Ethran: Merelan City

[Mouse]

Version... umm... 14 (so we don't touch on that other number that ends in 3)

Because the island is so steep, there is little point in owning a cart if you live on Merelan. However, the moment you leave the island there is a large wainwright established opposite a tavern at the beginning of the road leading north, where you can buy or rent your transport. Travellers arriving at Merelan frequently rest in the tavern at the end of the mainland stage of their journey, before crossing the Riffle (oops, I've removed the name of the straights from the map) and starting up the steep and unforgiving slopes of the island.

The wall across the northern lowland coast of the island might appear to be oddly placed... until you realise its only there to keep the rabble of climate refugees gathered in the shanty towns on the marsh (yet to be redrawn) out of the city.

Scale has been an issue from the beginning, and once the first couple of buildings went on, I accepted the fact that was pointed out to me by a friend on another forum - that the "gravel" looked more like massive boulders in comparison, and changed the scale of the texture. Because reducing the scale meant having those horrible repeating patterns reappear, I changed the texture for sand-soil, and altered the HSL settings to make it look like gravel (I hope).

I have more work to do on the water, now that the scale has been established. The breakers are too large and widely spaced.

EDIT: Higher res image uploaded. Also - just noticed the error occurring on the round lookout towers along the wall. This is part of the software problem I was having earlier today. Hope to have it resolved by tomorrow.

[Mouse]

Where is version 15?

Please accept my apologies if you happen to be following this thread, but I'm having a few technical problems with my PC right now, and will not be able to continue work on the Merelan City map until these are resolved.

Thank you

[Neyjour]

Hey Neyjour!

Nice of you to drop by... and I still haven't built that tavern, but welcome to the Merelan City construction site!

The water is just four layers with different extents of the same rather lovely Herwin Wielink sea texture on them, differentiated by HSL settings. They all have a hefty edge fade on them, which gives the coastal water that all-important transparency. That it worked so well is one of those mysterious accidents I seem to keep having... (like falling in the proverbial pool yesterday!)

I've been avoiding having to start on the island by polising all the details around it for some time. The marsh is one of my favourite places to dawdle, so its much more polished than anything else. LOL Its really just two layers - one of moss, and one of long grass with exactly the same objects, but with an edge fade to the middle of each object on the long grass layer. Not sure how that would translate to Photoshop speak, but what it does is it makes the long grass appear only around the edge of each shape, so that the water ways seem to be lined with long grass.

Anyway. Its taken me an inordinately long time to get this far, so I think you may have to wait quite a while to see the finished thing. I should probably get back to the map and get on with it! LOL

Thank you for your kind words of encouragement. They are much appreciated

You're welcome.

I hope you'll be able to sort out the problems you've been having with your comp and program. It's really upsetting when things like that happen...

I use Feathering in PaintShop Pro for what you call "edge fade". It's a fantastic way to get different textures to blend and transition well with each other. I use it all the time in my maps.

[Mouse]

You're welcome.

I hope you'll be able to sort out the problems you've been having with your comp and program. It's really upsetting when things like that happen...

I use Feathering in PaintShop Pro for what you call "edge fade". It's a fantastic way to get different textures to blend and transition well with each other. I use it all the time in my maps.

I think Mark Oliva and the Profantasy team have managed to sort me out, now, so I'm back at work on the city, thanks

I really like "feather" - prefer it to "edge fade", but if I started talking about "feathering" stuff I'd just confuse everyone even more. Most people have gotten too used to me calling it an "inner edge fade". It was bad enough when I started interchanging the terms "Sheet" and "Layer", because unbeknown to you we also have Layers in CC3+ - Layers AND Sheets, and the two are not the same thing, although our Sheets are probably closer to your Layers, than our Layers are. LOL.

I don't know if the ocean effect would be possible for you then, because I don't know if a feather allows you to start with a transparency of about 80 right on the edge and go towards solid in the middle (which is what I've done with the shallow water sheet effect).

It would be interesting to know...

[- JO -]

I hope your computer issues will soon be over !

Because I had an idea : Have you tried to put no effect on the first layer of the island ? no shadow, no glow ?

Maybe it's already the case... if yes, forget about that idea... Otherwise, it might help to put the island more "on the ground", or help avoiding the "floating" effect of the island above water and sand...

I wish you the best with your computer !

[Mouse]

I hope your computer issues will soon be over !

Because I had an idea : Have you tried to put no effect on the first layer of the island ? no shadow, no glow ?

Maybe it's already the case... if yes, forget about that idea... Otherwise, it might help to put the island more "on the ground", or help avoiding the "floating" effect of the island above water and sand...

I wish you the best with your computer !

Hello Jo

Your idea is worth considering, and I certainly shall have another look at my floating island problem, although I was rather hoping that my gravel would solve it.

However, it's early days yet, and there is still a lot of potential for change. The map is by no means in any kind of a "stable" state, although this has nothing to do with the software issue (which was largely my own fault as it turns out).

Thank you for your suggestion

[Neyjour]

I think Mark Oliva and the Profantasy team have managed to sort me out, now, so I'm back at work on the city, thanks

I really like "feather" - prefer it to "edge fade", but if I started talking about "feathering" stuff I'd just confuse everyone even more. Most people have gotten too used to me calling it an "inner edge fade". It was bad enough when I started interchanging the terms "Sheet" and "Layer", because unbeknown to you we also have Layers in CC3+ - Layers AND Sheets, and the two are not the same thing, although our Sheets are probably closer to your Layers, than our Layers are. LOL.

I don't know if the ocean effect would be possible for you then, because I don't know if a feather allows you to start with a transparency of about 80 right on the edge and go towards solid in the middle (which is what I've done with the shallow water sheet effect).

It would be interesting to know...

I'm glad you're back in business!

I'm not familiar with "sheets", but just assumed it was a program-specific term for "layers". It's interesting to know that they're not the same, and that you do have both. Hmmm...

I've never tried to make one full layer have a transparency "falloff" around the edges. I usually cut out pieces from a texture (with the Freehand Selection tool), Feather them, and then add those layers on top of another texture. Or, I simply feather the the edge of a texture where i want it to transition with the one below it.

It's a bit of a work-around (there might be an easier way to do it that I'm not aware of), but I found a way to do an 80% opacity edge effect. I opened a texture and reduced the layer opacity to 80%. In another workspace, I opened the same texture, made smaller rectangular selection in the center and gave it an Outside Feather of 60 - enough that it would have a very smooth transition, but not actually extend to the edges of the full texture. I then copied the Feathered portion and pasted in onto the top of the original (80% opacity) texture. Then merged the two layers into one with "Merge Visible" (to maintain the opacity).

Here's the result:


I'm glad this came up! It's something I'd never thought of doing before, and I definitely think It'll be useful for future maps.

EDIT: That previous attachment doesn't make the opacity apparent. Here's a screenshot of it in PaintShop Pro, where you can see the opacity squares showing through at the edges:

[Mouse]

Oh WOW, Neyjour. Everything you do is so beautiful!

You've kind of knocked the hat off my humble little ocean with that. Its gorgeous, and I want to go for a swim... LOL

I'm very flattered, however, that you feel you found the idea right here

EDIT: Now I really am going to have to start studying GIMP (can't afford Photoshop)

[Neyjour]

Oh WOW, Neyjour. Everything you do is so beautiful!

You've kind of knocked the hat off my humble little ocean with that. Its gorgeous, and I want to go for a swim... LOL

I'm very flattered, however, that you feel you found the idea right here

Hehe! Thanks, but I can't take credit for the texture. I just snagged a nice one out of my collection for this test.

It really is a beautiful texture! If you'd like to download it, go here:
Texture Mr. Under Water by E-DinaPhotoArt

[Mouse]

That's a really nice piece of texture, but it doesn't look as good without your work added to it

I can see a future filled with maps that have oceans with transparent shores! LOL