[WIP] World of Aduhr

[Charerg]

Work on the elevation map for Menorias has now passed the low-res stage. After attempting to skip the low resolution phase with Central Eocidar, I learned the hard way just how much work you can save by spending the time and effort to create a good low resolution map. For me, the problem with working at higher resolutions with my elevation maps has always been that I tend to focus too much on the little details, and then if the "big picture" isn't in a finished state yet and I make some changes, all that work spent on sculpting out the small details gets thrown in the bin...

So having learned from my past misfortunes, I started out working on Menorias at extremely low resolution (300x277). And with that stage now finished, here's the result upscaled to mid-res (600x554) and passed through Wilbur:



Considering that I spent around two years working on C. Eocidar, progress on Menorias has been quite rapid so far. We'll see if I'll be able to keep this up !

[ThomasR]

Those shapes are mesmerizing ! I cannot give insight as it's not really my area of expertise but it is beautiful.

[Charerg]

New year, and here comes a new update on Aduhr. I've finished the mid-res stage for Menorias, leaving only the high-res stage left to do until the subcontinent is finished (and also the whole continent, as this is the last piece). Here's how the map looks like (straight out of Wilbur pretty much):



I think I'll complete the polar continents before moving on to the climates (the original plan being that I would map first the topography, then the climates, on a continent-by-continent basis). Since Eocidar and Urgaleon are essentially part of the same landmass, it makes sense to lump them together for the purposes of working out the climates.

[Charerg]

Time for another of what seems to be bi-annual updates on Aduhr. So, I've finally finished Menorias, completing the continent of Eocidar (hooray!). Here are the maps:

Elevations:


Gradual (with bump map):


Unlike the previous maps, I spent the effort to remove the artifacts produced by Wilbur (essentially doing a lot of manual blurring post-Wilbur). As a result, Menorias has more of a "smooth finish". Previously I decided to leave the artifacts to add a bit of "randomness" to the map, though in hindsight I think I prefer the cleaner look. If you don't know what I'm referring to, here's a great post by Waldronate going over the limitations of Wilbur.

Next up, after adding Menorias to the world map and doing a lot blurring and a bit of touch-up in the already completed regions, I'll start work on the coastlines of the polar landmass (the continent of Urgaleon). I think I'll first sculpt the non-glaciated topography, then add the glaciers in afterwards (although I'll have to take the isostatic depression caused by the massive ice sheets into account there).

[Harrg]

Hooray! I like the results. Is there an opportunity to see the whole map with Menorias and Eoсidar? The map looks clean.
The creation of subglacial relief is a really interesting thing, especially at polar latitudes, I really want to see your results. Finaly you can always hide them under a white spot - "glacier". Are you planning to make changes to the polar topography due to maximum glacier?

[Charerg]

This is how the world map looks right now:



It displays pretty well how bad the distortion gets once you hit the 60+ latitudes. I recommend upload into Map to Globe (or similar) to get a 3D view . Although I purposefully left the extreme northenmost mountains pretty vague since I knew I'd need to work on them in a different projection than the one I used with Menorias.

@Harrg:
I'll try to take the expansion of the glaciers into account in the topography (lots of lakes). Though I'll probably not go super-deep into detail in the world map (that is better left for regional maps).

EDIT:
The average elevation of the whole continent (Eocidar) turned out as 630 metres, putting it in a similar ballpark to the Americas (North 610, South 560) and Africa (620).

[Harrg]

It looks much cooler on a sphere!
I suspect Urgaleon and Uraduhr will be entirely covered by an ice cap, like Antarctica. And the relief will be strongly pressed in the center of the continent.
The north of Menorias will probably be much more indented by fjords than it is now. Probably the best solution would be to finish the topography in northern Nemeias before crushing the world with an ice age.

[Charerg]

Well, I finished the minor update on the rest of the continent (mostly just blurring out those aforementioned Wilbur-artifacts). I think I'll deal with the polar continents before doing more major revisions (there are a couple of areas that could use some further work).

Anyway, I experimented with another gradient (this time with the saturated colours originally used by Pixie). It turned out looking pretty good, though I still feel my scheme with the greater contrast is more practical while working on the elevations. But the more saturated scheme definitely gives a really nice look, with the colours blending together:

[Harrg]

Damn it looks really cool!

[Charerg]

After a rather long time since the latest update, here's one. I've finished redrawing the coastlines of the polar continents, as well as going into bit more detail with their tectonic history (I might post something more detailed about that at some point). Work on the elevation map has also passed the low-res stage, this is how things look like:



This is the deglaciated geography (still figuring out how I want to implement the glaciers).