Ehlon River and Wake Island WIPs

[A. Smith]

The first being a fictional place, the second being an actual island (or rather, atoll) in the pacific. Fans of the "Battlefield" series will remember it.

I'm also uploading a map and satellite photo of Wake for you to compare. I'll deviate from reality, of course, as most tress have been cut down and there's a big frickin airfield right in the middle of it, but I'll keep the shape and feel.

I'm mostly working on the second right now, as the first got me a little bored, I'm not sure I'm going to finish it.

I've had the chance to experiment a lot on wake; for instance, there are 4 superposed main colour layers, as you might be able to see: the grass, the lagoon, the reef, and the sea itself.

Problems noted: Weird white blob in the sea, the lagoon not being green enough and having an odd look in general.

Enjoy!

[A. Smith]

New WiP for Wake Island. I think I'm pretty much done on the terrain... I might change a thing or two here and there (I might do some more underwater features, for instance). Any thoughts?

[Gamerprinter]

Very nice! I especially like the waves.

I'm always trying to emulate surf in my coastal maps, I have to study this closely and incorporate an artificial version.

I'm very impressed with your Wake Island.

GP

[ravells]

Seconded. I'm really impressed too!

[jfrazierjr]

Very nice! I especially like the waves.

I'm always trying to emulate surf in my coastal maps, I have to study this closely and incorporate an artificial version.

I'm very impressed with your Wake Island.

GP

Seconded. I'm really impressed too!

What they said!

The thumbnail is pretty much indistinguishable from a satellite shot in my opinion.

Joe

[A. Smith]

Thanks! The wave effect is rather simple to do, really. The trick is to use a mix of black-and-white plasma and standard clouds on overlay. The most important part (and what gives the actual wave affect) is really the plasma. I can't remember the detail I set it to, but that just comes through eperimentation. The only annoying thing is that you have to desaturate the plasma 100% to have the black and white. Bah, it's just a couple of clicks more.

EDIT: ok, for some reason, I can't remember HOW I did those waves. It's not exactly plasma though. Dammit, I should have noted that down. Oh well, I'll work on reverse-engineering it.

EDIT2: Ah, now I know. It's low-detail plasma displacement-mapped unto itself, then the result is bump-mapped on itself. At least, that's how i was able to roughly duplicate it. Might have done it in another way earlier. Ah well.

EDIT3: New WiP. Something was bugging me with the forest: I realized I hadn't bump-mapped the plasma overlay layers.

[A. Smith]

New WiP for Wake! Nearly finished now. I won't add any villages or roads: It's some sort of previously-uncharted island, and there isn't anything built on it yet. I went for a more authentic feel: I gave the measurements in leagues instead of kilometres or miles - a league is roughly 5.5 kilometres.

When I'll post the final version, I'll add some real backstory.

[jfrazierjr]

New WiP for Wake! Nearly finished now. I won't add any villages or roads: It's some sort of previously-uncharted island, and there isn't anything built on it yet. I went for a more authentic feel: I gave the measurements in leagues instead of kilometres or miles - a league is roughly 5.5 kilometres.

When I'll post the final version, I'll add some real backstory.

" Don't worry Wilson, I'll do all the paddling. You just hang on."

[A. Smith]

Almost ALMOST finished. I'm considering just leaving it as-is; I'll look at it again tomorrow. Last chance to voice some input!

Notes: I changed the names because I wanted it to fit better in a fantasy world. The names I chose are vaguely elfish, with Eldar being the WH40K name for elves. I liked it, though, so heh. Mare Paciferum means "Pacifying sea", a reference, of course, to the Pacific Ocean.

[Midgardsormr]

I'm afraid that "Eldar" predates Warhammer. That's one of the words Tolkien used for his elves. Of course, there's really no improving on Tolkien's language, so it's not terribly surprising to see the word migrate to other worlds. Come to think of it, he was the one who turned "elfs" into "elves" to begin with.

The only thing I can think of to suggest is perhaps a bit of texture in your cartouches, to make it look as though the map is painted on some physical medium. It will also reduce the visibility of the jpeg compression artifacts.

Beyond that, this is a lovely map, and definitely one to be proud of!