Planning and pipeline

[Ragerin]

Hey all!

 

I'd like to give mapping a shot. As I've been experimenting and learning the various tools, I started wondering how you guys usually plan the map?

 

Do you just jot down some streets and forests in your graphics-software?

Do you use reference-images?

 

I'm especially interested in how you accomodate for sizing? As in, "how long should I draw this road?" or "I need room for three houses here".

 

 

 

Besides the planning phase, I'm also interested in hearing your build pipelines.

 

I'm usually doing software development, and use Git for version controlling my code. Besides that I automate as much as possible, with either local build-scripts or dedicated continous integration-systems.

 

Is it possible to automate any part of the pipeline in building a map? Can WorldEd and the other tools be used from console? I can't seem to find any documentation regarding this... Also, do you version control your projects?

 

 

Also, any tips you feel I should know, before I jump in?

 

 

Thanks a bunch, for your time! I hope you're enjoying the holidays.

 

 

Best regards,

Ragerin

[Ciber Ninja]

Take my words with a grain of salt because I have never actually gotten around to finishing a map, but when I get the urge to map I start by finding a nice candidate site in google earth. Then I stitch screenshots together in paint.net. With a bit of fine tuning you can extract a mask of forested areas, though it often has to be cleaned up manually.

My rule of thumb for sizing things is that a 1 lane road takes up 3 squares, beyond that I just roughly trace the images.

My pipeline consists of throwing everything into a file on the desktop, and I doubt any mappers use version control but if anyone does feel free to correct me.

Coming at this from the perspective of a programmer seems like a good plan, I look forward to seeing your work.