Can I import a map I made with Fractal Mapper 8?

Mordy · July 2010

Hi guys, I just bought CC3 and Fractal Terrains Pro and would like to know if I can import the map I made with Fractal Mapper 8 into either of them so I can carry on working on it in CC3 instead?

Mordy · July 2010

To be precise I made it with The Fractal World explorer - I just want the landmasses imported, there's nothing else on the map.

Monsen · July 2010

I do not believe that to be possible. Your best bet is probably exporting the map as an image, import the image into a CC3 drawing, and trace it manually with CC3's tools to get a proper CC3 map.

Mordy · July 2010

Damn

I can export a binary file from the Fractal World Explorer and I was hoping there was some way to either import that or convert it into a format that CC3 could understand. Ah well I guess if it's a no-no then it's a no-no.

Thanks for the response Monsen.

jslayton · July 2010

You can (in theory) use FT Pro to do a basic conversion. Ralf's "Importing an existing world into Fractal Terrains" tutorial ( http://www.jhendor.de/cc2/tutorials.html ) likely has enough information to do the job.

But, as Monsen pointed out, it is quite likely faster to just trace over an image in CC3.

Mordy · July 2010

I've just had a quick go with Monsen's technique and it seems surprisingly painless, I'll have a look at your suggestion as well though JS. At the moment though I'm having a lot of trouble with it crashing every few minutes

I'm going to try turning it off and on again...

Update: Found the patch, that seems to have sorted the crashing.

Mordy · July 2010

Okay - cracked it

Firstly in Fractal World explorer increase your map size to 2880 x 1440 (globe view) and then export it as a binary.

Note: I had my map set to "flat with contours" for this but I'm not sure it matters.

Now in Fractal Terrains Pro go through the following steps:

File -> New -> Binary File

Click the choose elevation button and browse to your file in the filename box.

Now the other settings on this screen should be as follows:

Pre-sample info:

4 byte, float selected from the dropdown.
LSB First (Intel) checked.

Line Width: 11520
Header Length: 0
Wrap Horizontally - not checked.

File Data
X Start: 0
Y Start: 0
Width: 2880
Height: 1440

Map Edges
Top:90
Left: -180
Right: 180
Bottom: -90

Missing Data

No Data: -9999
Replace checked
New Value: 0

Hit OK and then Next and then Finish.

Job's done.

Wish I could take credit for this but I got all I needed from this post by Antony:

http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?1458-Fractal-Terrains-Image-Resolutions

Mordy · July 2010

Hmmm...I spoke too soon, the landmasses are there but have an altitude of zero.

Mordy · July 2010

Well I kind of got it working in the end but the altitude never really came across properly. While working on it though I came to realise that there was far too much continental land mass for a believable planetary body anyway so I've restarted from a random FT global map and it seems a bit better. Interesting learning process though, I didn't realise there was such a wealth of knowledge on the subject out there!

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Can I import a map I made with Fractal Mapper 8?

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