Remy - I have noticed that when I have a whole folder full of my 3000 pi textures loaded for use it seriously slows down the texture picking dialog, and can even crash it if I click too impatiently. They take a while to load into the drop down menu thing, I think.
Its because of that, as well as the download size, that I'm doing this set at 2000 pi each (once I've got them right). I should probably keep it down to no more than about 30-40 fills maximum in that case
Are those textures properly prepared (with the 4 resolutions), or are you forcing the dialog to actually load the 3k versions (by having them as the only option).
I do tend to overload the textures though. For example I'll open a HW template, and then suddenly decide I'm doing something else with the map and load all the parchment fills, and then all the terrain fills, and then all the experimental fills.... pretty soon the list is well over 200 fills long.
I sometimes try to thin them out a bit by deleting the ones I don't really want, but sometimes that actually causes a crash, so I tend to leave it well alone and just take my time when selecting a new fill.
Its bad mapping practice, I know - not to be more disciplined about keeping the list down to a reasonable length. I just keep forgetting that there are already so many on that list and go and load a whole lot more on top without thinking until its too late.
Well, for me, I prefer a pack with more fills than less. Those that offer only a few always end up hindering my map making in that style because it never fails that I need something not offered in the pack, so then I have to go look for one in another style pack that will match the style I'm using. So more is always better. Sort of like the idea with the two or three desert textures -- never hurts to have options. I like the ice and snow ones you just posted, for instance, and can think of places where I'd use each different one. So if you did a style set with 30 or 40 textures I would be a happy little mapper!!! lol! Also, I tend to lean toward the unique, rare and unusual (as our mini conversation about badlands and my comment about working on tepuis mountain symbols earlier above!), so having more choices is always a great thing for me!
I get the feeling that once this set is 'finished' from *my* point of view I need to go on a loooooooooong holiday on a desert island, and sort of accidentally leave my laptop at home! :P
I'm not convinced by a couple of the ice fills. I might work on them a bit in Krita. The floes look like bits of bleached paper, and the frozen lake came out looking disturbingly close to photographic! Not what I wanted.
I've moved on to try and cover other bits of the set. From my personal fills list I need to do:
Tundra Marsh Swamp Badlands (even though I'm not happy with the one I did earlier - maybe I'll make a base fill to sit the hill symbols on - a "Badlands background") Volcanic2 (with lava filled cracks) Lava
Then I need to move onto making a start on the tree symbol,s so that I can use them to create the forest fills in Krita, where the seamless mode will become invaluable. Something that irritates me a bit sometimes is when the forest fills don't really match the individual tree symbols, so I'm going to try and make sure that doesn't happen by creating all the tree symbols first and then using them to make the forest fills.
I've never seen tundra before. All I know is that its constantly frozen a metre down into the ground, and that means trees won't grow on it. Photos seem to show the vegetation is reddish orangish, and that the seasonal freezing and thawing makes an irregular grid like pattern of low mounds. Logically, then, it might look a bit like this?
[Image_10180]
(This is in a very draft state - I need to do some work on it in Krita to add a bit of subtle shading to show the bare bits are the lumps)
Does anyone know how big these lumps usually are in the real world?
Well, the High Space annuals contains 1.35 GB of fills, so I'll say you are on the safe side here. High Space was divided thematically over two issues, but they are intended to use together.
Thank you, Jim I was thinking more in terms of how much people were prepared to download than anything else
Remy has already offered to host the textures if I don't get as far as making enough of everything for an annual, but that was a very kind offer you made - Thank you
Remy - thanks for that information. All I need to do now is make it worth everyone's while to be bothered with downloading it :P
Ok. I'm all toasted up, and I think I've solved the gingerbread man problem with the tundra with a bit of point lighting.
I'll let you be the judge of that, though
[Image_10183]
I did a bit of reading up. Tundra is so incredibly variable that you can more or less do what you want with a tundra fill - as long as it looks kind of like a cold, icy, treeless waste where only the toughest alpine plants will grow.
The hills of earth that form on top of the ice are called Pingos, and can be 70m tall. They are a common feature of Arctic tundra. They form all over the place at a smaller scale.
The colours I've averaged from all the photos I've just googled.
In summer the channels between the hills flow with meltwater, while the ice under the hills remains frozen. Rainfall/snowfall isn't that high, so once the meltwater dries up in late summer they are just channels between the mounds.
I'll do a version of this one without any snow, but with dark peaty channels.
Posted By: LoopysueThank you, Jim I was thinking more in terms of how much people were prepared to download than anything else
Remy has already offered to host the textures if I don't get as far as making enough of everything for an annual, but that was a very kind offer you made - Thank you
Remy - thanks for that information. All I need to do now is make it worth everyone's while to be bothered with downloading it :P
No problemo. I only have 2.4 gigs of space left on my domain, but I do think I can get an increase with no problem.
I have to go to bed now (if I can get to sleep). I've got a shopping round to do in the morning.
Now that I've got the hang of this point light thingummy in Genetica (the node that gives me the power to light the scene and make it pop just a bit) I think I can do a similar fill in badlands colour as the badlands background.
@Jim - you're very kind to make such an offer, but it really is ok. It will be a while before I have to think about things like that anyway. There are lots of trees and settlements and things to be made yet, and they will take a lot longer to draw and get right
Yes, tundra is deceptive. Most of us think of it as a frozen wasteland, but in fact, there is plenty of flora and fauna, just nothing with deep root systems, like trees. But plenty of grasses and scrub plants.
As far as the number and variety you ultimately make, pay me no heed -- I'm a taskmaster and would have no issues with a big set of fills, regardless of size or time needed to download!
(but none yet this morning - only been up for half an hour)
EDIT: Its just occurred to me that it might be more useful if I used the mountain background fill in the drainage ditches, and maybe made the ice visible around the edges of the pingos - as it is in reality - a muddy white band exposed around the base of each pingo.
Mountain background because the fill will almost certainly be best placed around the more extreme polar mountain ranges, mixed with glaciers and patches of snow...
These three are possibly overly 'busy', but I'm starting to think that it is easier to tone things down than invent them where they never existed in the first place.
If the shadowing is just too much in any of these please say so, (including in the winter tundra above)
Badlands_SD (use either on its own or as a background to the badlands symbols)
[Image_10187]
Badlands 2_SD (a slightly more brilliant version for those who like red )
[Image_10188]
A new version of "Mountain background_SD" (I've gone a bit 'point light' crazy, but would like to know you prefer these heavier textures)
[Image_10189]
Sorry! I forgot that I adjusted the summer tundra "Tundra summer_SD" But I'm still not 100% happy with it.
I like them, and do get the impression of an aerial view of a landmass. I think the style, color pallet, and direction you are going are just super. Very nice job, o composer of cartographic compositions (Wednesday is Alliteration Day!).
Yes, I think a test map is your best bet. No, you don't want to be redundant, but you do want everything to match and go together. That might be a fine line in some instances, I suppose...
Yes. As soon as Microsoft stop messing around with a continually failing update that occasionally crashes my laptop and then proceeds to blame my router (which is functioning absolutely perfectly btw), I'll see about setting it up.
Not recommended I know, but to make it easier while I'm still working on the textures I'm going to use them at full resolution in the test map. Its easier to replace one fill file than four each time I tweak a scale setting or a shade of grass just a couple of notches. Although they look nice, I have a nasty feeling that the 3D textures may be the first to go.
Well see
Now if MS would just stop faffing around wasting my broadband downloading this thing for the fourth time today....
I wish every country would make it a law where if a company like Microsoft forces you to download something you HAVE to download, that it wouldn't count against your bandwidth.
Comments
Remy - I have noticed that when I have a whole folder full of my 3000 pi textures loaded for use it seriously slows down the texture picking dialog, and can even crash it if I click too impatiently. They take a while to load into the drop down menu thing, I think.
Its because of that, as well as the download size, that I'm doing this set at 2000 pi each (once I've got them right). I should probably keep it down to no more than about 30-40 fills maximum in that case
I do tend to overload the textures though. For example I'll open a HW template, and then suddenly decide I'm doing something else with the map and load all the parchment fills, and then all the terrain fills, and then all the experimental fills.... pretty soon the list is well over 200 fills long.
I sometimes try to thin them out a bit by deleting the ones I don't really want, but sometimes that actually causes a crash, so I tend to leave it well alone and just take my time when selecting a new fill.
Its bad mapping practice, I know - not to be more disciplined about keeping the list down to a reasonable length. I just keep forgetting that there are already so many on that list and go and load a whole lot more on top without thinking until its too late.
This is the modified ice from above, now called "Ice glacier_SD"
[Image_10176]
This is "Ice pack_SD"
[Image_10177]
And this is "Ice floes_SD"
[Image_10178]
Late arrival - "Ice frozen lake_SD"
[Image_10179]
I get the feeling that once this set is 'finished' from *my* point of view I need to go on a loooooooooong holiday on a desert island, and sort of accidentally leave my laptop at home! :P
I'm not convinced by a couple of the ice fills. I might work on them a bit in Krita. The floes look like bits of bleached paper, and the frozen lake came out looking disturbingly close to photographic! Not what I wanted.
I've moved on to try and cover other bits of the set. From my personal fills list I need to do:
Tundra
Marsh
Swamp
Badlands (even though I'm not happy with the one I did earlier - maybe I'll make a base fill to sit the hill symbols on - a "Badlands background")
Volcanic2 (with lava filled cracks)
Lava
Then I need to move onto making a start on the tree symbol,s so that I can use them to create the forest fills in Krita, where the seamless mode will become invaluable. Something that irritates me a bit sometimes is when the forest fills don't really match the individual tree symbols, so I'm going to try and make sure that doesn't happen by creating all the tree symbols first and then using them to make the forest fills.
I've never seen tundra before. All I know is that its constantly frozen a metre down into the ground, and that means trees won't grow on it. Photos seem to show the vegetation is reddish orangish, and that the seasonal freezing and thawing makes an irregular grid like pattern of low mounds. Logically, then, it might look a bit like this?
[Image_10180]
(This is in a very draft state - I need to do some work on it in Krita to add a bit of subtle shading to show the bare bits are the lumps)
Does anyone know how big these lumps usually are in the real world?
So far I've done 21 fills. In their png form they are 120 MB altogether.
Are we already past the acceptable limit here?
Remy has already offered to host the textures if I don't get as far as making enough of everything for an annual, but that was a very kind offer you made - Thank you
Remy - thanks for that information. All I need to do now is make it worth everyone's while to be bothered with downloading it :P
Oh Gathar!
Heheheheheheheeee....
Now I feel really HUNGRY, and I'm going to have to break of trying to mend it to go and get myself some toast and honey - at just gone midnight :P
I'll let you be the judge of that, though
[Image_10183]
I did a bit of reading up. Tundra is so incredibly variable that you can more or less do what you want with a tundra fill - as long as it looks kind of like a cold, icy, treeless waste where only the toughest alpine plants will grow.
The hills of earth that form on top of the ice are called Pingos, and can be 70m tall. They are a common feature of Arctic tundra. They form all over the place at a smaller scale.
The colours I've averaged from all the photos I've just googled.
I'll do a version of this one without any snow, but with dark peaty channels.
Tundra summer_SD
I have to go to bed now (if I can get to sleep). I've got a shopping round to do in the morning.
Now that I've got the hang of this point light thingummy in Genetica (the node that gives me the power to light the scene and make it pop just a bit) I think I can do a similar fill in badlands colour as the badlands background.
@Jim - you're very kind to make such an offer, but it really is ok. It will be a while before I have to think about things like that anyway. There are lots of trees and settlements and things to be made yet, and they will take a lot longer to draw and get right
As far as the number and variety you ultimately make, pay me no heed -- I'm a taskmaster and would have no issues with a big set of fills, regardless of size or time needed to download!
I seem to be having a texture fiesta!
(but none yet this morning - only been up for half an hour)
EDIT: Its just occurred to me that it might be more useful if I used the mountain background fill in the drainage ditches, and maybe made the ice visible around the edges of the pingos - as it is in reality - a muddy white band exposed around the base of each pingo.
Mountain background because the fill will almost certainly be best placed around the more extreme polar mountain ranges, mixed with glaciers and patches of snow...
Rambling again!
If the shadowing is just too much in any of these please say so, (including in the winter tundra above)
Badlands_SD (use either on its own or as a background to the badlands symbols)
[Image_10187]
Badlands 2_SD (a slightly more brilliant version for those who like red
[Image_10188]
A new version of "Mountain background_SD" (I've gone a bit 'point light' crazy, but would like to know you prefer these heavier textures)
[Image_10189]
Sorry! I forgot that I adjusted the summer tundra "Tundra summer_SD" But I'm still not 100% happy with it.
[Image_10190]
I really need to make a test map!
Not recommended I know, but to make it easier while I'm still working on the textures I'm going to use them at full resolution in the test map. Its easier to replace one fill file than four each time I tweak a scale setting or a shade of grass just a couple of notches. Although they look nice, I have a nasty feeling that the 3D textures may be the first to go.
Well see
Now if MS would just stop faffing around wasting my broadband downloading this thing for the fourth time today....
Lets just say I've had a belly full today...