Creating World Maps

[TheEngineer]

Hi !

I really like the lunarcell output. Its pretty easy to produce a "good looking" output for planetary textures in just moments.
Especially the cloud generation system is just great and I use it in combination with FT (to produce cloud overlay images).

For actual mapping I still use FT, because its creates more convincing maps (or even detail maps just by zooming and letting the fractal function do its work).
I've got the hope, that Joe Slayton is going to exhance adjustabilty of FTs gaia shader, in order to let it spit out more "good looking" large scale maps, too..

Anyway, the Flamingpear stuff is just great....

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by mickazoid:
Yummy stuff indeed! Great work Jim! I must say that I think I prefer the former for photorealism, but the latter for 'tweakability'.

Yeah, I completely agree. Although you can get "globe" views (and even a sequence of GIFs to simulate rotation) out of FT, you don't get the photorealism or the clouds or atmosphere. LunarCell stuff, I could see importing into Celetia (a whole other can of worms, there!!!) but not the FT world.

Did you draw those yellowish swirls on the top image? Were they automatically generated? Are they clouds?

Those are, in fact, clouds.

So to sum up:

LunarCell
</font>

• Great interface</font>
• Nice photorealism</font>
• atmosphere effects</font>
• Easy to make "alien looking" worlds</font>

Fractal Terrains: </font>

• Sharp fractal landscapes</font>
• Temperature calculation</font>
• elevation calculation</font>

Note that you can do "alien looking" worlds in FT - I just haven't figured out what needs to happen to have that work yet.

Those three mountains look like the three volcanoes of Mars' Tharsis Plateau:

(a great oblique view... look to the far left)

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mars/images/valmar_image.html

Hey, that's pretty slick - I will have to check out the elevation on those - the three on Gaakish are all over 33,000 ft.

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by TheEngineer:
Hi !

I really like the lunarcell output. Its pretty easy to produce a "good looking" output for planetary textures in just moments.
Especially the cloud generation system is just great and I use it in combination with FT (to produce cloud overlay images).

<smacks hand on forehead> Of course! All this graphic layering stuff is still pretty new to me.

For actual mapping I still use FT, because its creates more convincing maps (or even detail maps just by zooming and letting the fractal function do its work).
I've got the hope, that Joe Slayton is going to exhance adjustabilty of FTs gaia shader, in order to let it spit out more "good looking" large scale maps, too..

Anyway, the Flamingpear stuff is just great....

Yeah, I'm liking it. When I get the extra cash in the budget, I'll have to shell it out for these two.

The only other downside to Lunarcell, now that I'm thinking of it (at least in relation to the CC2 map) is that the res looks a little jagged on the export into the map. Is that editable?

It may just be that the map is pretty huge. Mickazoid, where did you get your TAS maps? You're LC images seem to be a bit smoother.

 

[Mickazoid]

Olympus Mons, the largest of them, has an altitude of 25km (16 miles) - 3x the height of Everest. It measures 624 km (374 mi) in diameter. It is 100 times larger than Mauna Loa on Earth.

Whoa.

 

[Mickazoid]

Originally posted by Jim Fetters:
The only other downside to Lunarcell, now that I'm thinking of it (at least in relation to the CC2 map) is that the res looks a little jagged on the export into the map. Is that editable?

It may just be that the map is pretty huge. Mickazoid, where did you get your TAS maps? You're LC images seem to be a bit smoother.

I have my TAS map in illustrator format (converted from the pdf's (Flight Commander Solitude's)- and the enclosing shape of the map (the icosahedron 'border') is a compound path. With the map in the clipboard I 'paste into' the path and the edges look nice n' sharp - rather than matching an edge to an edge visually.

Right tool for the right job

And for maps, I generally prefer the photorealistic to the flat and sharp... these maps are, IMTU, supposed to be the result of orbital scans, etc... and mapping a realistic surface to the unrealistic surface of mapping seems to be the right way to convey 'realism' in that handout, IMTU anyway

The 'Remote Survey' is a good job... you get to see the cosmos

 

[Mickazoid]

Re: Resolution:

Make sure your flat image is 1500x1500 or so. Nice sharp detail then!

 

[jfetters]

oh yes! Very nice, indeed!

Thank you, mickazoid!

 

[Mickazoid]

My pleasure.

Information wants to be free.

 

[Stainless]

Originally posted by mickazoid:
Re: Resolution:

Make sure your flat image is 1500x1500 or so. Nice sharp detail then!

Thank you soooo much for the little tutorial. The only thing I've been adding is a touch of blur to get rid of some of the jaggies. Bumpmapping is also quite useful

By 1500 x 1500, do you mean pixels?

 

[Mickazoid]

It's my great pleasure. I could keep it secret but what the heck would that accomplish?

And I don't mean Credits, buster

Pixels indeed.

 

[jfetters]

Yep, I'm definitely liking the higer res on LunarCell...

 

[Mickazoid]

Jim: That looks great!

Need any players?

Keep up the great work.

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by mickazoid:
Jim: That looks great!

Thanks!

Need any players?

Keep up the great work.

LoL! Not running anything now, just playing around with world creation and such. I actually haven't ref'd in a while, and am trying to get into a PBEM game somewhere to join, but haven't had time to look around for one. Last time, I almost was able to get into one, but work took over the extra time for that.

 

[marvo]

Just a thought, but you should be able to take your rectangular output from PlanetGen and then create a world in Celestia using that map. You could then take screenshots or even make mini movies of orbiting the planet etc.

I have not really spent the time to figure out exactly how to do this, but I know it is possible. Does anyone know of a 'quick' tutorial on adding worlds and systems to Celestia?

 

[robject]

Holy Mackerel, Jim.

So I need to be running Linux to do that sort of thing?

 

[jfetters]

Holy Mackerel, Jim.

So I need to be running Linux to do that sort of thing?

Nope, this is all on a Windows PC.

Although the learning curve of these graphics programs makes it feel like it's a Unix machine.

 

[SteveRB11]

Originally posted by Jim Fetters:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> Holy Mackerel, Jim.

So I need to be running Linux to do that sort of thing?

Nope, this is all on a Windows PC.

Although the learning curve of these graphics programs makes it feel like it's a Unix machine. </font>[/QUOTE]Also available for Mac OS X as are a number of other Flaming Pear plugins (Glitterato, SolarCell, etc.) that come in useful for scifi illustration.

 

[robject]

OK Jim, let me ask you about CC2's hex template. Is it a fixed number of hexes in circumference, or can that be varied?

 

[jfetters]

As far as I have seen, the template is static like the generic maps included in most Traveller products.

Now there may be a way to programmatically adjust that so the hexes can remain at a constant value, but the template that is given is just the standard "hex = circumference/35". In fact, I'm sure a macro could be designed for that, as the CC2 ship deckplan templates have a neat feature that allows a dynamic switch between hexes and squares and yards/meters.

I am barely keeping up with the normal CC2 features, so I am not even going to dare trying that. At least not yet.

 

[Straybow]

Originally posted by mickazoid:
Olympus Mons, the largest of them, has an altitude of 25km (16 miles) - 3x the height of Everest. It measures 624 km (374 mi) in diameter. It is 100 times larger than Mauna Loa on Earth.

Whoa.

Mauna Loa is, what, over 10km from sea floor to peak? If you could make an Olympic-size shield volcano on an Earthlike planet it wouldn't last long. It would collapse as soon as it moved off the hot spot, leaving a giant, jaggy caldera. Would still be cool.