Worlds!

[Erik Mesoy]

Worlds are groovy, here's a thread for designing worlds!!!

Here is my first one:

You can also post requests for worlds and descriptions, or normal rectangular maps.

The globe seen above is an outline of the main continents on Oncol III from stDarNes: Stars! I have a colored, populated version sitting on my computer, but it hasn't been spun up yet.

*idly wonders if Turner will post*

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Sounds cool, but I'm kinda busy. I've actually drawn out a whole world for my NES, but it's still confidential.

 

[Birdjaguar]

All the continents are mid latitude or equitorial.

 

[Kentharu]

dude that is sweet

 

[Erik Mesoy]

All the continents are mid latitude or equitorial.

On this particular world, that's somewhat intentional, and somewhat because I haven't added all the islands yet. The huge polar seas caused huge creatures to arise (imagine krakens, only bigger) and they occasionally emerge from the seas spreading havoc in stereotypical fashion, which means that all the human settlements on this world are inland and on high ground.

dude that is sweet

Keep complimenting me and I might name one of the islands "Cookie Isle" after you.

Sounds cool, but I'm kinda busy. I've actually drawn out a whole world for my NES, but it's still confidential.

Use the Gimp and try the Filter -> Map -> Map Object options to create a sphere out of your map.

 

[BananaLee]

I love that spinny thingamajiggy
Maybe I should dabble in map-making. But then, maybe I should invest in a tablet to draw maps properly.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

How many times do I have to say that I don't have GIMP.

I'm currently busy with adding details to my LINESII map as people discover more, so I can't really post something here yet.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

How many times do I have to say that I don't have GIMP.

About as many as I have to say that you can download it for free.

I'm currently busy with adding details to my LINESII map as people discover more, so I can't really post something here yet.

Can you pixelize it or something so that we can't see those details?

 

[Silver Steak]

Erik, dude! This is amazing!

I have renewed faith in GIMP now. Downloading at once. I even have a map ready...

EDIT: How do you make it spin?

 

[Kentharu]

Yeaaaa Cookies Island!!! Go Erik!!!

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Erik, dude! This is amazing!

I have renewed faith in GIMP now. Downloading at once. I even have a map ready...

EDIT: How do you make it spin?

Making it spin requires it to be animated, which means you have to have several layers and change each one a little bit compared to the previous, the same way I did with the flags. This requires some thought instead of just following instructions, so you may need to experiment a little.

1. Open your map in GIMP
2. If you haven't got a Layers toolbox, open one. This can either be done from the image window with Dialogs -> Layers, or from the device window by pressing the little arrow button on the tab and choosing Add Tab -> Layers.
3. Duplicate your image several times. (I used 20 above.) Each layer will become a slightly different view of the world.
4. Select each layer in turn, go to the image window and choose Layer -> Transform -> Offset. If you have 10 layers, offset the first by 1/10th of the image width, the second by 2/10th, and so on. Continue until each layer is a little offset from the one below
5. For each layer, choose Filters -> Map -> Map Object. This has four option panels, and I'll list the most important ones:
   • OPTIONS: Map to Sphere (obviously), tick Transparent Background, clear the other boxes.
   • LIGHT: I prefer to add my own, so I use type: No light. Use whatever suits you.
   • MATERIAL: The default settings are good for you. They have mouseover descriptions and you can use the Preview window to play with them.
   • ORIENTATION: Set Position-Z to 0.9 or 0.95 so that your world won't have lots of empty space around it. You can use the Rotation settings in place of Offset above, so that the layers get rotated when they're mapped instead of being offset before mapping.
6. Once you have your layers with individual globes, choose File -> Save As and save your work as a gif file. GIMP will state that GIF only supports layers as animations, so pick animations rather than merge. Select "one frame per layer (replace)" and a delay around 200 ms.
7. You're done. Open the image with a browser to see how it will look online.

 

[Silver Steak]

Thanks a bunch! And voilà, here is the result!

It is a bit jagged (I had to use 21 layers because of the image being 1302x1302...) and the size is a bit small, compared to yours. But I still like it. Anyho, here we go:



Spin it, baby!

EDIT: Aww, PhotoShop sucks!

 

[Erik Mesoy]

I can't even see layers in that image - looks like you merged them.

I have the above world colorized and ready now:

WARNING: 56K users may find that their modems catch fire as a result of viewing.

Yes, it's ugly, but that's because GIF is indexed and only supports 256 colors. Next time I'll try another format.

 

[Silver Steak]

Click on it, Erik. Click on it.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Ugh. Flash Player. That prevents me from accessing the image in any way. That sucks. I can view it, but not fiddle with it.

How did my 56k-burner look?

 

[Silver Steak]

Awesome, although it does not look like a NES map like mine does.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

WORLDS!

Attached is a demonstration, screenshot-wise, of you to create your own planet in GIMP, with light. Later I may do adding terrain, if anyone cares. View the attached images in timestamp order.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/14568/Planetutorial.zip

Adding text walkthrough now...

When you open the zip, you should find 26 png images. They constitute a tutorial, assuming that you have GIMP and are unfamiliar with it.
00 shows you my average settings for creating a new image.
Once you've got that, 01 shows you how to create colors that will eventually become terrain.
02 is the dialog box that pops up from 01's menu option.
03 shows how to make a new layer by right-clicking on a layer in the layer list. (If this isn't shown, use the Layer Menu in the image window)
In the new layer, use 04's menu option to add more stuff-that-will-be-terrain.
This pops up the dialog box in 05, which shows my settings. Pick other ones if you like.
06 shows how the layers should look by now.
In 07, I've selected the lower layer, and I am going to remove all color from it.
With the colors removed, 08 shows how to merge two layers.
09 shows the result of this.
In 10, we see the menu option for adding planetary color.
11 shows the dialog box for color. "Hue" is position on the rainbow, roughly, "Saturation" is thickness of color and "Lightness" is, well, lightness.

In the next installment, I'll show how to make this square into a world... (Filters -> Map -> Map Object)

 

[Kal'thzar]

ok that was fun;

http://img220.imageshack.us/my.php?image=planet001kl5.png

problems; picture 8, the layers menu seems to be floating in the middle of nowhere...yes yes just use the menu at the top of your image which says 'layer'

Picture 12: Map to object, I was a bit lost here didn't know how you got the menu up. You told me it was however Layers>Map> Map Object.

Then Picture 17: It IS the lasso tool, yes Erik you assumed I knew this, never assume about stupid people, it means they get things wrong.

Then of course the transition from 25 -> 26. But then you said you were solving that. (Just in brief, in 25 you have selected the area of the image that is NOT the sphere. (i.e. everything else). Then you switch on the light layer, Select the Light filter, the cut out the Light in the selected area (or delete it etc).

 

[North King]

What kind of projections can you manipulate into making a globe? Just Mercator? Or Robinson and Winkel Tripel, too?

 

[Erik Mesoy]

I was going to say that the GIMP only uses something silly like Wankdoodel Square Projections, but it's less funny when I see that Winkel Tripel is a real name.

Anyway, it uses squares for a proper base, putting the middle half column on the front and the side quarter columns on the back and inside, like so:

to

I work very little with projections, since I don't start with a sphere.

Suggest you experiment a bit. The Filters menu has a bunch of tools which can be used to distort the map towards the right projection both before and after sphere mapping.