Hi everyone :)

In this week's Live Mapping Session Ralf will be taking a detailed look at selection methods in CC3+ and how to edit various entities.

You are all very welcome to come along and join in, or if you miss it you can watch later.

@Quenten You're welcome :)

It does relate to the thread more than you think, because it explains why AA shouldn't be used to export an image when you intend to remove the background in GIMP or PS. Using the colour picker to pick the background is complicated by the many different shades of variation around the edges as Remy pointed out above.

There is a way around it in GIMP, but it is a crude method and doesn't always work very well. I pick the background white with the selection colour picker, invert the selection, sharpen it, shrink it by 1 or maybe even 2 pixels, invert the selection again and then delete the background along with the fuzzy edge. It is much easier if the fuzzy edge created by AA doesn't exist in the first place.

I think Wyvern was on about the prominence of the lip, but you've just opened a new door.

Yes, I can do one that goes on the same sheet as the hills that will behave like the hills. This one is for rocky/arid places mainly, or as a relatively recent crater in an otherwise lush environment.

And now I am wondering if a longer bevel would be better.

I'm also thinking about adding something to that southern end. It looks a bit bland.

Long bevel, or short bevel - what do you think?

Hi Everyone! :)

In the Live Mapping session on 2nd September, Ralf demonstrates the Darklands City style from the September issue of the Cartographer's Annual.

Book a seat and come and join in.

Or watch it later, if you can't make it :)

Sorry! I give you a thumbs up for thanking Remy, but when I reconsidered I realised it might have looked like I was agreeing that your work was rubbish. It's NOT rubbish. So I took back my thumbs up.

What size are you trying to export?

The critical number in any export isn't the size you set in the px hieght and width but the work size, which is a pair of numbers at the bottom right of the Options box. If both are significantly over 10,000 px you may have to reduce antialiasing quite a bit to bring them under that number.

When it crashes what do you mean? Does CC3 crash to desktop, or does the process just stop and not finish?

Would you be willing to upload the FCW here so that we can have a go at exporting it?

It works in most cases where the drawing tools have been correctly setup to fall on the 'FLOORS*' sheet. The asterisk is a wildcard that allows this to happen. The only proviso is that you do need to have the chosen 'FLOORS Temple floor dirt' sheet picked as the active sheet before you start to draw.

I always struggle quite a bit with Badland textures. There are 3 types of desert, so I did 3 types of badland to blend into them. Let me know what you think of them.

Grey desert and badlands:

Red desert and badlands:

White desert and badlands:

Thank you, both :)

Ok - less peaky hills. Agreed.

@Quenten I wanted a fresh start with complete design freedom (taking suggestions into account). Spectrum is already full of things that I would have to continue to match against, including a colour scheme and a set of textures that aren't as good as I can do these days. Having to make everything fit with things I no longer consider my best work would be quite limiting. I'm hoping that CC4 Overland will be better than Spectrum. I hope it will be anyway.

@Ricko Yes, the angle of view for the model shot is quite a lot more oblique (side view) than Spectrum, which was absolutly isometric in all symbols. What I've done above is not true isometric, but like you I think it looks better. When I draw the mountains and hills I will probably flatten the bases very subtly, or make them less obviously rounded so they can fit together even more easily.