Alpha Centauri Forums
The Game
Viable semi-real planetary map.
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Alpha Centauri Forums
The Game
Viable semi-real planetary map.
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| Author | Topic: Viable semi-real planetary map. |
| Zoetrope |
posted 02-22-99 09:11 AM ET  
Rectangular maps don't correspond at all well to the spherical geometry of a planet; whereas representing a sphere directly on a monitor, while using squares or hexes, presents some design problems. However, as I was thinking about the various ways that cartographers represent the Earth, it occurred to me that a reasonable compromise is to draw a planet as a Hexagon with one vertex for the north pole, and the opposite vertex for the south pole, thus: /\ You will notice that the equatorial region is wide, and the polar regions narrow and tapering. With this map the only wrap-around is between west and east (between the sides at the same latitude), yet that's sufficient to accurately represent the topology of a sphere. There's the question of the tiles, which is a bit awkward at the polar edges of a hexagon, but the map needn't have a perfectly hexagonal outline. You could use hexes squares in the polar regions in a step pattern. There would be some odd effects inside the arctic (similarly antarctic) circle though: on the eastern edge, going east and `north' would take you to the same square (the one at the same latitude on the west edge), because in the north polar region, north would actually be toward the top left (which in the equatorial region is north-west). However, that's reasonable, because on Earth (as any sphere with an axis) directions do behave strangely near a pole. |
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