Grass meets desert and snow.

[Kaligath]

So the topic of this thread is what is everyone's view point on geography when two biome's meet i am asking this because i can never figure out fluid connection between when one biome transitions into another without feeling its out of place people do tell me just look at earth but i am not sure what i am looking for and there is far to many things going on.

At the current moment is do a fading effect from greens to yellows for deserts and greens to white for snow but other then that i don't really know...

This is not so much me looking for a tutorial or guide but rather researching on everyone else's implementation on how they do it to gather some ideas.

 

[ShadowDragon]

the best way to achieve it is to make parallax maps/background.

1) create a map in grass and desert, grass and snow or whatever to start with
2) make a screenshot with orange mapshot
3) load it into photoshop, gimp or krita or other photo editor
4) use the brush tools and other tools to make smooth transition the way you want
5) bigger maps than screen resolution require an "!" in front of the image
and place it in the folder of parallax in your project.

 

[Kaligath]

I have been using the feather effect if that is what you mean on gimp.

But rather then telling me what to do what about yourself like the process you go though that is the point of this thread merely to show ideas so people can grasp ideas outside there own scope.

 

[ShadowDragon]

i dont use feath effect, there are 3 ways to achieve it.

1) by making a pattern (more advanced)
2) by brush tool to with hardness of 0% (play with sizes and more importantly "LAYERS"
3) clone tool (this can be hard but do able)

there might be other ways or easier for beginners for smooth transition.
but everyone do its on their on way and make snow pattern and paint it over grass
or desert and paint over grass or snow and vice versa.

Pick the way you feel the most ocmfortable on it. as long you use layers, you can experment on many effects and ways
to see if its fits or not

also I dont have gimp but photoshop, but they are similair in most ways.

 

[empresskiova]

From Grass to Snow, try sticking small patches of white to heavier patches of white as you get closer to the snow biome.

 

[MadRamDesigns]

It depends on the narrative you want to tell with your maps, how you lead character(s) from one region to another.
If I'm in a game and see something like a snow-covered palm tree and villager NPCs with clothing typical to hot/dry climate, even though I know it can happen in reality, albeit rarely, I'm going to interpret that to mean something has changed and there's a quest afoot.

Biome shifts in the real world depend on a lot of factors. Look at Chile and Argentina from satellite view and northern halves versus southern halves flip from desert to greenery due to elevation, latitude, ocean/mountainside wind and rainfall, availability of water, seasonal changes and temperature shifts. At the bottom of South America you have wide areas of desert pans to the east of the Andes, leading into green foothill and abrupt winter-like glacier walls in mountain valleys.
In the deserts of north Africa there are lush green areas because of localized rivers and oasis; and the plants that grow there will be different than the open sands because how each has adapted to the conditions.
Likewise architecture can say a lot about the climate of a place: why certain areas have sloped roofs versus flat, alluding to what kind of weather they get be it rain or snow and how often. Same things with character clothing and the types of animals featured.

By having these gradual shifts are you wanting to indicate players are traveling great distances? That there's a change in the seasons? Are they moving through different elevations?
Don't just consider the ground color shift but the density and types of plants assets. Like using full-foliage broad-leafed trees, flowers and more water bodies for warmer/greener areas, and as one moves towards snow, use more rocks, tighter waterways, sparser vegetation, or plants with leaves adapted to colder conditions.

And that's if you're going for more realism. If a game is set in a magical world, then changes can be more abrupt or even overlaid to convey otherworldliness.

 

[Kes]

General Discussion is for looking at broad themes of game making. This thread now appears to be turning into an advice thread on how to make the resources. I suggest that you post the tiles you are working on in 'Resource Support' and get specific feedback there.

[mod]Closing this.[/mod]