Three Rivers Region

[thundercrack83]

The background story and the new map are remarkable! Your mapmaking skills never cease to amaze me. Hopefully I'll get a chance to check back here during the day tomorrow for more, but if not, have a Merry Christmas!!!

[sebes]

Very cool maps Dedgren, and a very nice background story. The country's motto is my favorite 

[bat]

Great map and names!

[dedgren]

Haven't gotten as far as I wanted, so the collaboration announcement is off for the next little bit.  I want to have it right when I do it- you know how that is.

There's a few pics, though, in the 3RR Christmas stocking.  As you know, the forestation of 3RR- a massive job, is continuing on.  I probably have about 3/4 of the quads at least started, and many are far along.

For those of you familiar with the "Snow" cheat, you know that if you run it, you get seasonal snow at lower elevations.  What many don't know is that the cheat is automatically run when you play the game on December 25th.  So, here's a few shots of the Christmas day snowfall in Three Rivers Region.











I can still see the "jaggies" that you get at the base of the snowpack in various places.  The trees, however, do a pretty good job of hiding them or blending them in.

Anyway, Merry Christmas from the Great White North.  Lots more to come at 3RR over the next few days.


David

[keithsed]

Hi David:

You might want to have less trees at the very tops of the mountains.  Maybe even no trees at the very tops. 

Would it be more realistic considering heavy snow at the top of the mountains would bury a lot of the trees?  The trees look the same all the way up the snow to the top.  Looks like someone shook the pepper shaker over them. 

Just a suggestion from an old eye.   

Keith

[dedgren]

Yo, back again.

Hi, Keith (keithsed)  You noted in your last comment

You might want to have less trees at the very tops of the mountains.  Maybe even no trees at the very tops.

There will be a 3RR treeline at some elevation.  I need to get the whole region forested to figure out what looks best.  Note the the snow pics I showed today were at much lower elevations than any snow mod would put it.  That's the game "cheat" snow in the dead of winter- as far down as it gets.

You also said

Would it be more realistic considering heavy snow at the top of the mountains would bury a lot of the trees?  The trees look the same all the way up the snow to the top.  Looks like someone shook the pepper shaker over them.

A couple of points there.  I live in snow country, and am surrounded by mountains.  Our treeline is pretty low up here- a couple of 1,000 feet, because of how far north we are.  That said, it is sort of funny how, from a distance, no matter where on the mountains you look, the trees seem to grow above the snow up until you get to the treeline.  It's too dark outside now, so I'll have to take some RL pics over the next little bit and explore this.

Here's a game pic, though, that I think looks pretty good (for saltshaker snow, heh!)



All that said, it's certainly not a function of the game engine to model snow depth.  I will experiment with using smaller trees (which would be the case in RL in any event) at higher elevations to see what that looks like.

Anyway, great comment.  Your "old eye" seems to be in pretty good shape.  I owe you some answers to a few other questions you've raised- I'll be taking the 'puter with me to Texas tomorrow night for a week of 3RR From the Road- count on me getting to them.

I'm still playing Johnny Appleseed [linkie]...

Here's the latest Region Census shot.



A full-size pic is here [linkie].  It's about 3000 by 1500 pixels and weighs in at about 313kb.  Note that I've taken out the "snow mod" as I work on these recent quads. which are mainly in the northwest quadrant.  This creates a contrast between the mountains at the top left and top right of the region you might find interesting.

Here's a few close-ups.



What I'm placing now are the lodgepole pines at the lowest elevations of hills.  The pines I use along lakeshores and riverbanks (shore pine and subalpine fir) have yet to go in.



I love this valley...



These lakeside areas will be fun to develop, as well.

Christmas is winding down- I'm working on dinner by making quick trips to the kitchen between keystrokes.  Hope everyone had a great day!

Later.

[threestooges]

Excellent progress so far. The trees are filling in nicely. One question I have though, hopefully this won't make you work too hard (with christmas being over and you already being on the road), but as I recall, any trading of regions results in a loss of trees. If we are going to take a few quads for development, would we be doing the actual development (and if so how should/would we replicate the trees) and if not, what would be the best way to present development plans to work well for you? Hope your Christmas was enjoyable and (relatively) relaxing.

[thundercrack83]

That's pretty clever how the snow automatically comes up on Christmas Day! Anyway, the new pictures look great. Have a good time in Texas and I'll be back to see more of your progress.

[Alfred.Jones]

This is amazing Im looking forward to more

[bat]

Looks very great, dedgren!

[Rayden]

...Oh, and I can't resist...we're at 16 inches/~42 cm on the ground and still falling.



Eat your heart out, Silvio (Rayden) my friend.  No, really- may everyone (everyone who wants one, anyway) have a white Christmas.

Later.

I really hate you David , specially because I'm almost sure I will not get that snow quality (thick) this time at Andorra (from 12th till 21st Jan 07). No off-piste for this time 
Merry Xmas and A Happy New Year my dear friend.

[Ajax]

This is looking great, David.  One question, when you sculpted the smaller rivers/streams, did you use the valley tool in SC4TF or did you set a predetermined depth for the riverbed and then sculpt the banks independantly or have you done something else that I have not thought of?  I'm pretty happy with the way my rivers look, but would like to know what you did.

Hope you enjoy the weather down south after all that snow!

Have a great trip and a happy new year!

[sebes]

These are great maps and great mountain areas David.

[petercintn]

Nice work.  It will be nice to get in on these diaries from the start.  The reasons have been stated by others, I'm sure you know them.  As big as 3RR is I guess I'll be looking in for some time to come.

Thanks for the site guys!

[NikNik]

Nice to see you here David!

3RR is looking great.
Nik-Nik

[mattb325]

Lovely and relaxing images here david, your terraforming skills are excellent! Thanks for sharing:thumbsup:

[jacqulina]

awesome work you have done my friend

[Bishop Hawke]

Wow  thought I lost my favorite CJ.

Here once more lurking in the background  to learn from the master..

[dedgren]

No, my dear friend...I, like you, am but a humble grasshopper...

...but we are together in the presence of The True Master, here at SC4D.

Glad to see you around- new stuff up tomorrow as I post from the road in Odessa, Texas.

Later.

[dedgren]

Well, here I am bumping my own thread...

...

...[crickets chirping]...

...

...okay, so shoot me.

Anyway, I got sidetracked today into more 3RR topo.

I wound up figuring a few things out (converting black to brown lines, believe it or not, was the hardest) as I did the entire eastern section of the Northern Range.



That's reduced in 16m colors from this [linkie] four color original, which is about half again as big.

Am I driving folks nuts with this stuff?  I think it's incredible.  I plan to do 3RRGS topos someday in detail that rival the USGS real thing [linkie].

More tomorrow, as I try to get collaboration back on track.

Later.