(FT3) New user: quick question about colour scheme range
Astatine
Newcomer
Hi all,
Apologies for the noob question, but I have been referring to the information (that I know of - please point me in the right direction if the answer to my question is somewhere obvious!) I'm looking to change the range of temperature from 65 to -40 (Celsius), but I can't find a way to do this, only the number of increments and the different colours.
I've just been playing around with a landmass and want it to represent a much more polar region when I export it to CC3+, and it was on the equator where it was generated in FT3, so I cooled the entire planet down, but the range of 65 to -40 is unsuitable for my project here (looking for more like 10 to -60).
If anyone can help, I'd greatly appreciate it. Definitely loving the software (compared to basic paint-style things I've used to make maps in the past).
Many thanks.
Comments
Hi Astatine :)
We ask all kinds of things all the time, so there's no real definition of noob and not noob. In fact I don't know how to do this myself, and I wrote a tutorial on one of the other aspects of FT3. So don't feel all alone. No one is judging anyone else by the questions they ask. It's a very friendly forum here.
I will be following this thread myself in the hope of learning something new :)
What temperature range are you looking for and do you want that to be for the whole planet or just a small area?
FT's climate model is pretty simplistic. Technically, it's too simplistic for realistic results right out of the box, but you can get approximately realistic results by painting the elements that you want. The climate model really only concerns itself with rainfall and temperature (those feed into climate selection). Rainfall is largely dependent on temperature, and temperature is mostly dependent on axial tilt, latitude, and altitude. The model also includes a random factor (Map>>World Settings:Temperature and Map>>World Settings:Rainfall for those values) and a user-painted factor (described as the "Editing" value in most places) to let different worlds look different.
An easy way to set temperature over an area is to select the area using something like the lasso tool, smooth out the selection using Select>>Feather with a suitable value (4 might be a good value for large selections), and then use Tools>>Global Set>>Temperature Value with the low temperature you want for the area. Using Tools>>Global Smooth>>Temperature on that area will probably clean things up a little. You can select smaller areas, feather the selection, and use Tools>>Global Raise>>Temperature or Tools>>Global Lower>>Temperature to adjust areas as you see fit.
You'd think that it'd be simpler to just paint in the things that you want, wouldn't you? There is an unfortunate couple of bugs in FT that make that process more difficult than you might imagine. The tool that's labeled "Warmer" lowers the temperature and the tools that's labeled "Colder" raises the temperature, exactly the opposite of what you would expect. Also, the number that you enter on the toolbar is going to be a Celsius-to-Fahrenheit conversion away from what you wanted if you're using English units (that is it's be about twice what you enter plus 32 degrees). The second bug has a workaround: click the "C" on the toolbar to bring up the full brush editing dialog and enter your intended adjustment amount (in Celsius) in the box labeled "Value". It's not pretty and you'll need to do open that dialog every time that you change the temperature tool, but it should work. I'm hoping that those bugs get fixed some day, but they've been there a while now.
Thanks for the tips - certainly some things there that I wasn't aware of. I haven't run in to some of the bugs that you're describing (the lower temperature tool does what it's supposed to). My problem is that the default temperature colouring range is 65 C down to -40 C, and ideally, I would want to shift and narrow this range for what I'm trying to do, as I've circled below:
I've already (made an attempt at) adjusting the temperature for this sub-continent by various means, as I'm ignoring the rest of the generated world, and I'm happy enough with the results. My issue is, seeing as the temperatures range from between about +5 to -50 Celsius, much of this colour key is irrelevant to me. I would like to shift it so the variations in temperature are clearer, and ideally, for this to carry over when I export it to CC3+ (exporting multiple times for altitude, temperature etc. to build lore). If I can do this, I know how to then edit the colouring and increment size to suit me, it's just that I can't seem to find a way around this other than increasing the number of increments enormously and changing each colour, while ignoring anything above +10 C, which seems very cumbersome (this also won't let me show variations below -40 C).
Hopefully I've worded my issue a bit better on reflection but the editing itself isn't an issue - I've done my homework where I can!
Many thanks
Unfortunately, the displayed limits (-40 to +65C) on the coloring scheme are hard-coded into the software and in more than one place. There are no user-accessible ways to access that information. The same goes for the rainfall coloring scheme limits (0 cm/yr to 250 cm/yr).
I've put the request into the FT list for consideration in the future.
Joe, any idea of when we can expect a FT3 update? And what do you have planned, so we can all salivate in anticipation?
Sorry, Quenten, not at this time.
Really encouraging to see such an active community and recent updates for software that's been around for many years. Looking forward to it!