[WIP] World of Aduhr

[Charerg]

I have been toying with the idea of using Wilbur to expand the resolution of my heightmap one it's finished. But it seems to me that it would be better to use equal area projections, particularly in higher latitudes.. I haven't yet come to a conclusion about this, specially since it's pretty far away down the line. Thoughts?

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Well, equal area projections have their own distortions, so I'm not sure if it makes as much of a difference as one might think. I believe the key is to just split the world map into smaller chunks, then you can either use equirectangular oblique (centered on the area you're working on), or really any other projection that works for you. Because if you try to process the whole world at once it's still not going to produce good results even if you do use an equal area projection, since then the distance and shape will be distorted (which will make it more difficult to work on the map also).

[Pixie]

Well, equal area projections have their own distortions, so I'm not sure if it makes as much of a difference as one might think. I believe the key is to just split the world map into smaller chunks, then you can either use equirectangular oblique (centered on the area you're working on), or really any other projection that works for you. Because if you try to process the whole world at once it's still not going to produce good results even if you do use an equal area projection, since then the distance and shape will be distorted (which will make it more difficult to work on the map also).

I wasn't thinking about processing the whole map at once, but only making those chunks in equal area projections.. Using an oblique equirectangular is almost the same, I guess, and easier to reproject into the original. I'm glad I asked for your thoughts cheers!

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[Charerg]

I thought I'd post another update of sorts.

I'm still not quite finished with the low-res map of C. Eocidar, though it's getting there. Here's the current state:



This hasn't been run through Wilbur yet, so this is all basically hand drawn stuff so far. Also the below sea level areas are exaggerated on purpose since I know those regions will get partially filled, and also the endorheic basins of the interior likely have water levels below sea level like the Caspian Sea (due to the arid climate). Those regions I envision as largely dried up at present day, though formerly they formed a large inland sea connected to the ocean. They have since become isolated due to the eruption of the M'alabar flood basalt (the blob of volcanic mountains), generally dropping sea level (colder climate and big glaciers in the north), as well as the accretion of the C'thuana terranes to the southwestern margin of Eocidar (which resulted in orogenic uplift). I might post something more detailed about the whole process at some point.

I adjusted my process a bit in the sense that I only plan to make two resolutions: the low-res and the high-res. With that in mind, I've aimed towards greater detail even at this low-res stage (saving myself work in the future when the time comes to work on the high-res map), which is one reason this is taking a while. Additionally the Eastern Pan-Eocidarian mountains (the big plateau in the center of the map) have been a bit of a headache. That's one area that I didn't really have clearly sketched out, and I'm still not quite 100% happy with it (though it's getting better compared to my earlier iterations). Aside from that, I'm fairly satisfied how the map is turning out though, and hopefully I'll be able to move on to the high-res version in the not too far future (though I hesitate to make any predictions since that damn plateau seems to be taking lots of scrapped sketches and revisions, though I'm confident I'll "get it right" eventually).


Edit:
As a mini-update I went and dropped the elevations of the aforementioned plateau drastically. Things are immediately starting to look a bit more balanced and plausible, given that this should be a heavily eroded area (though I'll probably re-uplift some regions).

[Pixie]

Those inner mountainranges still seem too pronounced to me, and that seems more of an issue than their overall altitude, which is fine. But this is me nitpicking, and you know how I can nitpick - fortunately, I can also deal with being ignored, so don't you worry too much.

On your previous work on climate, most of the area in Central Eocidar is desertic, right? Which makes those lakes perfect candidates for huge below sea-level salt pans

[Charerg]

Those inner mountainranges still seem too pronounced to me, and that seems more of an issue than their overall altitude, which is fine. But this is me nitpicking, and you know how I can nitpick - fortunately, I can also deal with being ignored, so don't you worry too much.

On your previous work on climate, most of the area in Central Eocidar is desertic, right? Which makes those lakes perfect candidates for huge below sea-level salt pans

That's a good point, and I'll definitely flatten things out further by lifting the elevations around the plateau, especially in the interior, though the eastern flank will probably remain relatively steep. That said, the overall prominence of the mountains is also a part of the working process to a degree: it's a lot easier to create those ancient ranges (with my greyscale technique at least) if you "start out big" and figure out the grain of the mountain ranges, arranging the fold belts in a way that makes sense relative to the direction of stress in the collision. Then you can start adding in erosion and flattening things out.

Though overall the eastern Pan-Eocidarian mountains are probably going to be relatively tall for their age, something akin to the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (which is notably taller than the Appalachians or the Urals despite similar ages).

And you're spot on about those large lakes (well, they're going to lose ~80% of their area eventually due to evaporation), the western portion of Central Eocidar is bound to be extremely arid. A vast salt desert around those depressions is exactly what I had in mind .

Edit:
Also, I guess I might post my progress, though there's not a lot to show. Still fiddling with that plateau, for the moment it's been uplifted a bit, especially in the central region.

[davoush]

Wow - amazing as always. I can really picture Aduhr as a real place. Do you make the elevation in raster or vector?

[Charerg]

Wow - amazing as always. I can really picture Aduhr as a real place. Do you make the elevation in raster or vector?

It's a raster.

[Charerg]

Once again, time has been slipping by with relatively limited progress on Aduhr. I've been a bit busy with irl stuff, so working on the map has been fairly sporadic activity. That said, now that I have a few weeks off, I've been able to sink more hours into mapping and get some actual progress done.

Still not quite done with the low res of the southern portion of Central Eocidar, but I feel I'm finally getting there. At long last, I managed to wrestle that plateau into shape which I'm fairly happy with. Here's the current state:



I also made some experiments with the older Akanrian highlands visible here, some of which may be partially implemented eventually.

[Eldresh]

I've been really enjoying watching your progress with this map! You put a lot of time and detail into it and it really shows.

[Charerg]

I finally finished the low-res map of (southern) Central Eocidar and scaled up to final resolution. Here are the maps:

Azel elevations:


Char elevations:


Gradual:


I haven't started to modify these beyound the Wilbur stage, so there are still a few left-overs like the river connecting the endorheic basins to the oceans (necessary for Wilbur to work out the river flows correctly), and also basically all the 0-50 m terrain has been filled up by the precipiton erosion (that tends to happen, especially with the low-res maps).

However, there shouldn't be anything too major left to do in the high-res stage, mainly just small adjustments and details. So hopefully I won't spend half a year working on the high-res version (damn it feels good to finally have that low-res finished, took waaaaaay longer than I initially planned).