Looking for map software
- Thread starter Shonner
- Start date
There is a photo shop pluggin - ack, the name escapes me - ah ha - flexify IIRC! (Works well with InfranView, btw.)
Yep - http://www.flamingpear.com/flexify.html.
However, it doesn't quite give a CT style planetary map - the icosahedral net doesn't split the major tris... i.e. you'll have to cut the first half tri and put it on the other side for the straight side Traveller style.
Yep - http://www.flamingpear.com/flexify.html.
However, it doesn't quite give a CT style planetary map - the icosahedral net doesn't split the major tris... i.e. you'll have to cut the first half tri and put it on the other side for the straight side Traveller style.
I played around last week and figured out how to convert spherical planet maps into Traveller-style planetary hex maps. And I can also take a Traveller map and convert it to a spherical map for rendering planets.
I think I'm the only person on Earth doing this because there is no one else on the Internet posting their work on this matter.
I think I'm the only person on Earth doing this because there is no one else on the Internet posting their work on this matter.
Yey! Another person. If I say no one else does this, that's when people show up. Otherwise, everyone stays secret about what they know. I'm using Carrara to bake my LunarCell terrain maps for IS map forms. Normally IS Map Form 8. Here's a sample. http://shawndriscollrpg.blogspot.com/2012/12/gming-traveller-just-got-easier.html
My YouTube channel has a series of converting maps as I learned the process.
My YouTube channel has a series of converting maps as I learned the process.
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a bloke on a cartography website had a go at beatifying Tavonni (i.e. taking my pencil sketch and using nd actualnmapping tool to make it look 3D). I don't think anyone converted it to a rotating sphere, however - something I've wanted ever since finging a rotating Earth for my Terra library data page...
If I can contact the guy (it was a few years ago) about using the map, could you make me a spherical planet?
If I can contact the guy (it was a few years ago) about using the map, could you make me a spherical planet?
Yes.
The publisher of Lunar Cell also creates Flexify - which will do the conversion for you. However, it is not quite a CT Map format - the side half tris need to be 'wrapped' around.
Most people probably don't actually publish their work, btw. Here's something I did for a game last year...
Been making and wrapping world maps to sphere's for over 10 years with custom OpenGL programs for realtime use in my games - i.e. no static images. The icos morphs very nicely to a sphere just by subdivision and pushing normals out.
, the edges line up perfectly, just the heavy outer outline overlapped some pixels.Those people probably can't share data or reproduce their efforts on another computer anyway. They are islands, which don't interest me.
Finally did some terraformed Mars maps for Traveller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg4AuJ-fonc
I'm only familiar with CT, MegaTraveller and the Mongoose edition, but are there any actual game mechanics tied to the traditional icosahedral Traveller planet map format?
My understanding of it was that the map grid was provided as a convenience for GMs to use as a template for drawing maps, but is there any more to it than that?
Personally I prefer to use real-world map projections, or approximations of them. I've no in-game use for hexes for example, especially since the size of each hex varies with the diameter of the world so they're not even very useful for distance measurement and the grid tends to obscure terrain features and labels.
I've done some preliminary experiments with doing world map generation for StarBase, so I'm wondering how I'd handle map projection.
Simon Hibbs
My understanding of it was that the map grid was provided as a convenience for GMs to use as a template for drawing maps, but is there any more to it than that?
Personally I prefer to use real-world map projections, or approximations of them. I've no in-game use for hexes for example, especially since the size of each hex varies with the diameter of the world so they're not even very useful for distance measurement and the grid tends to obscure terrain features and labels.
I've done some preliminary experiments with doing world map generation for StarBase, so I'm wondering how I'd handle map projection.
Simon Hibbs
Mechanics? Vaguely recall some, but can't place a mental finger on them right now...
In-game, there is IS Form 8.
In RL, hex style maps are useful for data binning and hexes exhibit less distortion (angular and scaling) for equal-area projections, than squares, on a curved surface. From a data-mining standpoint, distorted hex mapping can be quite useful - see http://www.pyxisinnovation.com/derm.php. Unintentionally, traveller's hex mapping of an icosahedral projection is a nice simplification of this modern, computer driven, mapping - so, IMO, it fits very nicely with the Sci-Fi theme.
Two-dimensionally, a hex also approximates a circle - like that encompassed by a limited range sensor - much better than a square.
That said, I'm typically amused by the notion (in general - not speaking specifically to your post) that Traveller is 'hard sci-fi' or should be 'realistic' by exactly mimicking RL in every detail - in point of fact, I find 'foreign' concepts of things we take for granted, much more believable. Hex mapping a planet is something a space faring, computer dependent, society - one that sees planets in their true form, rather than as a flat plane - is more likely to do, IMO. So, while it can be a PITA - especially from a hobby programming standpoint - it is 'sci-fi cool' and something classically associated with Traveller.
In-game, there is IS Form 8.
In RL, hex style maps are useful for data binning and hexes exhibit less distortion (angular and scaling) for equal-area projections, than squares, on a curved surface. From a data-mining standpoint, distorted hex mapping can be quite useful - see http://www.pyxisinnovation.com/derm.php. Unintentionally, traveller's hex mapping of an icosahedral projection is a nice simplification of this modern, computer driven, mapping - so, IMO, it fits very nicely with the Sci-Fi theme.
Two-dimensionally, a hex also approximates a circle - like that encompassed by a limited range sensor - much better than a square.
That said, I'm typically amused by the notion (in general - not speaking specifically to your post) that Traveller is 'hard sci-fi' or should be 'realistic' by exactly mimicking RL in every detail - in point of fact, I find 'foreign' concepts of things we take for granted, much more believable. Hex mapping a planet is something a space faring, computer dependent, society - one that sees planets in their true form, rather than as a flat plane - is more likely to do, IMO. So, while it can be a PITA - especially from a hobby programming standpoint - it is 'sci-fi cool' and something classically associated with Traveller.
Some weather rules (variants, probably, from JTAS as I recall) refer to planetary hexes.
When compared with other SFRPGs, Traveller seems like hard sci-fi.
Mongoose does not use the IS Map Form that has made appearances here and there in previous Traveller editions. Traveller 5 includes a mechanic for generating various sized hex-mapped planets specifically for display on an IS Map Form.
You may want to look at Earth, Moon, and Mars real-world maps to see which style will work best for your game world.
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