Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: Shown Features When Scaling Down Question

  1. #1

    Info Shown Features When Scaling Down Question

    Hello folks. First time posting (and hopefully in the right area).

    I created a continental size map where the hexes are 60 miles each. My question is (hopefully) a simple one to answer: if in my continent there are rivers and lakes laid out, then when I zoom into a regional level or even a local view, would (realistically speaking) there be more rivers and/or lakes that exist that would not have been shown at continental view? Maybe this is a stupid question (my apologies if it is), but I really am ignorant with respect to what should be appropriately shown at certain view levels on a map.

    I mean, I know that from a point of view of fiction, I can show whatever I would like on my map. However, it seems impractical. Yet, I also find the opposite to be true, for it would be annoying to have to zoom in on a region just to see what is "happening below." I guess that's what ultimately spawned my query; if there is a large river, would it have to be massive for it to be shown at a continental level? What is the "cut-off"? I guess the same question could be asked from the point of view of living communities; which are "appropriate" to show at a continental level and which are not? Or is there such a thing as "appropriate" (i.e., could a continental view just show all that there is to show)? I am using Wonderdraft as my software, FYI.

    Whoever can provide some feedback or some thoughts, I kindly thank you ahead of time.

  2. #2
    Administrator Redrobes's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    England
    Posts
    7,193
    Blog Entries
    8

    Default

    Hi and welcome to the guild.

    This is more of a philosophical question about what is a map. A map is a representation of space that shows features and locations. If you look at very very old maps they bear no resemblance to an aerial looking down over the ground sort of construction. For them the map is an arrangement of items so that it provides the reader with the information that is required which in most roman / dark age kind of times was more about what road to take in order to end up at a specific destination and what stops on the way you might encounter and how much more travelling you have to complete to arrive. There is no sense at all of looking X inches to the right for X miles of travel.

    So that is a roundabout way of saying the map is whatever you want it to be. It is more important to define whether the river needs to be known about at the scale you have chosen to map at. As you zoom in and the scale goes up then presumably you would want to know about smaller features such as less wide rivers and smaller lakes. But the choice of whether to or not is with the cartographer.

    Appropriate and reasonable are words used to describe that choice and there is no defined or specific cut off - especially with fantasy mapping. If you are making an accurate drawing of continental scale land then almost no river at all would be shown. If you do the math and have even a small continent of 500 miles across and say 3000 pixels to show it then anything would have to be at least 500/3000 or 1/6th of a mile large before it would make even one pixel on the image and yet nearly every continental map would show rivers way less wide than that. Why ? Because its really important to know that something so un-traversable as a wide river will prevent you from getting across or that big boats can operate there and nowhere else.

    Each map shows different things and you can have many maps of the same place showing different things each being useful. So its all about what is important for the viewer of the map based upon what the maps intended information it wants to convey and that choice is the map makers. It is an artistic slice of the infinitely complex space that the map covers and what you dont show is as important as all the things that you do. What is "happening" below is entirely dependent on what you consider "happening" is. A person in a city looking for something to eat may not be interested in all of the nightclubs and cinemas. And that is why roman and dark age maps did not bother with accurate land shape since it was irrelevant to them when travelling.

  3. #3

    Praise Thank You!

    That was an excellent answer and just what I wanted to understand. It makes sense to me. Thank you again; I appreciate this.

  4. #4
    Guild Expert johnvanvliet's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    N 42.39 W 83.44
    Posts
    1,091
    Blog Entries
    4

    Default

    Yes a great answer " Redrobes " is GREAT at explaining things
    --- 90 seconds to Midnight ---
    --------

    --- Penguin power!!! ---


  5. #5

    Default

    Here's an old government publication that might be useful, or at least interesting.

    Abstract:
    Topographic maps represent features on the earth's surface by means of symbols and labels; separate colors distinguish the main classes of map features. The amount of information shown on a topographic map depends on the map scale, the purpose of the map, and the cost of obtain-ing the information. This chapter describes the three main categories of map information and the methods by which they are shown. Reference lists of published maps and a chart illustrating standard map symbols are included.

    https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1955/0368/report.pdf

    (Tried to upload the pdf as an attachment and got a "This png file has the wrong extension" error.)

    Edit: Uploading the pdf in a zip file.
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited by Edgar Ironpelt; 03-28-2023 at 01:12 AM.

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •