FT3 Simple Create Mode
I am a fairly inexperienced FT3 user and, after experimenting with other features, decided to try out 'Simple Create Mode'. The results that I get after performing the 'execute' step are similar in nature to what is pictured in the help document. However, the generated landmasses aren't at all like what FT generates in a 'synthetic' world - the coastlines have a lot of straight edges in them and the land is all low and flat except for the mountains, which are very narrow and abrupt. I think there must be more steps to be done to make the result useful, but I'm not sure what they would be.
I tried increasing roughness, and that did markedly improve the look of the coastlines, but it substantially altered the shape and position of the landmasses and left some of the mountain ranges floating out in the ocean by themselves.
If you have hints on anything else to try, I'd appreciate it.
I tried increasing roughness, and that did markedly improve the look of the coastlines, but it substantially altered the shape and position of the landmasses and left some of the mountain ranges floating out in the ocean by themselves.
If you have hints on anything else to try, I'd appreciate it.
Comments
1) Select>>Altitude Range and select areas between about -100 to +100 meters to get the coastal areas.
2) Select>>Feather with a value of 1.0 to reduce hard edges on the selection
3) Tools>>Raise>>Global Roughness and a suitable roughness value such as 0.1.
To process the interior of the landscape, try:
1) Select>>Altitude Range and select areas between about 0 to +1000000 meters or so to get everything interior to the coastline
2) Select>>Modify>>Distance to change your selection so that the world is more selected the farther inland the area is.
3) Select>>Feather with a value of 1.0 or so to smooth out the selection
4) Tools>>Raise>>Global Roughness and a suitable roughness value.
You can also use that second process to smooth out (use Tools>>Global Smooth instead of Tools>>Global Raise) or raise (use Tools>>Global Raise on the Offset channel instead of Roughness channel) the terrain. Using this sort of distance selection to add a value to the Land Offset is a simplified version of Tools>>Create Mound From Selection.
If you have a specific shape that you want to replicate, I recommend making that shape into a black and white mask and then loading it as a selection. Then paint into the prescale offset channel (described in the above-referenced link) through that selection to get your basic coastlines. Make another mask for your mountains and paint through that one to get the mountains where you want them. Always use a light touch with the prescale offset editing tool.
If you want to paint your information directly into FT3, I recommend using the Orthographic projection and using the freehand selection tool to outline where you want your continents to go. Then use Select>>Save Selection to save that selection for future reference. You can do the same for your mountains or other altitude elements that you want to add.
For my first try, I did make selection mask for one continent, but I was just using it as a general guide (deselecting before painting, then reloading periodically to check my work) because from some preliminary experiments I did it looked like painting with a selection active would tend to create cliffs. Is that not the case, or if it is would feathering the selection before painting avoid it? (This just occurred to me. I didn't understand what Feather does until, after reading your first answer, I saved a Feather'd selection and then looked at the resulting bitmap.)
Finally, I have some questions about the basic concepts / operation of FT3. I am going to create another thread for them though, since they are much more general than my initial question in this thread. I hope it will be feasible to answer them.
If the selection is implemented as an 8-bit image as in FT3, then anything that you paint through that selection will only have a maximum of 256 steps. That's usually enough for most work, but the steps can sometimes show through when painting. After painting into a channel, it can be useful to do a small blur (0.5) on that channel to smooth out any accumulated steps.
One way to keep your selection round is to save it as an image. You can also load that image as a partial-transparency image overlay and it will stay on the screen as a guide for your painting. Using big, diffuse brushes to paint your continent will give you nice details without cliffs. Trying to go too high too soon, especially with a selection in use, will give you sharp drop-offs.