Seeking map or need advice on making it

[Gandalf Parker]

I located some images for variations in trees. Making a "Stamp" or "brush" out of these should help some people.
http://tubes.ominix.com/art/foliage/index.html
The same site did have some nice waterfall stuff for a unique site.
Still looking for somewhere with lots of images of small well-drawn mountains or river.

[ February 03, 2004, 15:00: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[Targa]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
I located some images for variations in trees. Making a "Stamp" or "brush" out of these should help some people.
http://tubes.ominix.com/art/foliage/index.html
The same site did have some nice waterfall stuff for a unique site.
Still looking for somewhere with lots of images of small well-drawn mountains or river.

Nice site! I like this image for a new pretender:
http://tubes.ominix.com/art/characte...keleton-01.png

I saved at least a dozen of those tree and plant pictures. I'll be adding some to my "mapstuff" file for sure. Thanks for finding that!

Mokurai: I'm working on making a complete "mapstuff" file (though no doubt it will continue to grow ever larger). I'm also working on a mapmaking tutorial for photoshop. In the mean time, I'm sending you the mapstuff I already have that's ready for public consumption. And I very much appreciate the encouragement! As GP is fond of saying, "People don't know how to pay for free stuff anymore." Excellent example of how that's done.

[diamondspider]

I'll be busy for a few days here but have not lost my interest in map making!

I'll also reiterate my support and request for Targa's great looking map!

[Vger]

Hi,

I just wanted to add my support for Targa's and Gandalf's efforts. I'm really blown away by what Terraform can do. Is there any way to create a map file from the end result without doing it by hand? Those are lovely graphics that would really look sharp while playing.

Ciao,
V'ger gone

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Vger:
I just wanted to add my support for Targa's and Gandalf's efforts. I'm really blown away by what Terraform can do. Is there any way to create a map file from the end result without doing it by hand? Those are lovely graphics that would really look sharp while playing.

Is there anything we can rip out to a template file so we can use them to cut-n-paste on home made maps?

The terminology in this game is confusing. What did you want to do to a terragen map? Add provinces and capitals? Create the .map file with the correct terrain and neighbor commands? I kindof wish the .map files had an extension of .mmp or something we would know what we mean when we say map

[ February 03, 2004, 22:38: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[Targa]

I was able to put in a bit more work on the map today, and updated the webmap:
http://www.techno-mage.com/~targa/webmap.jpg

Bottom half looks like it's getting there, although I keep finding myself making changes and tweaks. Re-painted all the mountains today due to the fact that I saw a picture of something Kristoffer drew and it made mine look like crap. Added, erased, etc... (not gonna get into a long description this time. I'll let the pic speak for itself). Not really happy with the results I'm getting, but at least it will be playable. To top it off, my pen tablet is being fickle the Last couple of days.

Originally posted by Vger:
I just wanted to add my support for Targa's and Gandalf's efforts.

Much appreciated.

[Psitticine]

I played with using one of Gandalf's GIMP-script maps in 3D max. I used it as a displacement map to "bump up" a plane for some topography. It worked fairly well, especially after I put some height-controlled textures on it to make the lowest parts water and snow-cap the highest, but the way I converted it to what I needed left too many artifacts.

Gandalf, can you generate one that uses just grayscale to represent height data? I was curious what might come out of it if I took something like that and made a real effort with it in Max instead of just goofing around for 10 minutes.

Having a nice 3D fly-over would be a great way to show off a map.

[ February 04, 2004, 02:55: Message edited by: Psitticine ]

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Psitticine:
Gandalf, can you generate one that uses just grayscale to represent height data? I was curious what might come out of it if I took something like that and made a real effort with it in Max instead of just goofing around for 10 minutes.

Not sure I follow. You mean doing a GIMP render with just a gray palette? I could try that.

[Psitticine]

Pretty much. I'd have to play with it and see if any other special settings would be useful. The more of a spread in the colors, the better. Pure white and pure black and all shades in between. That gives a much more gradiated landscape.

I did something like this once for a project and it came out rather well. What I need to do here is alter things so that the texture is mapped in more than one (blended) layer. That shouldn't be any kind of big deal though, even if I just end up nesting textures.

Once I get it right, though, it won't take any more than popping a new map in place to "raise" a new 3D image.

I'm not sure it'll be of fantastic value to anyone, but it'll be fun to play with and I'll be happy to share the results.

Just thinking out loud here . . . I may eventually experiment with something that'd spawn trees as part of a particle system at designated areas on the map. That might require a seperate map being painted but that, again, shouldn't take much. Just slap a new layer on over the altitude map and paint in pure white where you want forest. Replace the underlayer with black then set up the script to spawn according to that. Hmm . . .

[Targa]

Quick update to the map:
http://www.techno-mage.com/~targa/webmap.jpg

Currently at 88 layers. I've already had several Messages to the effect, "Not enough system resources, close any open programs and retry" when attempting to multitask with Photoshop having the map loaded.

I'm hoping to have it finished in about a week, but don't hold me to that. I think the next one will be a nice small 2-4 player map.