Random map generator

[Psiman 177]

I came across this random map generator for SimCity 4:

https://cesiumcomics.com/sc4terrain/

Anyone used it?

It looks like it could be useful. One could raise/lower sea level on game setup to create sea and islands.

Any similar map generators out there?

[CorinaMarie 29,571]

Looks interesting. I've not tried it tho.

[Psiman 177]

Here are the map tile sizes in SimCity 4:

Small city tile = 64 cells
Medium city tile = 128 cells
Large city tile = 256 cells 

The "size of region in city tiles" parameter in the generator refers to the number of small tiles. So the default of 2 would be a medium city tile.

A region of 5 large maps x 5 large maps would therefore be "Size of region in city tiles" of 20.

Here are a couple of maps I've generated to test out. This first one is default settings, just size of region changed to 20.

For this second one, I've increase the level of randomness from 0.75 to 1.75. 

[CorinaMarie 29,571]

Those look like they'd make rather lumpy maps, but if you pull the grayscale into your favorite image editing software and add Gaussian Blur they'd prolly come out pretty decent.

[Psiman 177]

9 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Those look like they'd make rather lumpy maps, but if you pull the grayscale into your favorite image editing software and add Gaussian Blur they'd prolly come out pretty decent.

Thanks. I'll make them as is first, and then try a blur for comparison.    

[Psiman 177]

Here's the first one. It didn't come out right as I flipped to another window while it was generating, but you get the idea.

I agree that it could do with some blurring. Uneven ground like this can be a real pain to build on.

Here's the second one. I probably set the randomness too high, or should have avoided using a map with areas of undefined white, as that just creates unrealistic flat mountains.

[CorinaMarie 29,571]

In my early days learning about map making these would be exciting.

[Psiman 177]

16 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

In my early days learning about map making these would be exciting.

What's more exciting in the world of map-making now then? 

I need to work out how to do the blending thing in GIMP, as discussed in the map-making tutorial, in order to see what the sea-level is before generating the map.

[CorinaMarie 29,571]

4 minutes ago, Psiman said:

What's more exciting in the world of map-making now then? 

I wouldn't want to throw your thread off topic, but I've tweaked the C source code for the Offline Planet Map Generator to make grayscale images which can be rendered in game. There's still more I'd like to add, but once I got the flat terraces routines and the sort of rivers I was happy enough to use it and have been playing a map I made (renamed Corillion) ever since.

[Psiman 177]

1 hour ago, CorinaMarie said:

I wouldn't want to throw your thread off topic, but I've tweaked the C source code for the Offline Planet Map Generator to make grayscale images which can be rendered in game. There's still more I'd like to add, but once I got the flat terraces routines and the sort of rivers I was happy enough to use it and have been playing a map I made (renamed Corillion) ever since.

Nice terraced effect on the hills!

[Psiman 177]

One can use SC4 Mapper to load a grayscale image and it will show where the sea level will be, or close enough. Here's the view in SC4 Mapper of the grayscale image that produced the region in the first SimCity region screenshot of the thread (above).

Here's how it was rendered in the game, as created by SC4 Mapper. It appears one has to open every map tile to get it to render the graphics from a SC4 Mapper file properly, so it's probably better to use the standard method of generating a new region.

[CorinaMarie 29,571]

1 minute ago, Psiman said:

It appears one has to open every map tile to get it to render the graphics from a SC4 Mapper file properly...

Yes, Mapper does initially show the region view with false colors. As you discovered, once entering each city tile and saving it'll update based on your terrain and water mods.

[Psiman 177]

17 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Yes, Mapper does initially show the region view with false colors. As you discovered, once entering each city tile and saving it'll update based on your terrain and water mods.

Seems like it could take a while...

---------------------

Here's another couple of examples of regions created with the map generator, 40x40km, Randomness 0.7>1, Mean Height 0.5>0.25

[CorinaMarie 29,571]

2 minutes ago, Psiman said:

Seems like it could take a while...

Indeed.

However, for myself, I'm going to go into every single tile to add trees via Flora Blast anyhow. (I can't stand to have my region view sans foliage.)

[Psiman 177]

A useful feature of SC4 Mapper is that one can extract a part of a map and create a new region from it. So one could generate a larger map than one needs with the random map generator, and then look for good areas to create a region out of.

[CorinaMarie 29,571]

Just now, Psiman said:

A useful feature of SC4 Mapper is that one can extract a part of a map and create a new region from it.

That would be quite handy. I've only done it myself via precise cropping of a grayscale and altering the config.bmp accordingly.

[Psiman 177]

I've been working on creating a new region from the random map generator.

I created a large random map of 50x50 km, applied Gaussian blur using GIMP and then opened the grayscale image in SC4 Mapper.

I saw an island that looked like it would be interesting to create a region out of, and used SC4 Mapper to extract the selection as a new region.

Loading it on the game, it looks good, but the littoral zone is not ideal - it's too shallow for ports etc, and the ocean itself is also really shallow.

It needs a continental margin of continental shelf/slope/rise leading to deeper ocean.

So I opened up the original grayscale image in GIMP and also took a screenshot of the region from the SC4 Mapper. Then I precisely cropped the region view from SC4 Mapper, resized it to the exact size of the grayscale image, created a new layer in GIMP, and pasted the SC4 Mapper region view on it. I then reduced its opacity so I could see the both the edges of the island and the grayscale image beneath.

Then I drew an outline in black around the island on a new transparent layer.

Then I filled in the rest of the ocean with black, to give me a layer filled with black, except for a hole where the island is, plus a few squares around it. I then applied a Gaussian blur to this layer. Following this, I changed its opacity to 64% and exported a new grayscale image combining the original image with the layer of transparent blackness plus hole.

Then I created a new region in SC4 Mapper using this new grayscale image and loaded it up in the game. There's now a better defined coast and a deeper ocean.

Here's how the region looks.

So, the basic map look okay, but it could do with some optimization of the map tiles. So I open up the large grayscale image again in SC4 Mapper and use the Config options to place large city tiles at more interesting places on the coast which would be good places for harbour settlements.

[Psiman 177]

Here's a better configuration of tiles, with some good locations for cities using the big tiles.

[armpit43 172]

I used it, however the colours on mine are all messed up. Any idea as to why that is?

[CorinaMarie 29,571]

7 hours ago, armpit43 said:

I used it, however the colours on mine are all messed up. Any idea as to why that is?

Yep. That's simply how the Mapper program does it. If you enter each city tile in the game, save, then exit it will change the colors to that of your terrain, beach, cliff, and water mods.