Overview
In this artical, I will describe the process of creating an island map in steps.
Preparation
Create a new file, and select “jolly roger’s atlas” tileset.
Go to effects tab, open “world_maps.dpf” from DPS root folder, it contains effects for world maps.
Land and water
Draw biomes using the puddle tool. Each object create layer, you may change layers depth using drag and drop on right layers panel.
Created shapes may be edited by dragging control points in edit mode, in addition you may remove or duplicate points, using right click on them.
To select several layers at once hold ctrl and click on it at layer panel.
Select all layers and gather it to one group (click button under layers, or use ctrl+G hotkey).
You may rename group or layer, just double click it and enter new name.
Go to effects tab, and apply land preset to group.
You may drag objects in move mode, let’s move island closer to the left corner .
Add a rectangle with water and apply ocean preset to make the water darker.
Details
Using the puddle tool draw the lakes, turn off the stick to grid option if you need small details.
Draw the river using the spline tool, and gather it with lakes to one group. Apply river effect.
Add mountains. Switch on Z-sort option, to allow DPS find layer depth automaticaly.
Arrange the objects, gather to group.
If there are collisions after editing, resort depths from context menu on any layer inside the group.
Use Spline tool to draw roads and reduce their opacity so that they have a colors of biomes.
Draw the forests. It may be useful to create each forest inside separate group, if you do so, you may change textures type of whole group, right click on texture preview and click “fill selected”
Go inside island group and use terrain brush tool to comuflate transitions between biomes, paint marshes, and grass under the forest.
It remains to add labels and apply an effect on them.
