Realistic Topo without Relying on DEM data

[Peter Toth]

Hello Guild,

Here is another diehard attempt to produce realistic topography WITHOUT relying on DEM data, motivated after I'd failed (again) to access the USGS data base. (I wasn't able to log on as the site wouldn't even recognize my user name.) Honestly, I prefer to do my own elevation models without having to plagiarize Mother Earth, LOL.

I used Photoshop, GIMP, and Wilbur to produce this map; the whole process took about 6 hours. My retinas are obliterated.

Please let me know how "realistic" you think this is. If I get enough feedback, I should be able to gauge whether my new process is working or not.

Thanks for any feedback.

Peter

[Falconius]

What scale are you going for and what sort of terrain are you aiming to emulate or create?

To me it doesn't quite work for the scale that it looks like (or what I assume it to be by eye), the mountains are too blobish. And there just appears to be too much highlands. I assume you are going for a fjord type thing, but if you go look at a Scandinavian map, or a BC map it's still got an over all shape and flow to the mountains, you'd still want to arrange a height gradient to lower the mountains as they come out into the coastal area. In Phuket where you get those amazing pillars of stone islands standing in the water, there also the terrain is more graded as it comes down out into the coast. From above I don't know of many mountains that don't form ridges and valleys. It almost looks like if you reversed your valleys and mountains it'd be more realistic.