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FTPro Beta - Planetary Bombardment question

Master TMOMaster TMO
in Mapping with ProFantasy's Software
I have not used Planetary Bombardment at all yet, and started experimenting with it, using a recent beta version. I'm seeing some odd effects, and I'm not sure if it's the way bombardment is supposed to work, or if it's a glitch in the beta that just hasn't gotten caught yet.

I'm seeing craters that look as they were made on Ringworld - for instance, I've got one here that the mouth is 34 miles across (I had told it to run from 50 mile to 3.3 mile diameter), with the lip of the crater at 18000 feet, and the bottom of the crater at -16000 feet. That's a 34000 foot difference from top to bottom.

Is that how it's supposed to work? I'm not sure what the ideal crater size range should be either. The defaults it's giving me is 193 miles across, down to 3.3. Given that even at 4096 pixels across, the pixel resolution is 9.8 miles, I'm not sure what use a 3 mile crater would be on the map.

I'm testing to see what Incise Flow does to it, if anything. Then I guess I'll test smoothing.
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Comments

  • Master TMOMaster TMO
    Looks like smoothing the Offset by 2 will fill in the crater adequately, but the ridges are still at 17000+ feet. Incise Flow didn't seem to do a whole lot, at least dramatically so on visual inspection.
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  • 9 days later
  • Terraformer_AuthorTerraformer_Author Newcomer
    edited June 2011
    Planetary Bombardment is an EXCELLENT FT Pro function! In reality - every planet has craters, either via meteor strikes - or geological volcanism, Earth is no exception. I don't think I would make a solid project map or planet texture without using it. The odd effects that you say that your getting might be due to the sphere map projection of your map - I've noticed that craters formed near poles on a sphere map export appear "sqaurish" or rectangular sometimes. The oddity isn't really all that noticeable when the sphere map is wrapped around a sphere in a 3d app.
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  • Master TMOMaster TMO
    It's not so much the shape that concerns me - it's the altitude distortion. I can't think of a single Earth crater that goes from 3.5 miles above sea level at the rims to 3 miles below sea level in the center.

    Also, on a world-sized map, most craters of the style in the picture you attached are too small to be visible. Less than one pixel in size.

    The problem is that I don't know if that's the way it's supposed to work and be used. Is the vertical distortion I'm seeing typical? What size range of craters have folks found to generate the best results? What post-processing works best to blend them realistically into the world surface?

    Thanks for the response!
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  • jslaytonjslayton Moderator, ProFantasy Mapmaker
    It's a known bug.
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  • Master TMOMaster TMO
    Thanks much! I won't add cratering to my prep process now then! Back to glaciation! :)
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