High!

Once more playing around with isosurfaces to make a believable 
planet-like body... so I decided to model Ghurghusht, the largest (about 
  10,300 kms diameter, the exact mean radius yet to establish) moon of 
the ringed gas giant Qais (hidden behind the moon in the two hemispheric 
pictures), which in turn is the fourth planet from K1 main sequence star 
DM +19 279 (also known as Shams).

For the isosurface relief, I used a combination of small-scale granite 
and large-scale bozo, with the "sea level" placed at 5,117.4174 kms.

I also generated a cylindrical map to get an idea about Ghurghusht's 
topography; while doing this, I found its elevation range being from 
7,667 metres below to 35,707 metres above sea level (which is greater 
than even on Mars!). The map is composed of 1,620,000 (1800 by 900) box 
object and brought my 1.5 gig machine to the verge of crashing...

Later on, I also want to generate map sections at higher scale, with a 
customizable grid.

In the long run, I want to add a variety of textures indicating 
different kinds of soil cover, from pastures, fields and settlements 
close to the lakes to desert sand, perennial snow (in the polar areas 
and depending on latitude (and, ideally, distance to lakes!) at 
intermediate mountain heights) and bare rock (on the higher mountains 
never reached by precipitation).

Almost needless to say that I intend Ghurghusht to be a colony of 
reconstructionist neo-Afghans in the 24th century...

The last picture attached here is a deep zoom towards the moon's limb to 
give an impression of the landscape (not yet a true overflight view, but 
I hope to get such scenes working soon).

See you in Khyberspace!

Yadgar

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Attachments:
Download '2010-01-24 ghurghusht, lakes hemisphere, take 1.jpg' (180 KB) Download '2010-01-26 ghurghusht, highland hemisphere, take 1.jpg' (146 KB) Download '2010-01-24 cylindrical map of ghurghusht, take 3.png' (935 KB) Download 'ghurghusht0207.png' (345 KB)

Preview of image '2010-01-24 ghurghusht, lakes hemisphere, take 1.jpg'

Preview of image '2010-01-26 ghurghusht, highland hemisphere, take 1.jpg'

Preview of image '2010-01-24 cylindrical map of ghurghusht, take 3.png'

Preview of image 'ghurghusht0207.png'