Reply With QuoteHi Midgardsormr, the utility was not written by me, but I can post info about it over there I guess. Did you once have an account on Deviant Art by any chance?
monks
Mapping Elements for the textures, and Software Discussion for the utility.
Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
http://www.bryanray.name
Hi Midgardsormr, the utility was not written by me, but I can post info about it over there I guess. Did you once have an account on Deviant Art by any chance?
monks
A glimpse of the map as purely vectors. I've removed the topographic map and the terrain to have a wee look at it.
http://www.skindustry.net/medem/file.../bigscreen.jpg
The contours were generated from the very basic terrain- at 400m per pixel. The central quad is at the next level of detail, though I've removed most of the contours because they were so dense. I'm currently working on the quad immediately to the south of that. You can see it here.
http://www.skindustry.net/medem/file...r%20View06.png
Those two quads can then be eroded and more detailed contours generated. That would be the third level of detail. After all of the map terrain has been worked on. It can then be increased in resolution. This map is at about 10K. We have the data at 20K as well. The next step will probably be to take it all to 40K. It could be taken to 100K and higher, and more terrain detail added procedurally but it all depends what we want to do with the terrain and the map data.
monks
Last edited by monks; 02-03-2011 at 11:49 PM.
I have never seen such dedication to a single mapping project. Monks, this is just incredible. To have drawn all the contours by hand is simply mind boggling. Ascension's right, I think you need an asylum of your very own!!!
Thanks very much Ravells...I think lol
We always figured from the outset that all of the most informative maps have terrain, from which you generate contours of course. You usually don't include the terrain in the topo- unless you have shaded relief (which I do like on a map), but it has to be done subtley or otherwise it makes it difficult to see what's going on. I prefer the physical sort of maps anyway, as opposed to the political ones.
Something I'm wondering is, I haven't seen any maps with contours on here. I've seen lots of terrain though. Wilbur has a couple of ways to generate contour maps. I wonder why people aren't taking more advantage of that? Contours are soooooo SEXAY!
At the moment I've not added any place names in the data. I need to upgrade to Global Mapper 12 cos that has a few nifty features like geological symbols, (we do have a geological map), river and watershed creation, underground features, and 3D features...hmmmm I'd love to map Moria!
** Hey, I'm now a proud owner of World Machine 2.2 Professional!! Didn't cost me a penny as I'm on the testing team wooohooo!! **
monks
lol, funnily enough I'm just looking at the whole contour thing myself and going back to getting vector contours from Fractal Terrains Pro. At the moment I export the FT pro map into CC2 and then save the CC2 map as Enhanced Windows Metafile (which takes vector info) and then load into Serif Drawplus (which is like Illustrator) so I can work on the map. So far the results have been OK, but even a small area of land generates a huge number of nodes and lines, so I've got some crashes / overload issues to work through if I want anything magnificently big with contours. Using Drawplus's autotrace feature looks like it's faster and produces 'cleaner' vectors which is what I'm looking at the the moment.
I think people here tend not to use contours as a whole because they are not very 'fantasy-ish' which is a pity.
That's okay, it's for discussion of software, no matter who makes it.Originally Posted by monks
Yes, I have a Deviant Art account, but I don't know that I've ever actually used it. It's likely, though, that what you've seen wasn't me; somebody else grabbed my name before I got there. It happens from time to time on the bigger websites, especially since Final Fantasy XI named one of their servers after me, but I'm the original! Accept no substitutes! I guess to really clinch it I should claim the midgardsormr.com and .net domains; looks like the last guy to have the .com didn't renew.
Looks like my DA account is Midgaard77, which is what I always try to fall back on if somebody's taken my primary handle.
Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
http://www.bryanray.name
Ahhh yes!- all this brings back memories hahaha!...even just sorting out a workflow can take a long time,...and pain- interesting workflow- one I'm not familiar with. It's a LOT worse if you are using large files. Back when I started this caper, I was limited to Photoshop rasters- for producing what were ultimately going to be vectors, but I had no choice,- PS wastheonly prog capable of handling the huge files. The files are not that huge, not what would considered huge these days, but this was way back. I did find an obscure route via PS -> Wintopo Pro and Global Mapper ultimately.My problem was I had to vectorise all those raster contours. WinTopo Pro back then had a one click raster to vector feature. Saved me a lot of time!...but I still had to tag all the vectors with heights....ughgh.
I've never used the metafile, but I was aware of it. Autotrace sounds a lot like the raster to vector thing.
Yep, and you know why it's not very fantasy-ish? Because none of the fantasy map makers of the past ever went to the trouble of building a terrain! They didin't have the tools and in addition it's a bit of a pain in the ass to do it Tolkien did to a certain extent (well to a large extent actually), and those who followed on: Strachey, Fonstad.
monks
monks
It's quite a memorable name. The guy on there was involved with terrain programming I seem to remember. My name is taken quite a lot, but I'm never sure if it's something I've previously signed up to in the dim and distant past
monks
Hey monks, did you check this thread ? Nice mountains !
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