# Mapping Resources > Tutorials/How-To >  [Award Winner] Fractal Terrains Pro Tutorial

## Redrobes

The original post title and location is a little hard to find so here is the link

http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=1746

which contains this link to tutorial

http://www.ridgenet.net/~jslayton/CGTutorial/index.html

*Essential* viewing for any FT user.

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## meleeguy

I had given up on FT Pro, but this helps greatly.

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## vooood

There is only one problem.. I am unable to select the prescale tools in the latest versions.. They are disabled all the time.. What is wrong??

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## NeonKnight

Not sure. What version are running? I was using it last night and had no issues.

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## vooood

Found it. I forgot to turn on the "Allow Prescale Offset Editing" option in world settings :S

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## Audman

Can anyone help me make a Icosahedral Projection for Fractal Terrains Pro?  Lest you think I have any idea what I am doing, I only know "Icosahedral" since its in the export options.  However, I would like to save my FT PRO work to CC2, since icosahedral projections work so well with hexes.

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## waldronate

In FT Pro, use File>>Export World>>Cosmographer Template to get a CC2 file with the data in an icosahedral projection and an image to go in the background. There is currently a bug in most recent version of FT that's preventing the automatic linking of the bitmap to the CC2 file so you'll need to do that by hand, unfortunately.

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## Greason Wolfe

Maybe it's just me, but as I read through that tutorial, there was a part that called for Tools>>Actions>>Incise Flow.  I'm using FT Pro Version 2.2 and I'm not seeing that tool anywhere.  Is there a newer version that I don't have?

GW

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## Roger Calver

The latest version is 2.3.

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## howard

> In FT Pro, use File>>Export World>>Cosmographer Template to get a CC2 file with the data in an icosahedral projection and an image to go in the background. There is currently a bug in most recent version of FT that's preventing the automatic linking of the bitmap to the CC2 file so you'll need to do that by hand, unfortunately.


I think I've just found that bug -- whenever I try to export, all I get is an odd X-shaped red blotch on my Cosmographer template. Can anyone tell me how to link by hand, as suggested above? I haven't the foggiest.

thanks,
Howard

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## Feralspirit

Hello. I'm new to the community, and hope I'm not speaking out of turn. I've been using the Demo for Fractal Terrains, to see if that was the software I wanted to invest in, my results have been exciting, as I was breaking new ground, but disappointing as well, there isn't the freedom that paper offers. I was very pleased to find the tutorial, your results look fabulous. So, I'm walking through it and discover I don't have the Incise Flow function. Reading through the thread I find I'm not alone and go on. I was heartbroken to find Show Image Climate does not show up on my Show Other Shader options. So, I will not be able to duplicate your results with the demo version I am using. Let me just throw this out there, is this software worth buying? What is the general consensus of the community for favored software? Obviously anyone reading this thread might respond with a little bias, I'm just looking for a little direction (ha, ha). Anybody have an opinion?

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## Steel General

First off...Welcome Aboard! Be sure to open a thread in the introduction forum.

I can't answer your question(s) on Fractal Mapper as I do not use it - I'm sure someone who does will be along shortly.

As for favored software, well that's a matter of preference, availability, $$$, etc. I started out using GIMP (can't beat the price - FREE!), then I later moved to Photoshop when I was fortunate enough to get a copy very cheaply - so that is my current preference. But if you're just starting out and don't have much money to spare then I would recommend GIMP.

P.S. Very cool avatar

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## Thorf

Hello,

Thanks for linking to this tutorial!  I just bought Fractal Terrains Pro today, and I'm still wrestling with it now.  I've had bad experiences with Pro Fantasy software in the past, but I'm beginning to think that it's the documentation rather than the programs that I dislike; it seems like the program is very powerful, but the manual just doesn't explain properly how to use it.   :Crying or Very sad: 

That said, the reason I'm posting here is that I'm following along with the tutorial (which seems much better written than the manual was) but I'm having a problem using the Prescale Offset tools.  Basically, I can't get them to have any effect on the map at all.  I've tried putting the Value up and down, but they just won't raise or lower the land.

Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong?

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## Midgardsormr

If I recall correctly, somewhere there's a checkbox for "Enable prescale offset editing." If that's not turned on, the offset tools won't do anything.

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## Thorf

> If I recall correctly, somewhere there's a checkbox for "Enable prescale offset editing." If that's not turned on, the offset tools won't do anything.


In the Editing panel of the World Settings, yes.  I thought it might be that too, but it was ticked.  So presumably it must be something else.   :Frown: 

Thanks for answering anyway.  It's probably something really simple like that...

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## waldronate

When painting into the prescale offset channel you must use the prescale offset tools. The tools on the palette are only for the offset channel, not the prescale offset channel (it's confusing, I know). Those tools are found on the Tools>>Paint Values>>Prescale Land Offset, Tools>>Paint Raise>>Prescale Land Offset, and Tools>>Paint Lower>>Prescale Land Offset menu items. I recommend just picking one of the tools and using the Operation dropdown on the toolbar to change between Value, Lower, and Raise.

On other thing is to make sure that you have the most recent version downloaded from the ProFantasy site (it should be 2.3.0.8 or later).

If the problem persists be sure to contact ProFantasy tech support and Linda should be able to help you.

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## Vandy

Hi, All.

I have repackaged waldronate's great tutorial as a PDF document and have attached it to this post.

Regards,

Gary

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## Torius

Hello All,

Yesterday I decided to start the mapping project for my D&D campaign.  Previously I had built a setting using FT Pro and then exporting to CC2 for area maps and the results were decent.

I am new to the site and found this tutorial on FT pro and I learned more in my 4 hour session last night than I had previously understood about using FT Pro.

I followed along with the tutorial and the results were great until I hit a small snag after applying the rivers.   After the rivers were drawn in , there were 2 rivers in parallel that were straight lines cutting from one continent over the ocean to the other continent on my map.

It doesn't appear this happens when I export to world views in .jpg format, but when viewing the flat projection in FT Pro, these two river "lines" are visible.

Has this happened to anyone before using FT pro and is there a way to fix this?

Thank you,
Torius

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## waldronate

It's a bug in the river generation code and is on the (very long) list of things to be fixed. I am unaware of a good workaround for it at this time .

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## guyanonymous

It doesn't show up on exports of multiple files beyond a certain zoom point.

It is very frustrating.

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## waldronate

> It doesn't show up on exports of multiple files beyond a certain zoom point.
> 
> It is very frustrating.


It which? The error or the rivers?

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## guyanonymous

the problem/error of the rivers going in straight lines etc. when at maximum zoom...what is it - on non-mercator maps projections?

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## waldronate

Historically the straight-line grid problem has been less of an issue for projections with curved parallels (Hammer, Orthographic, Stereographic, etc.) It also goes away in the debugger (that is, I can't produce it when stepping through with the debugger, even though it will appear in just running debug mode).

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## NeonKnight

I remember I found a work around for this.....can't remember though what it was exactly I did. I think, THINK it was simply a matter of zooming into the area where the river line was and then raising the terrain a small amount, rerunning the rivers, and doing again and again until all the horizontal lines were gone.

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## Torius

Thanks for the feedback on this bug!

Neon, I'll give it a try to see if that solves it  :Smile:

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## waldronate

If you're going to rerun the rivers, just try using a slightly different river resolution (try "Custom" and add 7 or so to the resolution). There shouldn't be any need to modify the terrain.

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## Torius

Waldronate,

Thanks for the tip, i modified the river resolutions slightly and the parallel lines have now dissapeared!

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## herrozerro

I have a slight issue, my FTP perspective seems to be off, like my shadows from mountains and shelves are from bottom to top instead of top to bottom.  Is there a setting i missed?

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## waldronate

It may be an optical illusion (some people see the shading as coming from a different direction sometimes). Try changing the light direction under Map>>Lighting and Color on the Intensity tab and see if that will help.

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