Landscaping my world...

[wiltshiresaint]

Apologies if this subject has already been covered but a search didn’t come up with anything.

I’m currently doing some world building and would like to use some design software to construct a few landscapes for inclusion on a website.

I’ve been looking at programs that would allow me to do this for no or low cost, and so far I’ve come up with Terragen and Bryce. Does anyone use these programs for similar and if so what is your experience of them? Secondly, are there any others that I should look at?

[ProfGremlin]

Oct 28, 2009 4:46:50 GMT -5 wiltshiresaint said:

Does anyone use these programs for similar and if so what is your experience of them? Secondly, are there any others that I should look at?

I don't have time for a long or involved answer but I've used Terragen. It's decent if you want snapshots of different areas in your world but doing whole continents? Forget it. Unless you have a top of the line gaming system stick with the Basic version not version 2.0. The system requirements for that make me shrink.

Second, you may want to check out WorldMachine. It's another freeware app that lets you design worlds using a flowchart-come-decision tree rather than actually sculpting 3D terrain. It then takes that flow chart and renders you a 3D terrain in which you can scroll so you can pick out just the right features. This would work much better for full continents and such.

Lastly, you may want to check out the Cartographers Guild. Fantasy mapping is their bread and butter.

[ProfGremlin]

Ok, I've a little time now so here's a bit more. The link to WorldMachine is here: www.world-machine.com/ The great thing about WorldMachine is that you can generate a terrain in it then export that to Terragen for surface mapping and such to make some really neat images. Because WorldMachine lets you scroll the world created by your flowchart you can actually create your world in Terragen tile by tile if you were so inclined to zoom in that far.

Here's a few WIP's of mine of WorldMachine terrains imported to Terragen:

Long Lake
Long Lake Tor
Long Lake with Atmosphere
Desert Terrace with Storm Clouds
Cresent Isle This last should be familiar to those who have looked at Hogscape's Dark Isles setting.

The Cartographers Guild is located here: www.cartographersguild.com/ They have a great tutorial section. I'd suggest starting with this one: Using GIMP to Create an Artistic Regional RPG Map Gimp is a freeware graphics program that you can get here: www.gimp.org/ Be aware that in order to work with the tutorials you'll need to create an account so you can see the files that are posted as examples and such.

That's about all I can think of for the moment. I'll try and answer other questions as you have them.

[wiltshiresaint]

Thanks for the links. Wow, it's great to know there are some online learning resources out there too. The Cartographer's Guild could eat up a lot of my time too - some beautiful stuff there, particularly the town and city maps.

My immediate problem is my home laptop is a Macbook. All is not lost though since I can run Windows on it using Bootcamp once I get my various permissions sorted. Might take a day or two to get straight.

Those landscape images are just the sort of thing I'd like to create in order to add some flavour to my campaign. I can just imagine a lonely and storm-wracked vessel pulling up onto Crescent Island's beach...

[ProfGremlin]

Oct 28, 2009 13:09:43 GMT -5 wiltshiresaint said:

Thanks for the links.

You're quite welcome. I love playing with Terragen and WorldMachine. I just wish I had more time to do so. As it is, I get to play with them rather sporadically and often after long breaks.

wiltshiresaint said:

My immediate problem is my home laptop is a Macbook.

Well, I know Teragen has a Mac specific version. There's also a Mac specific Yahoo Group. Some of the resources for Terragen also have Mac versions. Beyond that, I'd say play with it. See if it's what you want to work with before you spend all that time installing a Windows emulator you may not want. There are a tremendous number of Terragen galleries online so you may be able to find something browsing the web if you don't have the time/energy to invest in learning the progam. DeviantArt is a great place to look too. It all depends on what you want to do.