The Ultimate Map Thread

[Symphony D.]

'Sup. The text is mostly for flyingchicken because he's the only person here who uses real cartography data and tools. The best open GIS data source is Natural Earth Data, which is partly maintained by a USGS guy named Tom Patterson. Patterson has his own website with interesting things called Shaded Relief. International highway data remained sketchy the last I checked but Open Street Map appeared to have promising data. The USGS' Isis and supporting data seemed to be the best bet for getting good data on other planets. Satellite images are at present best provided by using NASA's Blue Marble.

Here's a 1:25M scale map ("Earth 2.1" in my files) using some NED data. It's large (3.6MB). I found that a strict Equirectangular projection was best in terms of not wasting space. "Unimportant" countries were rendered in beige.



These are just demos of a 1:10M scale map ("Earth 3.0") using more NED data and some highway data. The urban areas are more cluttered in white than black, but illustrate the idea better than the rings in 2.1. If you're going to redo cities then you should use World Gazetteer's Metropolitan Area function. Far fewer entries, and the hell with official city limits, they're misleading (see: US vs. PRC with strict city limit populations). Don't really remember what I did with the sea floor. Decided EEZs would be useful at sea.

Shaded Relief

Spoiler :

Satellite

Spoiler :

All of these are probably too large and detailed for this business, but they show what the 1:10M data set is capable of. 1:50M will probably do you fine.

 

[Symphony D.]

I was running ArcGIS 9.1. Don't remember what data that version uses, and I don't have it installed at present. NED's is inevitably superior. As to the prime meridian, I used a variant on the Venetian system (it was either 12.25, 12.33, or 12.5), because Greenwich is dumb and cuts through Alaska.

ArcGIS is kind of stupid and actually actively re-renders everything if you scroll around or zoom. You can configure the "print" function to output to a file type and stay at a particular zoom level to get consistent results. What I wound up doing was having it "print" to an Adobe Illustrator file, then converted the Illustrator file into a Photoshop file. It keeps the ArcGIS layers consistently placed and separate, so you can do fancy stuff. It does take hella lots of computer resources though. At one point the conversion was generating over 30GB of temporary files on the 1:25M version.

As to Winkel-Tripel, screw it. I've browsed through this thread enough to see that people can't or won't grasp the concept of curved lat/long lines (and create hilarious "straight" borders that would be curves on the ground). You should either put a lat/long grid on the map (I'd suggest 15 or 20°) or render it as Equirectangular. (Or Robinson, I suppose. The blank spaces do cut down on file size vs. image size.)

 

[Yui108]

Does anyone have access to or know where to find a reliable map of the world 1750? + - a few years is good too.

 

[GamezRule]

That map is still beautiful.

 

[Symphony D.]

Any ideas on the discrepancy?

I'd have to reinstall and check the file. I can get around to that at some point, but it's not a priority right now. Also, I'd recommend not varying river color based on flow; just vary the size at most. When I can access that file I'll give values.

 

[Symphony D.]

Turns out it was 9.3. Anyway, near as I can refigure based on my files:

1. Go to File > Page and Print Setup.
2. Under Map Page Size, there's the Page panel. Select "Custom" under Standard Sizes.
3. Make sure Width and Height are in "Points."
4. Pick some arbitrary value for them. For 1:25M, probably something like 4000x2000 or somewhat more.
5. Select layout view. Your "page" is going to show up as a black rectangular box.
6. Delete all of ESRI's junk.
7. You want to resize the map elements so that they can fit within this box at whatever scale it is you're looking for. As you adjust it, the scale will change. Change it back to the desired scale (ex: 1:25M) and it will shift. When you've got it so that the whole thing is inside the page, you're golden. By using the layout view it'll spit out the whole map in a single go, and you can leave the contents panel open to turn things on and off.
8. Once you've got everything all set up, you need to go to File > Export Map.
9. You've got some options now. You can export as .png and rebuild layers individually with each data layer, or as a .ai to turn it into a .psd so all the layers are intact in roughly the fashion ArcGIS has them. DPI is the final determiner of image size.

The 1:25M map I have there is 114 DPI for some reason I can't remember. Somewhere in this process is the reason why your 1:25M and my 1:25M are not the same size.

Also, while I'm here, have some paleogeographic maps.

 

[Daftpanzer]

very nice maps, I for one appreciate your work

 

[Abaddon]

Certainly would be added to first page. Anyone got anything else within the thread, please point it out.

 

[TheLizardKing]

Does anyone have this map laying around, with inland bodies of water represented, and (maybe?) a few less white dots on the coast?

It's a good map for what I hope to do, but I can't edit stuff in for the life of me.

 

[justokre]

Oi folks, its been awhile.
Not sure if this is the best place to ask this... When you've got yourself a fantasy map, what methods do you use to show climates and terrain?

 

[Northen Wolf]

Oi folks, its been awhile.
Not sure if this is the best place to ask this... When you've got yourself a fantasy map, what methods do you use to show climates and terrain?

I don't know whatever I understand your question correctly or not but this is the reply:

Climate and landscape are usually same map with different overlays (3 different views, one showing climate, other one showing landscape and third showing "blobbing" (nations borders)). "Blobbing" is usually done on a "landscape map" or on a map that shows only basics features of landscape.

 

[justokre]

I don't know whatever I understand your question correctly or not but this is the reply:

Climate and landscape are usually same map with different overlays (3 different views, one showing climate, other one showing landscape and third showing "blobbing" (nations borders)). "Blobbing" is usually done on a "landscape map" or on a map that shows only basics features of landscape.

Ah ok. So landscape maps just have mountains, rivers, lakes, and shorelines, right?
Also, for your End of Empires map, how did you make the coastlines? Use a certain size brush, then touch it up with smaller brushes? Do you have a "mountain stamp" that you use for all your mountains?
Any program recommendations?

 

[Masada]

North King =/ Northen Wolf.

I can answer some of these.

Any program recommendations?

Paint.

Do you have a "mountain stamp" that you use for all your mountains?

He does, I still haven't figured out how to get it to work for me.

Use a certain size brush, then touch it up with smaller brushes?

I just used a small brush. Touching it up takes way to much time.

 

[justokre]

North King =/ Northen Wolf.

Oh whoops!

I can answer some of these.
Paint.

But paint cannot handle layers. I'm thinking GIMP is much more useful.

He does, I still haven't figured out how to get it to work for me.
I just used a small brush. Touching it up takes way to much time.

Thanks for the input

 

[Terrance888]

Try Paint.NET. It has the simplicity of paint with the features of... not GIMP. Still, I like it.

 

[Northen Wolf]

Ah ok. So landscape maps just have mountains, rivers, lakes, and shorelines, right?
Also, for your End of Empires map, how did you make the coastlines? Use a certain size brush, then touch it up with smaller brushes? Do you have a "mountain stamp" that you use for all your mountains?
Any program recommendations?

As others've said before, I'm not NK, altho I'm honored to be compared to such a great NESer

As far as I understand, NK uses paint and pixel manipulation (manipulating, coloring and deleting every pixel of the map separately).

From free programs that are better than MS Pain, I recommend GIMP.

I envy his style, because I can only use different colored layers on top of monochrome background.

Spoiler :

 

[Masada]

But paint cannot handle layers. I'm thinking GIMP is much more useful.

... You asked. I answered. But more seriously, you can just do an outline, save it. Then open it up and draw borders and save that under a different title. And do a terrain map and save that under another title. Speaking from experience, layers don't actually save time in map generation. At best, they make subsequent manipulation easier and allow one to generate slightly more fancy outputs.

 

[North King]

Hmm, since I'm in the middle of a cradle map anyway, I'll try and document the process as I go for posterity's sake.

 

[Dachs]

Try Paint.NET. It has the simplicity of paint with the features of... not GIMP. Still, I like it.

The only things that GIMP can do that PDN can't are handling extremely large image files and creating custom brushes. The former is irrelevant for pretty much anybody here who isn't fc. The latter is somewhat relevant but not a huge problem.

 

[Imago]

How do you create those custom brush sizes on GIMP?