I agree with Charles. My example was just a completely unedited FT map. Normally I would add lots more small islands, and use Global smoothing, Fill Land Mass and add rivers - even a few craters. Also reduce land mass on one side of big mountain ranges, and expand it on the other side. (eg, think Australia and South America and USA)
Yeah, that's my understanding of it. We're only using it for a coastline. That way people can draw the maps how they like, without having to follow a pre made map of where mountains are and where rivers are.
I personally prefer using it just for the coast. I love the idea of member generated FT's. I will not be able to submit one myself, I do not have that particular add-on. I cannot afford to buy it or the new annual until I find a new job now that I have graduated.
I also prefer working from just the coastlines. I'm not always happy with how and where FT places the mountains -too many massive mountain peaks smack in the center of the range.
I'll be satisfied with however it is decided on choosing a world. I own FT, but have never really done much with it. As a result, I've never generated a world that I've actually liked so I probably won't submit an entry.
(I know this sounds like I'm criticizing FT. I'm not. I've just never needed to generate an entire world all at once so never bothered to learn how to use the software. I only bought it to support ProFantasy. )
I really like FT, but I do understand what you mean about mountains in the middle of the continent. There's a limit to what a fractal can do all by itself. You have the same problem with any land generating software. I get it with Vue and Blender as well, so its a known problem.
You just can't beat it for coastlines, though.
I don't mind spending a couple of hours messing around trying to get a decent-ish shape or two. As a tip for others - I find it helps to make the world quite a lot larger than the Earth
http://fracterra.com/CGTutorial/index.html is an example of FT usage that lets you pretty much get what you want where you want it. It was written against FT Pro after the first Cartographer's Guild community worldbuilding project and I think that it's what Robbie used as the technique to generate the first iteration of the second CG community worldbuilding project. All of the techniques should still be applicable for FT3. At the very least, this tutorial addresses the most common "mountains in the middle" complaint and shows how to use the Image Climate shader and prescale offset editing. I did get a mega-continent, but that was mostly because I was just piddling about quickly (a couple of hours of non-constant effort) to demonstrate the ideas.
Posted By: JimPI doubt I'll have the spare time for this.
I know time is a premium for a lot of people, me included. This is why I am suggesting this is a long-term project, where people can work on mas when they have the time, and feel up to it. No time limits, no pressure. Except for the first few continent maps which are needed to set up the baseline world, I am thinking people should take exactly as much time as needed for any map submitted to this project. After all, the world is more than big enough that even if you take 6 months on your chosen region, other don't need to wait for you to finish, they pick somewhere else.
Seems to be enough interest that it is worth a shot starting this up.
How about, in about a week, I put up a selection of FT worlds we can vote upon, and if anyone else want to make a nice FT world, send me the .ftw file for the world, and I'll include it in the voting. Sounds good?
Yup, sounds like a great idea to me too. I have Fractal Terrains but honestly I have never ever used it for anything so I'm a complete Fractal Terrains noob. I picked it up just in case I wanted to make a world that looked like the kind you can make in Fractal Terrains but I just haven't dedicated any time to it yet.
Sounds good to me as well Monsen. Question, how will we "reserve" a section of the world map to work on or any other project? It would be very frustrating to spend weeks working on a particular project and then have somebody else submit a finished project for the same thing.
If we are to use the same top level world map, we need to have the main mountains and rivers in place. An Ft world, exported to CC3(+) will do this. Editing the FT map along the lines in jslayton's tutorials (which i have used plenty of times now) is the best way to start - it enables the main mountains, rivers and land masses to be exported and edited. I will do one as an example, and convert the CC3+ export into Mike Schley style - just give me a day or three.
Posted By:QuentenIf we are to use the same top level world map, we need to have the main mountains and rivers in place. An Ft world, exported to CC3(+) will do this. Editing the FT map along the lines in jslayton's tutorials (which i have used plenty of times now) is the best way to start - it enables the main mountains, rivers and land masses to be exported and edited. I will do one as an example, and convert the CC3+ export into Mike Schley style - just give me a day or three.
You could probably wait with the CC3+ part of the job until we have decided on a world, but an FT world for the voting would be nice. I do agree that we need to have some of the main features in place though, but not so many as to lock in the mapper's creativity either.
Posted By: CharlesWayneRobinsonQuestion, how will we "reserve" a section of the world map to work on or any other project?
I'll maintain a registry of who is doing what. You'll basically make a request for something you want to work on, and I'll add it to the registry so people can see what is being worked on.
You only need to have the main mountains and rivers in place if two people are working on the same continent. If there are multiple continents and/or islands and a separate person is working on each, then the mountains and rivers can be wherever the mapper wants to put them because they will not interfere with the other mountains and rivers on the other continents.
I worked on the Guild World map where mountains and rivers were already drawn and while the whole project was a lot of fun, having to place the mountains and rivers where someone else drew them made it less fun for me because I could not be creative. Instead, I felt like I was copying someone elses work.
When I have the ability to make maps the way I see them and place things where I feel they should go I feel like I make better maps. I'm not really happy with how my guild world map turned out as I had to follow strict guidelines on where the mountains and rivers would go, mainly because they had to make sense and also connect to other people's mountains in other maps.
EDIT: DOH!...ninja'd by Monsen, CharlesWayneRobinson, and Quenten. Lol...you guys type fast!
How about if the main mountain ridges are simply marked as lines on the map?
Same with the rivers?
Then we could choose our own particular mountain symbols to place along those lines, and wiggle the rivers around the guiding lines in fashion that suited our taste.
But I want jungle terrain and a mountain range with a huge hole blown out of it (insert evil laugh here) Bwah, ha, ha!!!! ?. Yes, my imagination is already running buck wild - lol! ?
Here is a world I am working on in FT to put to the group. Can you critique, or even tell me to get lost, if you really hate it. Monsen, I have fixed the lakes - they were actually meant to communicate with the sea (except the 2 lakes in the NE of the SE continent - like Lake Maracaibo). Latest pic here
I like the shape of the landmasses, it is also good you don't have landmasses near the poles, makes the whole projection issue a whole lot less of an issue. There is a pretty huge lake near the west side of the map about 2/5 from the top, separated from the ocean by just a tiny stripe of land. I think this would be better as a bay instead, with some of the narrower part of the separator removed. There are also some similar lakes on the snaking continent near the middle.
I noticed some striping patterns in your map. Which fractal function did you use?
I used the original FT Ridged Multifractal. This was an old FT map which I have now heavily edited. It shouldn't matter, since we will be converting whichever map is choen into a Mike Schley top map anyway. Some of the rivers will need editing in the final CC3 map, so they don't all end up in lakes, as shown here.
Make one little optimization mistake twenty years ago and it haunts you forever... The RMF with Perlin's Improved Noise (a horrible but accurate name) is a much better option that looks much the same but without the stripes and with much better zooming.
It should be possible to paint land into the southern hemisphere. I recommend using the prescale offset editing for that sort of thing as it will preserve the continental shelf appearance.
Its mapping an area under the surface for the Drow, etc. The TSR D1 through D3 modules hint at other locations, off from the main path, and these folks are filling in the blanks.
Here is a link to a chart they came up with to divide up the locations.
I like the idea of this project, but doubt I'd have the time or energy to work on something towards helping to map the world. I'd love to follow how things progress, at least.
FT I have no knowledge of, so I'm not sure how representative Quenten's example world map may be. However, the thing that strikes me immediately is how little subsea terrain there is; basically one crater almost in the centre of the central ocean, and a lot of shallow areas that mostly seem to culminate in rashes of small islands - so no ocean trenches, no mid-ocean ridges, and with the exception of the small southern continent, everywhere else seems to have continental shelves that extend for huge distances from the main landmasses. But maybe that doesn't matter, given CC3 concentrates chiefly on land features? (Unless you're awkward, like me, and want to have all parts of your fantasy world available to explore and adventure in )
Comments
How about we do that and the PF team choose the best one?
I'll be satisfied with however it is decided on choosing a world. I own FT, but have never really done much with it. As a result, I've never generated a world that I've actually liked so I probably won't submit an entry.
(I know this sounds like I'm criticizing FT. I'm not. I've just never needed to generate an entire world all at once so never bothered to learn how to use the software. I only bought it to support ProFantasy.
You just can't beat it for coastlines, though.
I don't mind spending a couple of hours messing around trying to get a decent-ish shape or two. As a tip for others - I find it helps to make the world quite a lot larger than the Earth
I'll give that a go later on tonight
How about, in about a week, I put up a selection of FT worlds we can vote upon, and if anyone else want to make a nice FT world, send me the .ftw file for the world, and I'll include it in the voting. Sounds good?
Thanks for setting this up Monsen! :-)
I'll maintain a registry of who is doing what. You'll basically make a request for something you want to work on, and I'll add it to the registry so people can see what is being worked on.
I worked on the Guild World map where mountains and rivers were already drawn and while the whole project was a lot of fun, having to place the mountains and rivers where someone else drew them made it less fun for me because I could not be creative. Instead, I felt like I was copying someone elses work.
When I have the ability to make maps the way I see them and place things where I feel they should go I feel like I make better maps. I'm not really happy with how my guild world map turned out as I had to follow strict guidelines on where the mountains and rivers would go, mainly because they had to make sense and also connect to other people's mountains in other maps.
EDIT: DOH!...ninja'd by Monsen, CharlesWayneRobinson, and Quenten. Lol...you guys type fast!
Same with the rivers?
Then we could choose our own particular mountain symbols to place along those lines, and wiggle the rivers around the guiding lines in fashion that suited our taste.
Monsen, I have fixed the lakes - they were actually meant to communicate with the sea (except the 2 lakes in the NE of the SE continent - like Lake Maracaibo).
Latest pic here
There is a pretty huge lake near the west side of the map about 2/5 from the top, separated from the ocean by just a tiny stripe of land. I think this would be better as a bay instead, with some of the narrower part of the separator removed. There are also some similar lakes on the snaking continent near the middle.
I noticed some striping patterns in your map. Which fractal function did you use?
Some of the rivers will need editing in the final CC3 map, so they don't all end up in lakes, as shown here.
It should be possible to paint land into the southern hemisphere. I recommend using the prescale offset editing for that sort of thing as it will preserve the continental shelf appearance.
[1E] Collaborative Project: Mapping the Depths of the Earth the Underdark.
Its mapping an area under the surface for the Drow, etc. The TSR D1 through D3 modules hint at other locations, off from the main path, and these folks are filling in the blanks.
Here is a link to a chart they came up with to divide up the locations.
Hopefully this helps.
FT I have no knowledge of, so I'm not sure how representative Quenten's example world map may be. However, the thing that strikes me immediately is how little subsea terrain there is; basically one crater almost in the centre of the central ocean, and a lot of shallow areas that mostly seem to culminate in rashes of small islands - so no ocean trenches, no mid-ocean ridges, and with the exception of the small southern continent, everywhere else seems to have continental shelves that extend for huge distances from the main landmasses. But maybe that doesn't matter, given CC3 concentrates chiefly on land features? (Unless you're awkward, like me, and want to have all parts of your fantasy world available to explore and adventure in