You could find inspiration in old 80s 90s movies about scifi tech , from alien to matrix, from wargames to terminator, represent the map instead of a...
Zbrush , 3dsmax, photoshop , and too many two tell here .
for mapping I use wilbur , Fractal terrains , world machine 2, photoshop , terragen 2, gimp , geocontrol 2, oscape, tesannwyn,etc...