How to export a detailed map from FT3? Two samples attached.
The image on the left is a finely detailed Fractal Terrains map. The image on the right is what I see after exporting to CC3. I have read the Help guide and tweaked a variety of export settings, but I am still unable to reproduce what I'm seeing in FT3. Is it a matter of incorrect sheet effects? I have fiddled with sheet effects, as well, to no avail. Can you help me recreate my FT3 map in CC3?
Comments
There is a high level of detail in your CC3 map - you can see that in the wiggliness of the coastline and the countour lines. If you want to have even more detail you will need to create or edit one of the export settings so that you have more frequent contours - say every 50 metres instead of 500, or whatever they happen to be currently set at.
I was also disappointed the very first time I realised that the relief shading wasn't something I could export to CC3, but if you set up the FT world in greyscale where the ocean is white, and the land rises from mid grey to white, then export a PNG image, it is possible to turn the exported png into a texture, which you can impose on the CC3 map by filling a map-sized rectangle with it, scaling the fill, x and y separately till it fits, then adding a multiply blend mode to the sheet that its on.
Thanks again!
I haven't got one that I can show you right now, but give it a try.
The trickiest bit is setting up the terrain colours in FT3. I lead you a bit up the garden path earlier. Once you have already exported your coloured map as above, set the terrain colours to white, and work with the intensity settings to accentuate the relief shading (I multiplied it by 10 here).
Then export a png into a separate folder in the Bitmaps folder, import it as a bitmap fill from CC3+ - without creating any other resolutions, make a new sheet called FT3 RELIEF (or something you won't forget), select the fill and scale it to the exact x and y units of your map, then draw a rectangle of the relief fill over the whole map (the same size as the map), and add a multiply Blend Mode effect to the FT3 RELIEF sheet.
There are a couple of side effects, like the fact that it can dull down the colours of the underlying Sheets, but if you really want your CC3 map to look exactly like the FT3 map, its probably the easiest way to do it.
It works because the effect of using a multiply mode is to remove all the white from the fill, leaving only the shadows. Using the percent opacity in the Blend Mode, you can then adjust the hill shading to a level you prefer.
You might look at Natalya Faden's Oljan maps and textures these maps and see the bitmap fills she used to create contours.
Here is the page for my template, the color chart, and the bitmap files I used. While I don't use these anymore, it is an interesting way to add contours to a map using her bitmap fills.
Ah, I had href in there twice. It should work now.
You can use tricks (like Sue showed) to import the ft map as a background texture, but that only works if you wish to use the map exactly as it was in FT, and only throw some symbols on it, once you want to edit the landmass, you get into problems.
The intention behind FT's export to CC3 feature is to be able to get the same landmass into CC3 (coastline, rough height), but not the exact same visuals. I can see why some people may want this, but because of the differences in the core functionalities of these programs, that is a difficult task (at least as long as you want an editable CC3+ map)
There are a couple of interesting annuals to check out though. Still not the exact FT3 look, but they give interesting options:
Shaded Relief maps
Climate Textures
Loopysue's suggestion allows some editing in CC3+, but it's fairly limited as far as changing land shapes.