3D planet maps

[Bhoritz]

Hi, I have begun a new campaign based on CT (a modified Sky Raiders trilogy).
I love the way the maps used in Traveller make the universe more real (my players were amazed when I made them have a look at http://www.travellermap.com/ to explain the setting).
So I have begun to turn isodecahedron maps into 3D models, like this one:

I am using the Worldmap Generator and Sketchup which are both free. So if someone is interested, I have made a small explanation here:
http://toybox-sw.blogspot.be/2013/08/3d-traveller-style-planets-maps-for.html

 

[phavoc]

Nice!

Minecraft iiinnnnnnnn sssspppppppaaaaaaaccccccccceeeeeeeee!

 

[SSWarlock]

This is awesome! Thank you for this. What fun!

 

[GypsyComet]

Used to do those with paper. You can build an icosahedron with a compass, ruler, scissors, and glue. All these Traveller world maps take care of the compass part.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

3D world building for Traveller is great fun.

 

[steve98052]

Very cool!

How well does it handle importing existing maps? For example, there's a really nice icosahedron map of Knorbes on the Knorbes page of the "Mustered Out on Regina" site. Could it import a map like that?

Incidentally, I created a map of Knorbes years ago, using a DOS-based fractal planet map generator,* and gave it to Hans Rancke-Madsen. I was going to write an article about the Knorbes starport and star-town for JTAS, and he was going to write a small adventure book covering the Regina subsector (similar to the Sword Worlds book he co-wrote with two others). I never got my article past an early draft, and I think his got cancelled. I think that Knorbes map is a low-resolution version of the map I created, but it's been so long that I'm not certain.

* One might argue that it was the software that created the map, but it took a lot of effort to pick settings for the software that would generate a map that fit a desired set of characteristics. Canon said that Knorbes had two continents named Main and Lesser, and I remember spending several hours trying various settings to get it to produce a map with two continents and just a few smaller islands.