Sounds like Hexographer is right up your alley.
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I have always enjoyed Campaign Cartographer . It has a steep learning curve but once you get past that you can get some really beautiful results with very little talent.
I can't draw to save my life but I have made many nice maps with it.
I have always enjoyed Campaign Cartographer . It has a steep learning curve but once you get past that you can get some really beautiful results with very little talent.
I can't draw to save my life but I have made many nice maps with it.
I love Campaign Cartographer. But the OP was looking for a free product.
I think CC3 does have a free, limited demo mode but the entire product does cost money. $40-50, IIRC (there are add-ons that cost extra). This is a good price especially considering it runs on a CAD-based engine, but definitely a chunk of change if you don't have a big income.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/autorealm/ is a good one
or
http://rptools.net ( this has a lot of other features )
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One think you will also want to consider beyond a mapping program is a graphical program to make fine adjustments with after you create the base map. GIMP is basically a freeware PhotoShop. There are others as well.
This is worth noting. Also, if you wanted to draw a map with GIMP and have it look relatively awesome check out the Cartographer's Guild. Especially these:
Low on the 'automatic' side, especially in the latter case, but free and excellent, IMO.
Searching those forums might yield you other results as well...
Without paying money for a progem it is hard to find what you are looking for. I would really recommend joining and looking at Cartographer guild. There are an amazing amount of maps available that may suit your needs. They also have tutorials available if you want to build your own using a variety of programs.
Gimp does have a random landmass generator not to the level you want but it may help.
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Like I said, it's not free, but the Civ V worldbuilder will do what your asking.
There is also a free pdf on world building that may be useful for you. It's a light read and gives examples. It basically goes over why there is a desert on the leeward side of the mountains, a rainforest along the mighty river near the equator, etc.
It's not a program, but it might whittle your years of effort down to a couple of days. I found it really useful, and have created a couple of worlds just for fun using the advice I found in it.
Thank you all for your input. I however was not clear enough on what I'm looking for. I need to generate a campaign world for my game. I can handle the other elements of world creation. I however can't generate world or continent maps with accurate terrain features. I need a program that allows me to put in some parameters and basic size info and the generate the land masses, mountain ranges, rivers, and land types for me. To learn how and why all those features are placed and to learn how they interact and then create a map based off that information would take me years if not decades. Then I may not be able to execute it due to my lack of drawing/computer rendering skills and interest.
Two comments:
1. Google Is Your Friend. I found about half a dozen hits on random/fractal terrain generation without trying hard.2. If you want ultimate realism, rather than "good enough" realism, that may be hard to find.
A quick Google search, and I found http://greenfish.xtreemhost.com/downloads.php, which contains the "Greenfish Relief Map Generator", which may be what you are looking for.
I got the link through The Welsh Piper website, which I only stumbled across today, but might need to keep for the future.
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I guess what I'm tying to say is that I want to focus on creating the details of the campaign world I'm good at instead of putting immense effort into something I'm not good at and it will still look like something a 3rd grader could do.
And I suppose I could have underscored that those guys have published steps and free tools that make a third grader's work look epic.
In fact, I have a third grader. I think I'll test this and post the result.
:)