Help with Rivers in FT3
I'm using FT3 to create some maps for a Traveller campaign, and I am unable to get the rivers tool to work. I've read the tutorials an the help files. As far as I can figure out, I am doing everything right. But rivers are never added to my map. This is what I am doing:
I select Tools->Rivers->Find Rivers. I setup that dialog (I have tried every single setting that dialog allows, they impact the resolution of the rivers of course, but none of them has any impact on my problem). Then my machine spends a few minutes computing rivers. All works fine at that point.
When in the "select river length" dialog, I can see rivers drawn on my map that look great. But when I select "OK" from the "select river length dialog", the river overlay disappears and no rivers appear on my map. I have tried every possible combination of settings in the "select river length" dialog. It makes no difference. All river information in the displayed map always vanishes when I select "OK", and no manipulation of settings or zoom levels has any effect on my ability to see them on the map.
I though maybe world rainfall settings have an impact, so I tried a world with an annual rainfall of 300 cm / yr, and it made no difference. Rivers are simply NEVER drawn on the final map once the select river dialog completes. Ever.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks.
I select Tools->Rivers->Find Rivers. I setup that dialog (I have tried every single setting that dialog allows, they impact the resolution of the rivers of course, but none of them has any impact on my problem). Then my machine spends a few minutes computing rivers. All works fine at that point.
When in the "select river length" dialog, I can see rivers drawn on my map that look great. But when I select "OK" from the "select river length dialog", the river overlay disappears and no rivers appear on my map. I have tried every possible combination of settings in the "select river length" dialog. It makes no difference. All river information in the displayed map always vanishes when I select "OK", and no manipulation of settings or zoom levels has any effect on my ability to see them on the map.
I though maybe world rainfall settings have an impact, so I tried a world with an annual rainfall of 300 cm / yr, and it made no difference. Rivers are simply NEVER drawn on the final map once the select river dialog completes. Ever.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks.
Comments
the problem is that the Tools->Rivers->Show River Overlays option actually has NO impact on whether the overlays are displayed. not sure what the setting is supposed to do but I made the mistake of assuming it shows the river overlays. It does not.
To see the river overlay you have to open up the Image Overlays dialog and set the river overlay to active. Whether or not the Show River Overlays toggle is selected is irrelevent.
This begs a question though: what does "Show River Overlays" do?
The river computations can produce two completely different elements: an image overlay that is a picture of your rivers and a set of vector rivers that the system draws on the map. The image overlay will NOT export to CC3 as part of an FCW file; only the vector rivers will export.
The default behavior is to not keep the image overlay after the rivers are generated. You have to manually check the "Keep River Image Overlay" on the Select River Length dialog to keep the image overlay. It's this image overlay that is shown when you adjust the slider on the Select River Length dialog. It was intended to be a working layer, not the final product.
The vector rivers are what is shown and hidden via the Tools>>Rivers>>Show River Overlays operation. The vector rivers have the property that they have a hidden "importance" feature that allows dynamic reveal of river branches as the zoom level changes. Also, only vector rivers will export to CC3 in an FCW file.