Fantasy Tectonics

[Maezar]

All,

One thing that's become obvious to me is that the ubiquitous "plasma fractal" mapping techniques for random worlds are good for random coastlines, but not so good for elevations. A good example of the typical problem can be seen in the default settings of one such generator, where mountainous areas appear as clumpy and inland: https://topps.diku.dk/torbenm/maps.msp

So, I reduce such worlds to their outlines, imagine tectonic boundaries, and then let mountains build themselves. It takes some thinking across imagined aeons to form old mountain chains, but it can be done.

Does anyone else do anything like this?

Given a world map of imaginary coastlines, how would you create tectonic plate boundaries so that imagined features like mountains, ocean basins, volcanic zones, etc, might make more sense?

A map of the sort I'd like to be better at can be seen here:
http://kontretykieta.com/wp-content/...boundaries.png

A map of the sort I'd like to fill in tectonic boundaries for can be created by almost any random planet mapper. Here's one:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bv0lr932my...odels.png?dl=0

Any insight, discussion or examples would be most welcome.

PS: Forgive me if this should have been in Regional/World Mapping, and move it if that's more appropriate. It felt a bit off topic, but I'm not sure.

[DrWho42]

this sounds intriguing! i'm curious how sandworms impact tectonics

[Maezar]

Here's another great map to inspire this conversation

[johnvanvliet]

Does anyone else do anything like this?

i use many different fractal noises in Blender to make heightmaps
while the output is not perfect it is better than the simple noise generators

An ice world as an example

[Maezar]

Here is another excellent map from the news this week

[Raven9]

I am exactly in the same mind set. I am just starting out in this so I don't really know anything. However, my instinct is to start from the ground up and draw in land masses first. Then draw in plates that would, eventually, become the basis for my mountains. I am still shaping my continents, so I am still a ways out. I would like to know what others have done, though.