Post/Author/DateTime	Post
elondir 01-07-08, 04:20 PM	A while back I complained about the quality of the map of Argonnessen in Dragons of Eberron. After a bit of thinking about it, I thought I might create an example of more like what I would like to see from a D&D continent map. So I sat down and revamped the map of my campaign world. Here it is, if anyone cares. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2056/2176335736_263bc4292f_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/12465156@N00/2176335736/)
Etarnon 01-07-08, 09:41 PM	Pretty nice. I've often went to that level, with Wilbur, by Joe Slayton. But, I'm a map fiend. 90% of it never gets used, but it's for me.
elondir 01-08-08, 08:42 AM	Thanks. Yeah, I've only used 5% of it in the past 12 years. But it's all there if I ever want to.
Anuvrix 01-08-08, 12:49 PM	What did you use to create the map?
elondir 01-08-08, 01:32 PM	First I went to Yahoo maps to grab some satellite pictures of various climate zones, zoomed at around 100 miles = 200 pixels. Then I made some 200x200 patterns by eliminating as much as possible and using "make seamless", then saved them as *.pat files in the GIMP-2.0\share\gimp\2.0\patterns directory. Refresh your pattern list, and use the clone tool with a hard brush for most things. Use a fuzzy brush for harsh transitions like low mountains to high mountains or plains to desert. I also had two previous versions to work with, so I just added a few more layers and saved the main copy as a psd file and export to png or jpg as needed. I used separate layers for trade routes, cities, text and stuff. Here's the exact breakdown of layers (bottom to top): Background (scan of my original colored pencil drawing from 1996) Physical land (colored my original map: most terrain features, actually I drew each terrain type in its own layer and flattened them) Ocean (covers up some goofs) Satellite (the textured version you see here) Lightmap (make a grayscale bumpmap with sea level = 0 and use soft brushes, then emboss for a nice lightmap. Set layer mode to soft light.) Borderlands and Civilized (shows civilized areas in green ,borderlands in yellow, and wilderness in clear, make this on an overlay) Population density (red fading to clear for population density) Regional alignment (various colors for each alignment) Locations (dots and squares for cities, towns, ruins, etc) Night lights (what it would look like from space at night if there are sufficient lights) Key (compass rose and scale) Trade routes (lines for trade routes) Political borders Text (I prefer to use shaded text for a 3D appearance) And here are my textures (100 mi = 200px unless otherwise noted): Arctic hills 30 mi scale Gobi Desert Boreal forest Antarctic mountains Ice Sheet Ice Sheet #2 Ice Sheet 30 mi scale Monsoon (NW India) Deep ocean (Pacific) Red desert (west Australia) Rocky Badlands (New Mexico) Salt Flats (Utah, had to make this one smaller) Sandy Wastes (Sahara) Shallow Sea (South China Sea?) Steppe (Mongolia) Temperate Forest Temperate Hills (West Virginia) High Temperate Mountains (Alaskan Rockies) Temperate Mountains (Colorado Rockies) Temperate Plains (Iowa) Temperate Swamp (Louisiana) Tropical Forest (Brazil, it's a really pretty uniform green) Tropical Mountain (Mexico) Tropical Plains (African Veldt) Tundra (Nunavut) Urban (much smaller than other textures, Chicago made tilable)
lulzapalooza 01-08-08, 02:20 PM	Elondir, you have my nerd seal of abroval.
LeeAlucard 01-08-08, 07:02 PM	That's a darn good map. Simply put: Wow.
EaterOfTheDead 01-08-08, 09:26 PM	I never thought of using something like Google Earth to get textures. It looks great.
Kayoz_Majick 01-08-08, 09:47 PM	I like it. :)