Resizing the design map

[Aaron]

Hi Everyone,

As a side-effect of the recent bugfix for the design map import feature, we now have an option to re-size and existing design map (see 'operations->design map->resize design map' in v2.5.0.8 ). I had only implemented this as a temporary means to allow me to test the re-sizing algorithm used in the DM import, but I figured it might come in handy for some users.

One use for this may be in designing really large maps. With this feature, you can generate a low resolution design map, tinker with your design, build a rough heightfield, mess around with climates, etcetera. Once your design is looking good, you can the re-size the design map, do some more detailed tinkering if you desire, and generate your full-resolution heightfield/textures/etc. Thoughts, anyone?

I should point out that, at present, the horizontal scaling of the design map is modified such that the extents are preserved. This means that, for example, a 20x20 pixel design map covering 200km x 200km will still cover 200km x 200km if it is re-sized to 2000x2000 pixels. The detail will improve, but the size in real world units won't change. Anyway, I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could try it out and provide some feedback. I expect there will need to be some additional refinements/options added to this feature, but at the moment I don't exactly know what may or may not be useful.

Cheers,
Aaron.

[Aaron]

A slight update...

In v2.5 beta build 9 (7th of Feb), the 'operations->design map->resize design map' option now re-opens the familiar 'design map size' wizard, which lets you change the horizontal scale and other relevant settings. This is hopefully a bit more intuitive than the situation in build 8.

Cheers,
Aaron.

[monks]

Hi Aaron, this sounds like the procedural zoomy thingy- or the beginnings of it. I'll have a gander at it when I get a chance,

monks

[monks]

I've just been playing with it and it seems fine. I had one artifact (basically a small strip of poorly interpolated pixels) on one occasion when going from 32 to 128 but I haven't been able to reproduce that since.
It's incredibly fast btw- I had the terrains open in Leveller and the effects are predictable. I've yet to try see how the erosion detials shape up- should be good.

monks

[monks]

The erosion didn't come out how I expected it to- inflating from 16 to 64 with the noise and erosion on produced a lot of small scale noise- the larger structures evident in the 16 were completely lost in the larger. I've saved the terrains out so I'll send some pics to you if you'd like.
I'll have to tinker some more. It's possible that I applied the noise/erosion twice. I did this:
DM 16 apply erosion -> generate
inflate DM
DM 64 apply erosion -> generate

monks