Fractal Terrains Climate texture shader

markg51 · July 2017

So I've had fractal terrains for some time. I havent used it in quite some time. while getting used to the program again i found the climate texture shader option. this gave me a great map that i can export and just add my symbols on top of my textures and be done in no time.
or so i thought. i cannot for the life of me figure out how to export this map looking like it does. if i do a climate export even at very high detail i get a bunch of horrible colored blocks. not my nice smooth textures that look so great in fractal terrains. please tell me im just missing something simple.

Monsen · July 2017

Assuming you are talking about a CC3(+) export here, the short answer is that you can't. CC3 and FT are very different programs, and CC3 doesn't represent data the same way FT does, making exporting the exact look quite problematic. The main feature of the export to CC3 is not getting the same look, but rather the same information (coastlines, height contours, basic climate data) so you can work with them in CC3 and apply one of CC3's drawing styles to them.

The only way to get the same look is to export an image from FT and insert that into the background in CC3, but that won't be particularly editable if you want to tweak something.

You can grab the images FT uses for the texture shader and use them as fill styles in CC3, but it will not replicate the look from FT, only approximate some of it.

markg51 · July 2017

Ok. I'll accept that i cant get the exact image. However why when i apply that shader do i get nice high detail lines and when I export the climate information I get an ugly blocky mess. I would be happy with the climate information nice and detailed so i can just add textures in cc3. Although they shouldn't have teased me with the texture shader, thats just mean. LOL

jslayton · July 2017

FT's exports to CC3 consist of contours. The allowable output types to CC3 are altitude, rainfall, temperature, and climate (the "Show" types that have icons on the Map Menu). Due to technical limitations in CC3, there are some fairly strong limits on the number of points that can be used in a single filled contour and those limits combine with FT's generation algorithms to make the output a bit blocky in many cases.

The non-contour types don't export to CC3 except as images, unfortunately. You can use a climate export and set each climate type to the appropriate bitmap fill for each climate type specified in the texture climate shader, but it will just be flat bitmap fills.

The worst tease in FT (and I still blame an addled young'un for thinking it was a good idea) is the Gaia shader. It totally ignores any temperature or rainfall information for the world, no matter how much you edit it. It's pretty, though. It was so pretty that it formed the basis for the FT program icon. It's mostly useless, though (I guess that pretty + useless is pretty useless).

markg51 · July 2017

LOL well I've started adding textures to the climate map. It's working out pretty well so far. Is there any way to import the FT textures to CC3 or do i need to convert them to png files manually. Thanks for the quick responses, by the way. You guys are a big help.

JimP · August 2017

You can export as png and then import them in CC3/CC3+.

Or you can export as one of the fcw files, and edit that in CC3/CC3+.

jslayton · August 2017

If you're looking to use the climate texture elements directly in CC3+, you should be able to define them as a bitmap fill style using the Bitmap Files tab on the Fill Styles dialog (click on the FS: area of the status bar). You would not need to convert these files to PNG.

markg51 · August 2017

So..... Tried to add FT fills to CC3 and CC3 will only allow me to pick png files to import. Again unless I'm missing something which I'm sure I must be. I tried converting them to png and CC3 crashes as soon as I try to use one. Very discouraging. But I have faith someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Monsen · August 2017

Easiest is to first convert them to .png's and put them in a separate directory (preferably put them somewhere inside the CC3+ data directory, so you can use the realaive to CC3 directory option). Then in CC3(+), use tools -> Import bitmap fill styles to import the entire directory of fills at once.

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Fractal Terrains Climate texture shader

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