I was wondering if there was an Inkscape filter to make cartographic maps, or can there be an easy way make one.

The idea is that I want to draw the map's general shape and I want the filter to create

- eroded edges
- Random terrain level
- Random Terrain (Optional)

Maybe another filter could be used to create terrain like forest, desert, mountains, etc.

Do you know any filter that could do that, or do you have a quick idea on how I could create a filter that can does that?

You can roughen edges with the fractalize path extension.

The other things don;t exist now, and might be easier with a raster program.

If interested in map-making using any variety of software, including Inkscape, check out www.cartographersguild.com (disclaimer - i am a co-admin there) the number 1 place on the web for fantasy cartography enthusiasts.

-Rob A>

I checked the cartographer's guild

I found an interesting video here

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid= ... 091812167#

It uses:
Fractalise
Inset
Outset
Simplify

Nice tutorial for map outlines.

It does not show how to place a texture on the map. I am not sure it you can actually put a texture in a shape in inkscape. Else, I could simply use a texture fill and feather the edges. Else there might be a filter that creates the texture I need.

Else I thought that the terrain elevations could be some with some sort of bump map.

I managed to do the picture below relatively easily. I placed a copy of the texture.



This is pretty easy to do.

Grass
[*]Draw a shape
[*]Fractalize
[*]Remove stroke
[*]Feather

Sand
[*]Duplicate the grass shape
[*]Outset the grass shape multiple times
[*]Set a different color, remove stokes
[*]Simplify
[*]Feather

(I had a bug where too much nodes made some display bug when duplicating and it crashed when blurring. So I simplified before duplicating).

Water
[*]Simple blue rectangle placed at the bottom of the picture

Forest
[*]Import a texture I made in gimp
[*]Change it as a pattern
[*]Draw a shape
[*]Fractalize
[*]Apply a pattern fill
[*]Feather ( change level to 10)

So like forests, I could use any texture and place it also on the grass, sand and water. I think it could be the best way to make texture terrain. Feathering makes the edges of the map less fractalized, so I might keep a stroke around the map for clearer definition.

What do you think?

and if you want more photographic like realism/render....then something like povray would be good, as it has height fields and textures apply in 3d fashion. but that's a whole different ballgame if you're interested.

I think I have seen something similar, but sometimes the results are not as good as I would like. I did it once with a software that allowed you to move on your map in 3D and take a shot. Still for the purpose I need, I must define my own shapes and place them in specific location in my document. (It's for a board game). So I prefer using a technique similar to the above. But if there could be a filter that would fill-up my landscape with a realistic landscape texture, I would not say no.