Creating World Maps

[RandyT0001]

Originally posted by Straybow:
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.

Maybe like Yellowstone Park? I think the Yellowstone volcano is a different type but the caldera may be about the right size. If Earth didn't have a thick atmosphere and rainfall how big would it have been I wonder?

Another point Mars doesn't have plate tectonics like Earth. I wonder how tall Mauna Loa would have been without erosion and plate tectonics. I guess you could get an estimate by adding up the volumes of the various sea mounds that spread across the Pacific to the northwest of Hawaii toward the subduction trench close to Japan. If all that material had been built upon itself how tall would it be?

 

[Straybow]

Considering each island is a minimum 6km tall and seamounts are usually less than 1km shorter, it adds up quickly.

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

Interesting discussion, gentlemen.

I don't have a computer good enough to run any of this stuff, I think (my wife has the better computer), and I barely have time to visit forums, much less learn new software, but the results are VERY impressive.

A quick side question...
Some years ago I saw an artists impression with the surface of Venus as if it was in Earth's orbit. Blue water, clouds, etc.

Would any of these topographical maps (the ones with altitude rings if I used the wrong word) available for importing into these programs? Would that even work? Am I talking out of my *ss?

Always wondered what Mars would look like with an atmospere, seas and gravitic compensation (to hold the good stuff in).

 

[KrisComet]

I agree with Jim, go get Fractal Terrains and Campaign Cartographer from .. Profantasy software.

you'll drool at ur own stuff

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi DLO !

At least FT eats DEM/DTED data formats.
You can also import greyscale bmp images.

Well, at the moment I know no source for venus DEM data, but its surely out there.

Will give an update here....

regards,

Mert

 

[sid6.7]

Originally posted by Dominion Loyalty Officer:
Interesting discussion, gentlemen.

I don't have a computer good enough to run any of this stuff, I think (my wife has the better computer), and I barely have time to visit forums, much less learn new software, but the results are VERY impressive.

A quick side question...
Some years ago I saw an artists impression with the surface of Venus as if it was in Earth's orbit. Blue water, clouds, etc.

Would any of these topographical maps (the ones with altitude rings if I used the wrong word) available for importing into these programs? Would that even work? Am I talking out of my *ss?

Always wondered what Mars would look like with an atmospere, seas and gravitic compensation (to hold the good stuff in).

for a different game i made a CHEESY what if
mars or the moon had oceans....

here:
http://www.cruzan.info/slay/mars.jpg
http://www.cruzan.info/slay/moon.jpg

i look at images and made all the low
spots have some water...probably not correct
but it will give you an idea...


for me it appeared mars would have a
southern continent and a northern ocean..

for the moon it would be a super
continent with some small seas
here and there...

 

[Stainless]

BUMP, and a question/request.

I've done some nice planets using LunaCell and Flexify2, and I've downloaded the TAS planet form .pdf, but I'm at a loss as to how I can turn that .pdf into a template that I can paste my planet images into.

I have Acrobat standard (full version) 7.0
CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12
Photoshop Elements 2.0

Any help on how to do this, or files that someone has already done would be greatly appreciated.

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

You should be able to open the PDF in Photoshop or Illustrator (better) and paste like crazy. I'm not sure about those other tools.

 

[Colin]

You can open the pdf file in Corel Draw, and just import the map file. You may have to play about with the fills on the AS planet form, but that's how I did all the maps for 2320AD.

 

[Stainless]

Thanks guys. But I can get the form into Corel easily enough. It's the getting the planet image under the hex grid that's the problem for my tiny brain :-( Sorry, I didn't explainmyself properly.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Wow, I never knew I could open PDFs in PSP!

Try putting the image on a different layer and setting the blend mode to Multiply.

 

[Mickazoid]

Here's the map I just did for a cousin's campaign.

 

[Stainless]

Very slick, but how do you do it?!

 

[Mickazoid]

Read the printer-friendly version of this thread - all the instrux are included...

 

[Stainless]

I had read the thread, but still didn't know how to do it. However, after spending a whole afternoon lerning more about Corel PhotoPaint, I've finally nutted it out. Quite a process and I only managed to discover the last essential bit (embedding the map BELOW the form mask) by accident.

But now my trial versions of LunarCell and Flexify have expired :-( I'll have to see if I can get them to work in Photoshop or strip the Flaming Pear entries from the registry

I'll post some examples soon!

 

[marvo]

Originally posted by mickazoid:
Here's the map I just did for a cousin's campaign.

That's awesome. One question, did you modify the IS 8-9 form yourself or is this one that can be downloaded somewhere? I took a look in the library and can only find the forms from Book 12.

 

[Stainless]

IS forms 8 & 9 are from FlightCommanderSolitude's web page;

http://www.signalgk.com/


For what it's worth, here are my instructions to myself so I can do this again;

Prepair IS form 8_9
===================
Open .pdf file with Acrobat and save as TIF.
Open .TIF file with Corel PhotoPaint
Select Magic Wand Mask tool and set Tolerance to 1
Hold down shift key and then select all hexes to make a mask (red area) that surrounds the isomap area
Save Mask for later use (by Mask/Save/Save Mast to Disk)

Make your planet
================
Open new image in Corel PhotoPaint (1500 x 1500 pixels, or greater)
Open LunarCell (by Effects/Flaming Pear/LunarCell)
Choose "Map colour"
Create planet as you wish
Save image (map.jpeg)
Choose "Normal"
Save image (globe.jpeg)
Open Flexify2
Open map.jpeg
Choose "equirectangular, isomap, normal"
Save image (isomap.jpeg)

Embedding images into IS forms
==============================
Open Corel PhotoPaint
Open TAS 8_9 (TIF formated)
Load TAS 8_9 Corel Mask (by Mask/Load/Load from Disk/)
Set Colour to CMYK 32bit (by Image/Colour Mode/CMYK Color (32bit))
Open isomap.jpeg
Choose Magic Wand Mask tool and set Tolerance to 1
Select upper and lower black regions (using shift key)
Invert (by Mask/Invert)
Copy
Open a new image (No background, 32-bit CMYK)
Paste
Reduce outline by setting threshold to 1 (in Object/Matting/Threshold)
Choose Rectangle Mask Tool and cut off left triangle
Paste and move to right of isomap
Click on main image and select all (by Object/Combine/Combine Objects Together)
Copy
Select TAS form
Paste into mask (by Edit/Paste/Paste into Selection)
Resize until edges are just over isomap boarder
Select Object Docker (Object/Docker)
Click on map layer and choose Logical OR from drop-down (above left)
Type in details (Ariel 12 pt) using Text Tool

 

[marvo]

Thanks Stainless. It seems I actually had that form, so I guess you just edited it to add the 3D view.

Thanks also for the workflow notes. It's interesting to see how other people get the results. Like you, I can never remember all the steps and keystrokes so I have a large binder of printed tutorials and notes.

 

[marvo]

FT and PlanetGen create nice earthlike planets but our solar systems shows us that most of the planets and moons are covered with impact craters. Anything with a zero or thin atmosphere is going to look much the same.

Does anyone have a workflow method for generating worlds with lots of craters? Or even a method of adding impact craters to maps created in other programs.

 

[TheEngineer]

Perhaps using the "generating craters" function in FT ?

TE