Desert sands are usually rounded quartz grains, which tend toward lighter yellowish (look at the Sahara around Egypt), but can be other colors due to impurities (e.g. the Taklamakan is more of a buff color and really old deserts like Australia tend to get iron stained and red as they age). Other colors of sand like white (gypsum) or black (basalt) tend to be very localized phenomena because those rocks aren't nearly as tough as quartz and crush to dust that gets carried away in a very short geologic time. Getting intermixed yellow and read streaks like the Sahara is tough to make look good, though, especially with those dark massifs.
What catches my eye with the large crater is that it looks too symmetrical. Natural phenomena aren't generally perfectly shaped (I guess snowflakes notwithstanding...).
@ScottA - Oh that was a ring of mapped symbols. I was checking the map file worked from all angles and made a circular array of the same mountain ridge symbol. The symbols do some pretty experimental things as far as having fades all around, which is never done in a house symbol, and sometimes do unexpected things. I will have to check each and every mapped symbol the same way so you don't get any weird effects just by rotating one a little bit.
I will make a crater symbol.
@Don Anderson Jr. - Unless you count tundra as a kind of desert itself? How is a desert defined? Extreme dry? Extreme heat/cold? Anywhere the plants and animals have a hard time?
I find it a little confusing. There must be different criteria around. Bing told me tundra was considered to be desert, but everyone else is telling me it isn't.
Late to the party, but lowland tundra is essentially cold, dry and treeless. In general, it's the name used for such treeless places where the ground is permafrozen a short way below the surface, so shallow lakes and bogs are common, when the topsoil's frost thaws in summer long enough for hardy, low-growing plants to survive. Alpine or mountain tundra is similar, but its treelessness is because of the poor, thin soils, and colder, higher altitude air, as well as general dryness. Lakes and bogs are less common, as the drainage is often better in the higher mountains. It's all downhill from there, after all 😉.
Red desert sands are fine by me too - handy for anyone wanting to recreate Martian landscapes, of course!
The formal definition of a desert has to do with average annual rainfall. For most folks in the temperate zones, deserts are dry areas largely or entirely devoid of plant life, often with windblown soil and dunes (thus sandy areas). Because fantasy-style maps are mostly rooted in Western traditions, it's the second one that's more likely to be what mapmakers are looking for
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I guess Bing must be wrong. But that's nothing new ;)
No, it is correct. According to Nasa Earth observatory, a desert is any location that averages 10 inches or less of rainfall per year. Tundra's are considered cold deserts as they average 6-10 inches per year. FYI, I believe Antarctica is the largest desert in the world.
Most deserts have standing water on at least some of the surface once in a while. It may be years between occurrences or it may be an annual thing, but the key is that hot deserts will have not many inches of rainfall, but many inches of evaporation. The desert where I live gets about six inches of rain, but three hundred inches of evaporation (in the summertime, two inches of water can disappear from a bucket on a hot day).
I always struggle quite a bit with Badland textures. There are 3 types of desert, so I did 3 types of badland to blend into them. Let me know what you think of them.
That is what I am unsure of. Not sure if it is overlaid on top of the desert, allowing the below layer to pass through the transparency.
Or it is a fill style where the colour is matched very close to the desert colour.
My eye sees the second one is just slightly off in shade.
Like if I would give an artistic appraisal.
Top: the lights and darks of the texture are very in line with those of the desert. So close to perfection
Middle: the light is too light, makes the texture look like little canals.
Lower: This one is also close to perfect.
I'm basing this off of colour matching techniques I've used in construction. Don't know how much of a perfectionist you are so that is why I'm offering my opinion. Looks very amazing overall. You should be really proud of that work.
The textures are solid, so the background is matched, not transparent. I only did it roughly this morning, so matching them better will be relatively easy.
Looks perfect and definitely brings up a "badlands" feel.
As for the "canal" feel - that is actually good... Local badlands are very soft stone with lots of powder "hills" they shift with every rain but not so much in the wind.
Topo maps of the area (1:50K, 1:20K) are kind of "here be badlands" - forget it, we are not going to try an map them
They all seem perfectly fine to me, Sue. Natural terrain colours don't always match quite how you'd expect, and can change under variant lighting conditions anyway.
I can also see that "patchy" texture look working well for different kinds of swampy lands, with a suitable water texture showing through between the islands.
I alreaday have marsh and swamp fills done in a similar way, but I think they might need updating. I have modified the colour of the water textures since doing them.
Ice floes, though, are currently being done as polygons of the Ice texture. Maybe I should make an ice flow fill...
Comments
Desert sands are usually rounded quartz grains, which tend toward lighter yellowish (look at the Sahara around Egypt), but can be other colors due to impurities (e.g. the Taklamakan is more of a buff color and really old deserts like Australia tend to get iron stained and red as they age). Other colors of sand like white (gypsum) or black (basalt) tend to be very localized phenomena because those rocks aren't nearly as tough as quartz and crush to dust that gets carried away in a very short geologic time. Getting intermixed yellow and read streaks like the Sahara is tough to make look good, though, especially with those dark massifs.
I think we will have to use Colorize sheet effects for all those different colours!
What catches my eye with the large crater is that it looks too symmetrical. Natural phenomena aren't generally perfectly shaped (I guess snowflakes notwithstanding...).
I don't mind the colour.
Deserts come in many coulours. Even white. (Antarctica)
Funny fact, Canada is the second largest country, we have no true desert.
@ScottA - Oh that was a ring of mapped symbols. I was checking the map file worked from all angles and made a circular array of the same mountain ridge symbol. The symbols do some pretty experimental things as far as having fades all around, which is never done in a house symbol, and sometimes do unexpected things. I will have to check each and every mapped symbol the same way so you don't get any weird effects just by rotating one a little bit.
I will make a crater symbol.
@Don Anderson Jr. - Unless you count tundra as a kind of desert itself? How is a desert defined? Extreme dry? Extreme heat/cold? Anywhere the plants and animals have a hard time?
How is a desert defined? Extreme dry? Extreme heat/cold?
Lack of precipitation. Deserts are typically defined as an area that gets less than 10 inches of precipitation per year.
Tundra probably doesn't qualify then, unless you get very dry tundra in Canada's northern extremities.
Desert defined as extreme dry. So get cold and hot deserts.
There is lots of tundra in Canada, but doesn't meet desert criteria.
No, there is sufficient precipitation to cause it to fall outside the definition of desert. Deserts receive less tan 250 mm rain annually.
And the biggest desert is of course, the Antarctica. Australia has he 4th largest desert, after the Antarctic, the Arctic and the Sahara.
People often think the only deserts are hot and sandy, but technically, there are more cold desets than hot.
Tundra does receive more than 250 mm annually.
I find it a little confusing. There must be different criteria around. Bing told me tundra was considered to be desert, but everyone else is telling me it isn't.
Late to the party, but lowland tundra is essentially cold, dry and treeless. In general, it's the name used for such treeless places where the ground is permafrozen a short way below the surface, so shallow lakes and bogs are common, when the topsoil's frost thaws in summer long enough for hardy, low-growing plants to survive. Alpine or mountain tundra is similar, but its treelessness is because of the poor, thin soils, and colder, higher altitude air, as well as general dryness. Lakes and bogs are less common, as the drainage is often better in the higher mountains. It's all downhill from there, after all 😉.
Red desert sands are fine by me too - handy for anyone wanting to recreate Martian landscapes, of course!
The formal definition of a desert has to do with average annual rainfall. For most folks in the temperate zones, deserts are dry areas largely or entirely devoid of plant life, often with windblown soil and dunes (thus sandy areas). Because fantasy-style maps are mostly rooted in Western traditions, it's the second one that's more likely to be what mapmakers are looking for
I guess Bing must be wrong. But that's nothing new ;)
No, it is correct. According to Nasa Earth observatory, a desert is any location that averages 10 inches or less of rainfall per year. Tundra's are considered cold deserts as they average 6-10 inches per year. FYI, I believe Antarctica is the largest desert in the world.
Maybe there's a fuzzy area here, where I expect the ground appears to be quite wet in the summer owing to thawing of the top few inches of the ground?
Most deserts have standing water on at least some of the surface once in a while. It may be years between occurrences or it may be an annual thing, but the key is that hot deserts will have not many inches of rainfall, but many inches of evaporation. The desert where I live gets about six inches of rain, but three hundred inches of evaporation (in the summertime, two inches of water can disappear from a bucket on a hot day).
That's scary hot, Joe.
I always struggle quite a bit with Badland textures. There are 3 types of desert, so I did 3 types of badland to blend into them. Let me know what you think of them.
Grey desert and badlands:
Red desert and badlands:
White desert and badlands:
OMG, they are terrific. I can see an Aussie landscape coming up right away. As they say here. Good onya, mate, you little beaudy
Bad
Bad..
Badlands.
I love the flow they have.
The top one is the best, it really ties in better with the associated desert. In my opinion.
They’re perfect!
Thank you! :D
@Don Anderson Jr. - Do you think that is the matching backgrounds?
That is what I am unsure of. Not sure if it is overlaid on top of the desert, allowing the below layer to pass through the transparency.
Or it is a fill style where the colour is matched very close to the desert colour.
My eye sees the second one is just slightly off in shade.
Like if I would give an artistic appraisal.
Top: the lights and darks of the texture are very in line with those of the desert. So close to perfection
Middle: the light is too light, makes the texture look like little canals.
Lower: This one is also close to perfect.
I'm basing this off of colour matching techniques I've used in construction. Don't know how much of a perfectionist you are so that is why I'm offering my opinion. Looks very amazing overall. You should be really proud of that work.
Thanks for the compliments and insight, Don :)
The textures are solid, so the background is matched, not transparent. I only did it roughly this morning, so matching them better will be relatively easy.
Looks perfect and definitely brings up a "badlands" feel.
As for the "canal" feel - that is actually good... Local badlands are very soft stone with lots of powder "hills" they shift with every rain but not so much in the wind.
Topo maps of the area (1:50K, 1:20K) are kind of "here be badlands" - forget it, we are not going to try an map them
They all seem perfectly fine to me, Sue. Natural terrain colours don't always match quite how you'd expect, and can change under variant lighting conditions anyway.
I can also see that "patchy" texture look working well for different kinds of swampy lands, with a suitable water texture showing through between the islands.
Oh yea Wyvern that is a good idea. Swamp and marsh.
Heck why stop there, maybe even ice flows.
I alreaday have marsh and swamp fills done in a similar way, but I think they might need updating. I have modified the colour of the water textures since doing them.
Ice floes, though, are currently being done as polygons of the Ice texture. Maybe I should make an ice flow fill...
Ms. Sue
I am sorry I cannot provide better critique. Everything you are doing I love. I am useless, I know.
Cal