Map: A little artisanal map... with 1225 provinces

[Edi]

Agrajag, yes, I know I'm evil.

Do you by any chance have the possibility to post the smoothed map? Or do you know how to do the same in GIMP?

Because as soon as I'm done with the bulk of the DB work, this map is going to get a spin.

Edi

[Agrajag]

Edi said:
Agrajag, yes, I know I'm evil.

Do you by any chance have the possibility to post the smoothed map? Or do you know how to do the same in GIMP?

Because as soon as I'm done with the bulk of the DB work, this map is going to get a spin.

Edi

I'm not sure how you would do that in GIMP.
I will however try and upload a zipped version of the smoothed map.

The problem is that the last time I smoothed the map I missed some white pixels (got my technique wrong), so now I have to redo it. Only since its a 150 megabyte map, Photoshop now claims it can't save it as .tga because there isn't enough space in the scratch disks (??).
I'm now trying some stuff to force it to save it, and if I'm successful, I'll upload it to one of those servers Twan initially used and see how that works.

And will edit accordingly

EDIT: GAH! The most compression I can get is an unwieldy 33.7 megabytes, unlike Twan's magical 10 megabyte file :\
I'm not sure where I can upload such a massive file, nor do I know if my internet connection will handle it :X

[Twan]

Mine was zipped with ALzip, a very good freeware (it takes 1 or 2 minutes to zip big files but really reduce the size to a minimum, not like the official Winzip). But even a 10MB file is too much for the forum (3 MB max IIRC).

As I haven't photoshop and Xnview offer no way to save the white pixels if I use filters (I've tried to reduce the pixelisation effect before releasing the map but abandonned as I had 600 white pixels to recreate) I'm interested by your blurred version too.

[Daynarr]

Edi said:
Or do you know how to do the same in GIMP?

Just load the map, go to filters-blur and select blur. It does job fine. However, I still have to check if it messes up white pixels.

[Agrajag]

Smart Blur is different from regular blur, I'm not sure about the precise algorithm, but as far as I can see, it only blends adjacent elements if they are already sufficiently close in color. That means that different shades of grass blend together well, but mountains won't blend.
Like I said, it isn't perfect, a few buildings got blended, and a few spots that needed some blurring were left as in the original, but I like what I got.
I'm going to set the map to upload and leave the computer while I go about my day, I'll see how things worked out when I get back home.
EDIT: http://rapidshare.com/files/7419784/oe2.rar.html
Its not a miraculous change, but its pretty nice

[Daynarr]

Ok, tested it and normal blur in Gimp really messes up white pixels. If you use it you won't be able to play on that map. Unfortunately there is no smart blur in Gimp.

Agrajag, thanks for the file.

[Agrajag]

Daynarr said:
Ok, tested it and normal blur in Gimp really messes up white pixels. If you use it you won't be able to play on that map. Unfortunately there is no smart blur in Gimp.

Agrajag, thanks for the file.

You are welcome

And the white pixel problem isn't solved thanks to the smart blur, all the smart blur does is blend things in a way that is less likely to blur things that you want to remain focused.

For the white pixels I just used the magic selection tool (allows you to select all instances of a certain color [or color range] on the image) to copy all the white pixels to a new layer, then blurred the original layer, then made sure there are no new white pixels (by using the magic selection tool again on a white pixel, and then making every white pixel into a 250,250,250 pixel), then put the white pixels back.

[Ballbarian]

In GIMP, use select by color to select the white pixels, copy & paste to another layer or a blank image of the same size as the original map, perform whatever blurs you want and then paste the clean white pixel layer back over the map.

Hope that helps.

[Agrajag]

Ballbarian said:
In GIMP, use select by color to select the white pixels, copy & paste to another layer or a blank image of the same size as the original map, perform whatever blurs you want and then paste the clean white pixel layer back over the map.

Hope that helps.

You forgot to mention that you need to check the blurred image for no new white pixels, and change those.

[MythicalMino]

does this lock anyone elses' game up? Everytime I pick this map, my game locks up like crazy....I don't get any type of error, just that it locks up and I have to ctrl-alt-delete....then shut the program down via processes.