the maps.

Same as before, the only bit of hand-editing on the map involved the lake in the middle of the left continent. All I did was make sure it wasn't being treated as an ocean coastline by the drying routine, and then lowered the water level there to -500' after everything was finished.

[Master TMO]

I'll throw a quick question to Waldronate - in the north of the main continent is an area that got basin filled at the beginning, but around the edges are a series of lakes where the ground is still below sea-level. Is there something I can tweak in my script to get rid of those? I recall seeing that effect before, but don't know if any way around that was mentioned.

[Master TMO]

Eep! Yep, definitely needs more erosion. Found what is probably (hopefully) the high spot on the map - at 31,392 ft above sea level.

[Master TMO]

Minor tip: If you want to find the high point in a Bump map in Photoshop, load it as a layer, then put a layer completely filled with Black above it. Set the blackout layer to Darken, and opacity 70%. Then go to Layer Style/Blending Options and in the Blend If section, slide the white slider on the Underlying Layer bar to the left until a single point is highlighted. That point is the highest point of the map.

[waldronate]

I'll throw a quick question to Waldronate - in the north of the main continent is an area that got basin filled at the beginning, but around the edges are a series of lakes where the ground is still below sea-level. Is there something I can tweak in my script to get rid of those? I recall seeing that effect before, but don't know if any way around that was mentioned.

I think that was the area that caused me to mention the river merge "feature". FT's adjustment layers (prescale offset, offset, rainfall, temperature) have a cubic interpolation scheme that will overshoot and undershoot around very large vertical jumps. Most likely there are pretty significant one-pixel changes in the offset channel right there. If you're selecting an area, feathering the selection after making the selection can go a long way toward preventing this sort of jump in offset values.

[Midgardsormr]

Nice tip, thanks!

A quick variation: Copy the bump layer first to preserve it. Use the technique on the copy and bring the slider down so that you have the upper portions of all of your mountains visible. Merge the black layer with your copied bump (select both, and Ctrl-e). Select all (Ctrl-a) and copy (Ctrl-c). Go to your Channels palette and create a new channel. Paste (Ctrl-v) the image into the new channel.

This new alpha could be used as a mask for putting snow on your mountains, or to define a timber line. There are likely plenty of other purposes you could put it to as well. You could use the other end of the blending slider to pull out your basins and fill them with water, for example.

[Master TMO]

I think that was the area that caused me to mention the river merge "feature". FT's adjustment layers (prescale offset, offset, rainfall, temperature) have a cubic interpolation scheme that will overshoot and undershoot around very large vertical jumps. Most likely there are pretty significant one-pixel changes in the offset channel right there. If you're selecting an area, feathering the selection after making the selection can go a long way toward preventing this sort of jump in offset values.

It doesn't *look* like any of my selections are in that area, but I will step through the script and see where the divots are happening. I suspect it's the Incise Flow after the Fill Basins, running into that offset edge you mention. I do a Smooth Offset of 2 after the Fill Basins. Is there another way I can smooth out the transition slightly?