River Help Needed

[AslanC]

Hello all,

It's been a minute.

So this is my Known World map. I cobbled it together using real world maps and other stuff, but I need to figure out where the rivers go and have no idea how to do that.

This is a Power Point slideshow of the weather and biomes, done by an ecology student so I trust she knew what she was talking about.

Can anyone point me in the right direction, or lend a hand, or something?

If this would require a commission I am open to discussion as this is a very important project for me.

Cheers!

P.S. Labeled map attached for fun

The Known World copy.jpg

P.P.S. Here's a PDF Document about the setting, which is focused mostly on the island of Albana.

[waldronate]

https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ead.php?t=3822 is a good place for ideas.
Do you have one in grayscale with black low and white high?

[waldronate]

Anyhow, here's an opinion. Areas in yellow are implausible because the terrain was sloping the wrong way (For example, the mountains across the Dordogne river mouth {Scythra by The Lotus Empire} mean that it has to fill up the whole valley area and flow backwards into the Mediterranean).

The one in Azusa was because the simple terrain conversion I performed didn't end up with enough gradient for the flow finder to make a solid decision and it picked the other direction.

The-Known-World-Unlabeled.jpg

[AslanC]

https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ead.php?t=3822 is a good place for ideas.
Do you have one in grayscale with black low and white high?

No I do not, but I can make one. To what end?

Anyhow, here's an opinion. Areas in yellow are implausible because the terrain was sloping the wrong way (For example, the mountains across the Dordogne river mouth {Scythra by The Lotus Empire} mean that it has to fill up the whole valley area and flow backwards into the Mediterranean).

The one in Azusa was because the simple terrain conversion I performed didn't end up with enough gradient for the flow finder to make a solid decision and it picked the other direction.

The-Known-World-Unlabeled.jpg

Thanks, taking a look at it now

[AslanC]

Anyhow, here's an opinion. Areas in yellow are implausible because the terrain was sloping the wrong way (For example, the mountains across the Dordogne river mouth {Scythra by The Lotus Empire} mean that it has to fill up the whole valley area and flow backwards into the Mediterranean).

The one in Azusa was because the simple terrain conversion I performed didn't end up with enough gradient for the flow finder to make a solid decision and it picked the other direction.

The-Known-World-Unlabeled.jpg

WOW!

That's more than I could ever have hoped for! What software did you use?

I can most certainly build on this sir

What "in unviverse" name would you like me to credit with you as a "Cartographer of the XYZ Empire"? I can't thank you enough.

BE HEROIC!

[AslanC]

https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ead.php?t=3822 is a good place for ideas.
Do you have one in grayscale with black low and white high?

Is this to your pleasure good sir?

[waldronate]

The first map is was a quick run with Wilbur (basin fill, noise, basin fill to get things connected and then a river flow map to see the results). The hard part was pulling the altitudes out of the original image. I converted to HLS and set the S channel constant to get rid of shadows. Then posterized to a few levels and converted the colors to grayscale altitudes. Eliminating the high-frequency data during the posterize step helps get simpler river flows.
The new altitude map shows one of the problems with using a simulator type of program like Wilbur with high-quality data, especially when the data is sampled at too low of a frequency to capture the major flows. Little details push flow in completely unexpected directions after the basin fill step.
t0.jpg

[waldronate]

Here is the comparison with the original image to see the river differences.
The-Known-World-Unlabeled-River.jpg

[AslanC]

The first map is was a quick run with Wilbur (basin fill, noise, basin fill to get things connected and then a river flow map to see the results). The hard part was pulling the altitudes out of the original image. I converted to HLS and set the S channel constant to get rid of shadows. Then posterized to a few levels and converted the colors to grayscale altitudes. Eliminating the high-frequency data during the posterize step helps get simpler river flows.
The new altitude map shows one of the problems with using a simulator type of program like Wilbur with high-quality data, especially when the data is sampled at too low of a frequency to capture the major flows. Little details push flow in completely unexpected directions after the basin fill step.
t0.jpg

Wow!

I am super impressed!

Sent you a PM

[Tiluchi]

Gotta say, that's a very aesthetically pleasing map with some interesting geography. It's nice to see some good, realistic-looking topography (minus the caveats that Waldronate mentions), and the style is a good one.

That said, I'm not a huge fan of maps where coastlines and topography were very obviously copped from the real world, as it really messes with my suspension of disbelief and immersion into the world. Of course some parallels are fine, but the whole eastern half of this map is pretty brazen- the Greek peninsula and Western Europe, complete with the Alps and the Pyrenees, are very hard to miss. Is it too late in the game to change things around and make it a bit less obvious? The western bit looks fine, minus the obvious Crater Lake in the middle and the strange topographic artifacts in northern Imperial Austora. Just my 2 cents, feel free to disregard!