Re: Map Generator....

From: Tim Parton <timdadm@indy.net>

Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Hi Canute,

Thanks for your time and trouble d/l'ing the software and giving it a
test spin!  Well as for what and how I did it, obviously I am no
geophyscist/mathematician, and can only do things the way I  see or feel
they are.  I have looked at fractual generation, but am not impressed enough
by the "quality" I see in them, to bother learning how they are done.  As
for being critical in a public forum I have no qualms about you telling me
how/what you feel about the software there, but if it bothers you that much
you could always select respond to sender only option (well unless your
reader doesn't support that I guess.)

As for the land masses, when I began this project, it was in my hopes to
create a land mass down to the nitty gritty of about 3 ft per pixel, but as
I have learned in the process there is no way I will every achieve that
level of detail.  In trying to come up with a reasonable cross, I settled on
the 10 mile per pixel format, which leaves alot to be desired when it comes
to the coastlines, but then, as I have ran the generator more times then I
care to recount, I have come to a point where I really admire that quality,
rather then thinking of it as a downside.  I only wish I could cut the
trailing edges down some.

The jumbled color effect, well there is some tweaking I can do inside the
code to offset that, but when I put the feature of altering how much of a
chance certain terrains can appear I gave up the idea of working on this
part of the code.  But I may take it back to task in the near future, it is
far from being done.  Again, because of my lack of knowledge concerning land
formation, I have had to invent my own method of land creation, and that too
plays a huge part in how it looks.

And good god are you right about it being slow!  You'll get an amen out
of me on that!  But then that is part of the crunch in trying to create so
many different terrain types, and the logic I used to simulate how they go
there.  I'm sure there is a better/faster way, but to get the level of
detail I wanted I don't see any other way.  But I have seen it run on a
friends machine much faster then it runs on mine!  Even with a 166mhz
pentium, he outperformed my 225mhz, by about 2 minutes, because of his
graphics card.  So I can only guess what a better processor on his system
would do.

Thank you for your good points, though I think the part about optimizing
should have been a commentary, and not a good point.  *grin*

I went to your site and checked it out, really nice site by the way!
Only pics I could see of it where on the about page, and again, fractual is
not where I want to go.  It is too blockly, and it has a tendancy to make
everything run up hill....sorta bullseye like....Again, my opinion, and not
meant as an insult, as everyone has they're own opinion.

While I am always in search of more knowledge, and improving myself,
without revealing things about my code I could not derive any useful hints
or suggestions from you.  At this time, I am not ready to do that....However
I will always be open to any further comments or suggestions from you, or
anyone else.

Tim Parton

Canute Bigler wrote:

>
> Tim, I checked out your map generator.  Just by looking at it, it is
> difficult to deduce the procedure that you use to form your land
> masses, but have you ever considered using fractal land mass
> generation?
>
> I dislike being critical of others work, especially in a public forum,
> but you asked for it, so...
>
> The bad things:
> 1. To me the land masses seemd to be just a jumble of colors, with
> little consideration for terrain placement.
> 2. The coasts are jagged and bear little remblance to actual
> coastlines.
> 3. It is slow.
>
> The good things:
> 1. You have a very broad range of terrains.
> 2. With some work and optimizing it has potential.
> 3. It generates a very large map.
>
> If you would like to see what type of maps a fractal terrain geneator
> makes, the drop by our site at: www.gridpointgames.com/conquest and
> check them out.  If you want some more tips on programming, then let
> me know what development platform you are using and I will see if I
> can help you out.
>
> Canute
> Canute Bigler
> Predsident, Gridpoint L.L.C.
> canute@gridpointgames.com
> www.gridpointgames.com

References

Map Generator....
Tim Parton <timdadm@indy.net>
Sun, 16 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Map Generator....
canute@gridpointgames.com (Canute Bigler)
Mon, 17 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Map Generator....
Tim Parton <timdadm@indy.net>
Sun, 16 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Map Generator....
canute@gridpointgames.com (Canute Bigler)
Mon, 17 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000