[WIP] World of Aduhr

[Charerg]

Since I was "on the roll" with the climate maps, I decided to finish the climate manually instead of waiting for Azelor's script (since I'm using GIMP and the script is for PotoShop, this may have been necessary in any case). The manual implementation took quite a lot of time, but on the positive side it allowed for more manual "corrections" which turned out to be necessary since I screwed up with the preciptation maps in several places. Anyway, here is the more-or-less final result:

Köppen Climates.jpg

In the map, I've included the oceanic currents that are climatologically significant. Red is warm and Blue is cold. They're there for easy reference. Other than that, I expanded the Köppen climate classification with two new categories: ES (steppe tundra) and EW (polar desert). These climate types are not included in the actual system, and I think they're practically nonexistent on present day Earth.

That said, both polar deserts and steppe tundra did exist on Earth during the Ice Ages, and since my world includes continents that are only partially glaciated (instead of practically entirely glaciated "islands" like Greenland and Antarctica), I felt it was useful to differentiate these drier polar climates from the usual tundra.

EDIT:
Also, I refined my oceanic currents a little, here's the revised version:

Aduhr Currents.jpg

[Charerg]

I think it's time for another update. The climate map has undergone several revisions, but now it's in a state that it will only take manual adjustments here and there to finish it. If anyone reading this is interested, the process of refining the climate map and the related temperature and precipitation maps can be found over on Azelor's tutorial thread (starting from page 11).

In any case now that the tutorial-related process is finished, I think I'll return to updating "the official WIP thread" (this one).

So, here is the final script-generated climate map before manual adjustments. I've changed the colour code into the "Wikipedia variant" since I find it easier to read.

Köppen Climates.jpg

From here on out, I'll adjust the climates continent by continent, and cover the changes I make along with the reasoning behind them.

[Charerg]

Well, I thought I'd post my progress here continent by continent, but in the end I decided to just post the final result. So, I'm now finished with the manual modifications, and the climate map here should be the final one (although suggestions are welcome, if something seems a bit odd). My thanks to Azelor and his tutorial for being extremely helpful!

In the "Wikipedia Colour Code":
Köppen Climates.png

And "the Azelor Colour Code":
Köppen Climates Alt.png

Edit:
Slightly updated maps

[Charerg]

Ok, it's been a long while since my last update on Aduhr, so perhaps I should post something.

Since I consider the world map finished now that the climates are done, I've moved on to regional maps. This one is still WIP, but I've started to work on a regional map of Western Rheada:

Arche.jpg

You may notice that the rivers are a bit off since I decided to draw them before the topography (In hindsight, this was not the brightest idea). But small flaws aside (I'll eventually redraw the rivers to fit the topography), I think it's turning out nicely.

Edit:
It's a Robinson projection btw, I forgot to include the graticule.

[Cookierobber]

How are you doing the mountains?

[Charerg]

Basically it's done using Wilbur. The most important tutorial is the Fun with Wilbur Vol 1.

First I draw the basic outline of the mountains in Gimp. This is what the most recent version of the mountains for this particular map looks like (pre-Wilbur):

Mts_3.png

This map is then exported as a PNG file and uploaded into Wilbur. Note that I made the map smaller (5000x2500 in this case) because Wilbur has difficulties with processing large maps, so I'll have to do different sections separately for a 6000x4100 map like this one.

Once I have the basic outline in Wilbur, I use a mix of Precipitation Erosion, Percentage Noise, Incise Flow and Fill Basin to create a more realistic topography. The process is covered in detail within the Fun with Wilbur Vol 1 tutorial (by Waldronate). The usual process is something like this:

- Span the height Range (Filter->Mathematical->Span), for example Low: -1 and High: 4000
- Percentage Noise followed by a few cycles of Precipitation Erosion
- Fill Basins followed by more Noise and Erosion
- Fill Basins followed by Incise Flow (adjust the settings until you create large valleys)
- Erosion, then Fill Basins again and Incise Flow (this time I try to create more narrow river channels instead of wide valleys)

Finally, I turn the result into a height map (Texture-> Gray Maps-> Height Map) and save it as a PNG file.

This is what the "Wilburified" mountains look like:

Wilburified_3.jpg

Then simply add your mountains into the main map (Open as Layers). At this point you have what you seek: a black-and-white height map. Then simply colour it with whatever gradient you want (I use a simple tan -> dark brown gradient) and choose the appropriate Mode for the layer (Burn in my case). The basic process of doing this step (Gradient Map) is covered in Arsheeh's excellent Eriond tutorial. The Eriond tutorial also has an alternative way to do the mountains, which you may find interesting.

Anyway, here's what the final result looks like (so far, still WIP):

Arche.jpg

Note: The mountains look slightly different (in terms of colour) from the previous version largely because I used a different Span this time around (-1 to 6000 instead of -1 to 4000).

[Josiah VE]

Looks nice! That's a great height map.

[Charerg]

Thanks for the feedback Josiah!

Anyway, time for another small update:

Arche.jpg

The mountains are still not finished, but the map is definitely progressing. I adjusted the colours a bit (again), so tell me what you think, is the new colouring better than the old version?

[Josiah VE]

The colour scheme is in general not my favorite, but I think the adjusted colours look better than before. This may be something you're still going to add, but right now the only thing that has any texture is the mountains, while the flat land is a solid colour.

[Charerg]

The colour scheme is in general not my favorite, but I think the adjusted colours look better than before. This may be something you're still going to add, but right now the only thing that has any texture is the mountains, while the flat land is a solid colour.

Well, I'm going for a bit of an "old map"/sepia look, so I don't think I'll add any strong colours to the flat land. Although perhaps some areas like deserts and steppes deserve to be highlighted. I'll have to experiment a bit about that.

That said, I kind of want the mountains to "stand out" from the rest of the map, so I try to avoid making it overly detailed. While some kind of visual differentation between forests, mediterranean climes, deserts and steppes would be nice, it will have to be pretty subtle.

Another thing that might end up in the final map is a sort of cloud texture in the background, to highlight the "old map" feel and also to break up the areas of solid colour a little. Although I'm not absolutely certain if that will work with this kind of map (that's another thing I'll have to experiment with).

Edit:

I finished the mountains (just some "adjustments" left to do in sections that I'm not entirely happy with). This time I changed the colour scheme to be more colourful (once again, opinions needed!):

Arche.jpg