Tips for creating realistic worlds?

[MHKnights]

Anyone have any tips for creating realistic landmasses? I mean having deserts, forests, plains, ect where they would be in real life.

Thanks!

 

[Underseer]

That's easy. Just download and install the Blue Marble Terrain mod. The textures are made from actual satellite photographs, and you can't get much more realistic than that.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=140246

 

[Tabris]

No, this is not what he is looking for.
Search for map scripts, but i beleave that today they are not really realistic.

 

[MHKnights]

What I am doing is hand building a (original, based on a story I am writing)world and want it to be realistic as possible. Basically I want deserts/forrests/tundra to be located as accurately as possible. One example would be that I am trying to create a large "Sand dune" (vs say an American SW type) type desert on a peninsula but am not sure how such a thing would be created naturally. Could it be because of it being inbetween two mountain ranges? Or is it because it is near the equator?

You could say I am looking for geology resources so I can create a natural looking world.

Other questions I have:

- Should deserts be placed on the equator or slightly off of it?
- Would large forests be placed far to the north next to tundra or should there be some sort of buffer? (plains?)
- Should peaks have some hills around them? (To simulate foothills)

Sorry if this sounds confusing.

Thanks!

 

[WildWeazel]

Take a look at a good physical map of the earth. Generally, you get something like this going from the equator out:
jungle> plains > desert > plains > grassland > forest > tundra

 

[Markezuma]

I found this site about deserts useful: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/deserts/types/

...and this one too: http://weathersavvy.com/Q-Deserts1.html

Hope these are helpful!

 

[Underseer]

What I am doing is hand building a (original, based on a story I am writing)world and want it to be realistic as possible. Basically I want deserts/forrests/tundra to be located as accurately as possible. One example would be that I am trying to create a large "Sand dune" (vs say an American SW type) type desert on a peninsula but am not sure how such a thing would be created naturally. Could it be because of it being inbetween two mountain ranges? Or is it because it is near the equator?

You could say I am looking for geology resources so I can create a natural looking world.

Other questions I have:

- Should deserts be placed on the equator or slightly off of it?
- Would large forests be placed far to the north next to tundra or should there be some sort of buffer? (plains?)
- Should peaks have some hills around them? (To simulate foothills)

Sorry if this sounds confusing.

Thanks!

The Blue Marble mod used satellite data from NASA's Blue Marble Project. I have to imagine that would be a good image source for your project.

 

[TheBladeRoden]

SimEarth is an oldie but a goodie. Don't know how you'd find it nowadays though