15 - [Inner] The Ward of Erahum [Mouse]

[Mouse]

Well - sorry about the huge gap in time here.

I've been all over the place and tried all kinds of different approaches, but I'm back to using GIMP as a background with CC3+ for the roads, buildings and trees.

There has been something of a disaster with my chaotic filing system, and I appear to have lost a few of the more recent versions, so this has been hacked together from all the most recent sheets from about 5 different sources, but its missing all the CC3+ buildings.

No worries! At least I still have the same basic map to add them all back again, and I've used a far better grass texture than before...

### Latest WIP ###
Erahum New 01.JPG

[Voolf]

Sorry to hear that. It's a shame you won't continue with SketchUp though. It was very promising start.

[Mouse]

I started to hit a lot of brick walls very quickly with Sketchup. Although there are facilities to make 3D terrain, it is very blocky and sharp-edged at the kind of resolution my little laptop can handle, while still having enough processing power and memory to cope with about 1500 buildings as well.

Also the add on that produces the trees only makes 2D trees side view, which makes them useless as symbols for a top down map.

I enjoyed using Sketchup, and it will probably make a very pretty little village on a simple hill at some point in the future, but asking for the entirety of Erahum Ward as a three dimensional model was, I quickly discovered, a bit optimistic.

Never mind. At least I know what I can and can't do with it now that I've given it a road test

[AdventureDepot]

oh no

I really like the style and the motive on all the images in here!

[Mouse]

LOL! This thread is quite untidy (even by my standards) with all my little adventures into all these different methods and styles, but thank you

[Mouse]

First big building on the map...

The story has evolved from the original version at the beginning of this thread. There is still a dead dragon lying in the open area but his name has changed to 'Grugenar'. I've just finished drawing the Temple of the Dragon, which was built in close proximity to his remains, due to the belief of the local people that the dragon's magical healing powers continue to seep from the bones, and may be channelled into the sick and wounded by the priests of the Order of the Dragon through the laying on of hands.

I was originally concerned that the building looked too big to be in scale, but the onion dome is only 80 feet across, compared to the 112 foot diameter of St Pauls Cathedral in London UK

### Latest WIP ###
Erahum New 02.JPG

[Mouse]

I have in essence lost this map, since I can no longer open it in GIMP, thanks to the much larger drain on my system resources caused by the Creator Update to Win 10. Its a monster

However, I haven't given up. I've started again in Krita, which seems to me to allow much nicer detail on smaller maps, and I've produced a basic map of the relief of both this and Lurkin Ward - the full area of District 15. This map will not be as large as the first one, being only twice as large as the base map, instead of four times, but I am hoping it will be of sufficient quality.

### Latest WIP ###
KRITA NEW 01.jpg

@John - I'm working at maximum capacity in Krita with this map, even though I only have 5 layers. I haven't been able to load your new area to compare with it as I worked. Can you see any relief problems along our border?

EDIT:

@Thomas - sorry - forgot for a moment you are to the north of me. Can you see any problems with the way I have done the northern part, next to your district? I remember you saying you were going to have lots of caves in the west wall of the valley you have, so I've left leading ends for two cliff levels ready for caves for you to use if you want them. I can change that if necessary.

[Azélor]

So the creator update is doing exactingly the opposite of what it's supposed to do?
Good thing I don't have win 10.
Isn't it possible to revert your computer to a previous state before you installed the update using a restore point?
I'm assuming it's possible but never really used that procedure myself. Cuz I never create restoration points.



The krita version looks very good. Actually, even better than the old one.

[Mouse]

Thanks Azelor

Its been a while since I last touched this thread, so I was kind of hoping I had learnt a bit since then. Its very reassuring to know that it looks like I have.

Because I didn't create a restore point before the update (not realising what a nightmare it would become) the only option I have is to uninstall the Creator Update. That would be fine, except that its tagged as being critical for security, which means I would be more vulnerable without it. Also very discouraging - the only practical way of uninstalling the update is to reinstall Win 10, and doing that would result in having to also reinstall absolutely every last piece of software I posses that isn't a Windows app. Most of my software falls into that category. Some of it isn't that new either, and I was having trouble getting some of it to register properly the last time I had to do anything like that a couple of years ago - software publishers and websites that no longer exist.

I'm hoping MS will somehow repair the damage they have done in future updates, or I'm going Linux... eventually... when I feel brave enough to take the plunge... and if my machine is suitable.

The overall effect of the Creator's Update was to halve the speed of my machine, half the available working memory, destabilise GIMP and a couple of other apps (which is why I'm moving over to Krita), destroy some 20 drivers scattered around the system (which I had to locate, download and reinstall), destroy the dynamics of my Wacom when working in GIMP, and further reduce the capacity of Krita to deal with large images (which was never as efficient as GIMP where that is concerned).

Oh yes - I never had this problem before, but whatever browser is open so I can keep an eye on the rest of the world while I'm working in either GIMP or Krita (and this includes MS Edge) has a tendency to crash when I save a map in either GIMP or Krita, and is a devil to reopen.

Great work MS!

But... not even they can stop me from mapping

[Azélor]

That depend how much ram do you have?
With more memory, it would runs smoothly.