New Discovery: Map edge solution!!!

[Crashley1784]

Ok, so I'm a new world creator: I've been playing around with world ideas for several months, and have stopped-and-started with worlds I don't know how many times. What has been the problem? The map edges. I didn't want to do an island, but even with distant terrain I could not figure out how to hide that water effectively. I don't want to make a mountainous or even significantly hilly map. I live in the Gulf Coast region of Texas and wanted to create a map that looks like where I live: it's pretty flat. So, I've been playing around with things, and I've made a pretty awesome discovery that I have not seen explained anywhere, on any forums or sites that I've checked out (and there's been a lot of them, lol).

So, what is this magical solution I speak of? So simple. Height. Basically what I did was use the large flat 300 map (300 height). Then I made a veeeeeeery high hill, almost to the map "ceiling." Then I flattened the entire map to that height. I left some room at the "top" so that I can make some small hills (you could adjust this to your liking). This basically has the effect of drastically lowering the sea level, so that you do not have to go to such extremes to disguise the endless expanse of water surrounding your map. Or so I think. I am in no way an expert at world creation; this was just an idea that I had, tried, and was so excited at the initial result that I had to share it.

Has anyone ever messed with this? I would be very curious to hear the opinions and / or experiences of the "experts" in regard to this method.

[simsample]

That's okay until you want to put a lake or river in the world. Then you'd have to import a waterplane! But, good idea- perhaps it will help someone.

Were you trying to do a completely landlocked world? Did none of the DTs that came with WA suit you?

[Crashley1784]

Yes, the fact that it would be difficult to incorporate water into a map like this is a downside. I guess I'll have to research how to create a water plane. I read a post on it last night.

No, none of the DT's suit me because they are too hilly / mountainous. Plus they're just a royal pain in the you-know-what. I'll be working on my "elevated" world more over the next few days, and I'll post some pictures as I go along, so that anyone else who is interested in experimenting with this method can see what happens.

[simsample]

I'd be interested to see how it turns out!

Tutorial on water planes here:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=453392

[Inge Jones]

Are we able to make our own distant terrain yet?

[Encloped]

I think so. It shouldn't be too hard in theory. Couldn't one just clone a DT, say Sunset Valley for a full DT or Twinbrook DT for a half DT to get the data then do the normal approach at changing the mesh and texture and data to make it as a new object for the world. Heck I've already started playing around with that on Google SketchUp since its got what I find to be a really easy to use contour map making tool to create the hills and what not.

[Inge Jones]

It occurred to me that one thing that could be tried is a flat or flattish distant terrain mesh. To ensure the sea did not show at all, this mesh would have to be slightly cone-shaped, rising towards the outer edges, and cleverly textured in such a way that instead of looking as it it was rising, it looked as if it was just continuing up the screen because it was getting further away. so it needs to be really misty at the edges, grey even.

[simsample]

I saw this on the Sims 3 forum today:
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/463910.page#6921512

[Inge Jones]

That's a good find. But I have a feeling a round, slightly conical, shape would work better, especially if the inner part was below your world's terrain level. You could then adjust it up or down depending on how large your world is, without worrying that there would be a sharp step where your terrain meets the distant terrain.

[kiwi_tea]

I have been talking to Morphead about making a custom distant terrain for my project Graveschurch, but I'm not really certain where that stands. I know he was investigating it. I might send him towards this thread to see if he has any comments.