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Alright, maybe I should start....
I love this World/Planet generator but it is too random and I can't really manipulate the image much (limited skill in graphics manipulation) so I would really love something like this that I could maybe outline some lakes or large tributaries, mountains, lowlands, or whatever.
I don't care it it does everything just that I can do some things. Anyone have any ideas?
Sorry, no ideas. But I like the generator you linked to and as far as I understand, you are able to give some preference to the offline version, at least the manual says so: http://www.diku.dk/hjemmesider/ansatte/torbenm/Planet/Manual.txt
Healer, do you have/use Photoshop by any chance? If so, I have a template I've made that may help...
Hmm, well I've never used GIMP before, but AFAIK its functionality is pretty similar to Photoshop, sooo...
If GIMP supports multiple instances of the same file (i.e. Photoshop Smart Objects), what you can try doing is to setup groups/layers that will hide everything except for part of that instanced file. The file that you would want to be hiding parts of would be the underlying greyscale heightmap that shows the relief data for the world.
Basically, you would have one instance that selects the darkest areas for your oceans and seas, another slightly lighter one for beaches, one slightly lighter than that for dry land, and so on up to mountains and finally snow-capped peaks for the lightest areas of the height map. You then set the resulting selections to show an appropriate fill texture, fiddle with the blending options at the edges of the selection zone, and play with other per-(layer effects like bevels on the mountains).
Once you have a template of this sort setup, just open the master instance of your heightmap, and start pasting and moving around landmasses from your fractal world generator that you think look cool — a continent here, an archipelago there...
Once all the coastlines look good, blur away the sharp edges between the landmasses, and add additional texture fill layers to add your forests, deserts, and grasslands where you want them.
If you're able to open Photoshop files in GIMP, you can try opening one of my templates to see how I've assembled things. If it does work, let me know and I can share a newer version (that I'm still working on) that may be better for use with the output of a fractal program.
Work in Progress: Elsemar Terrain Test
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Nice looking stuff Laith....I know it seems easy for you to do that stuff but my Graphics Manipulation abilities are almost Nil. I am going to look into some tutorials for GIMP and try to increase my ability to use it to it's fullest and see how that works out but I really have no idea how to even start doing what you were achieving. Time will make me better...
Anyone use GIMP and know of some tutorials for me to watch, please post.
I will also do some searching...maybe start a separate thread for that too.
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No worries, Healer. If you were using Photoshop I could give you some pointers, but after installing GIMP and finding that my Photoshop template doesn't really work in it, that puts me at a dead-end on going that route anyway. ^_^;
Backing up for a bit though, it just occurred to me that one resource you should check out for tutorials and software is The Cartographer's Guild. (They also have a Facebook page.)
While many of the tutorials may presume that you have a certain level of graphics know-how, by looking them over, you may at least get an idea of what techniques or program features you should research. i.e. If a mapping tutorial mentions working with layer masks, you could look for GIMP tutorials on how to create and use layer masks, etc.
Heck, it might be that you find a program you like that obviates any need for grinding away at graphics skills, you never know. At any rate, you should find a denser concentration of experts willing and able to help you there than on Paizo so it can't hurt to poke around.
Good luck!