I just had to make a quick shaded test as well...

This is a raw texture test straight from World Machine, and I must say I'm really proud of how this project is turning out. There are still a few things to tweak, lakes have some artifacts that makes hem all look shallow. I will remove them and generate a mask that makes it easy to add artifacts where needed later.

With some post work in Photoshop and shading applied it will be my best work so far I think. Thank you so much for making it possible for me to spend the time it have taken to get this set up!

Soon its time to start placing the settlements 🙂 

Texturing lakes and rivers on the agenda this evening. No I'm not suffering from a Holiday Hangover, its standard practice to use strong signal colors. It makes it lot easier to see if you're on the right track or not.

The main trick is to find the right data to tap into, and in order to see minute contrasts in the preview window its best to use strong colors that normally don't appear in nature.

World Machine basics continues, this time with the Coastal Erosion Device. It is a vital but often misused device that requires a bit of control to work properly. 

Figuring out a better way of doing things can sometimes take a surprisingly long time, and then all of a sudden strike you. I've worked with 3D terrain tools for over twenty years now and one of the main frustrations for me have been to try and create believable lakes and rivers.

The situation have always been like this: I have managed to make a great looking landscape. Then when I'm trying to place rivers and lakes they need to shape the landscape around them in order to fit in properly, but this inevitably messed up the geometry and required erosion to be applied again which had to be basked and so on. this It became a vicious cycle of refinement and masking over and over in order to create believable lake and river systems.

Over the years I've refined this five major times and made significant improvements, but to the price of more and more recalculations and masking, which take  time to render. Two days ago when I was working in Photoshop listening to music it just struck me to reverse how I did things.

Up until now I've always assumed it was best to mimic nature an have lakes and rivers affecting the landscape, but what if you instead started with the lakes and rivers and then let them shape the landscape around them. My idea was that this way you create a single set of elevation data and masks that can then be used throughout the rest of the landscape build.

I did a simple test build which kept me up much later than New Years, so now you know my priorities! It turned out really well so now I'm reworking my islands project to take advantage of this way of doing things.

So far my impression is that the results are better than anything I've achieved before and much improved performance, so it is a win win. Note that this only affects in which order the data are generated and processed, so nothing stops you from first creating the landscape and then adding lakes and rivers. World Machine will adjust the landscape will readjust to the added water.

One of the most striking benefits are the fast response you get when you edit river and lake shapes. The other is that now you can create both lakes and rivers using the same Layout Generator which means that rivers now are properly attached to lakes automatically, in most cases. You still have to make sure they are properly welded and on the same elevation.

I haven't extracted data and applied it to texturing yet, so there might be a snafu or two still to be worked out, but I can't see any reason why that should work. That is my mission of the day to put all that back together again using the new lakes and rivers.

Here is a link to my basic test file so toy can try it out:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1cvqawlc2k71iuo/Rivers%20First%20-2.tmd?dl=0

Here is my new version of the Island Project using the new rivers:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/amknb5d11it2s8k/Islands%20Low-121%20Rivers%20Before.tmd?dl=0

I have to issue a warning for this file. The regular Views are no longer functioning. I've created temporary view here:

You can use this one until the textures are back in play again, which I hope to have fixed today.

One of primary my goals for my Patreon is to try and make some of my most desired fantasy mapping related wishes come true. In order for that to happen I need the help of other talented creators who can help me out in areas that are not my expertise.

The first one I'm ready to announce is Darlene, the creator of the iconic original Greyhawk map that sparked my interest in Fantasy Cartography back in the 80's. 

Her work have always been an inspiration to me, especially her calligraphy. So I've asked her to come and help us out in that field in 2018!

I have other creators in mind as well for other projects, but more on that later. 

Here is an example of how a days work can be when you're a Fantasy Cartographer.

Here is a link to my highres Flanaess Terrain image:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k1bgc9xvvad29cv/Terrain%20600ppi%20layered%20160712.psb?dl=0

This is a PSB (Photoshop Large Format) file that is 15.6 GB in size so its not for every computer and Photoshop is the only application I know of that support PSB-files. Even Adobes other applications like Illustrator doesn't support it. But in order to get the best possible detail this is the file to use!

I will chop it up into pieces and share the pieces later when we get more into Flanaess mapping and the use of Guide Maps. But in the mean time here you can grab something I've never shared with anyone before!  

As all us Greyhawk fans I'm getting ready to celebrate Needfest and the new year soon to be upon us, and what better way of doing it that to spend a day working on Lendore Isle!

In a burst of creative ideas I just needed to test a new approach to reuse my Flanaess map as a direct base for a 3D version. This involves (as so much of mapping work) masking, so today have been mostly spent in Photoshop painting white to mask the ocean.

As a source I'm using a 600 dpi version of my Flanaess terrain, instead of the 200 dpi version used in the final map. I which I could have used it for the final Flanaess map but it is a hefty 15.3 GB in size, and with symbols and text it would bring almost any knows PC (personal computer that is) to its knees. So I had to cut it down to a third of the resolution.

As a special Needfest gift I'm going to share the high resolution terrain file with all the Cartographer Level backers for their personal projects.

Patreon Project 2 - Islands are also progressing, did all the forests yesterday and will dig into beaches and water texture in a day or two, after I have made a couple of videos that will be posted here for various backer levels.

How to best celebrate Needfest, well I leave that up to you with a which that your New Year festivities will be wonderful!

I also want to say a special welcome to all our new backers, welcome aboard and thank you so much for your support! 

I can't keep this a secret any longer. In my job you constantly have to try and do the impossible and even worse, invent better ways of doing the impossible in order to get better results with less work. The main constraint are either technical or not enough time or both.

Back in the 1990's when I laid down the foundations for my Flanaess map the only real option was Bryce 3D, and the 3D is in my case more of a misnomer, I couldn't really create 3D maps. To get something that looks cool and could be done in a reasonable amount of time I had to settle for a top down view of a "Fake 3D" world. 

Now it is 25 years later and maybe even a garage opener are way more powerful than the Pentium I used back then. The same goes for software which can now handle thousands if not even many millions times more data effectively, that is the main reason I started to use World Machine.

What World Machine couldn't do very effectively (and believe when I say I've tried) to create 3D terrain that accurately match the top down images of my Flanaess map. To do that effectively you need a more artistic approach that are highly controllable. That artistic control are now becoming a reality!

The latest version of Vue have support for using your Wacom Pen to sculpt or paint terrain elevation, and Gaea are set to have that support as well. This makes me confident enough to say that it is time to look into a fully 3D version of my Flanaess map!

This also opens up another of my Holy Grail's of mapping (been watching Knightfall too much), start big and then detail certain areas as desired. I've already started to work on a World Machine template to create new terrain that will closely match my old Bryce terrain.

This is created in one tench the scale which means it can be done many times faster. This terrain can then be imported into Gaea and Vue for refinement and rendering of small area maps in much more detail.  

There are still some kinks to work out, but I'm confident enough to say it will work and work well. To combine the power of fractals with an artistic flair is what made me a mapper in the first place, and now is the time to bring that combination into the 21st century.

To celebrate my 20th year Flanaess anniversary with a renewal of the old in a new way have me really stoked for next year, and I wanted to share that with you guys before going public with this. there are some more experimentation to do, and I need to spend around $1600 on a Vue upgrade, but its looking very promising indeed!