Jaks has posted the following tutorial on creating 3D maps.
For my campaign I really want to give a sense of the size and scope of the region in which the characters will participate. The world map feature of NWN2 will go a long way for providing that depth to our playing field. I've yet to hear details on what formats the world map can be drawn in but I do imagine a graphic format of some kind will be allowed to be imported into the module in some way. So to prepare I have begun to map out my region. Using a combination of the Forgotten Realms Atlas and my campaign book I started a new map for the region in my recently purchased CC3 (Campaign Cartographer 3) application. As usual CC is a bear to use. Trying to be detailed while at the same time trying to be stylish with it is difficult, despite the fact that CC3 has added a slew of new creative features. No matter how hard I try they all come out looking like CC maps, bland and dry. While perusing the recent release of pictures from GenCon I saw the pic for the world map here[link]. I like it, very stylish, almost 3D in a way. That got me thinking, Im a much better application user than I am an artist, could I instead find some 3D tools (like my recently acquired 3DSMax) to create a 3D scene for them to interact with? While looking around for a way to generate terrains (easily) in 3DSMax, I eventually gave up for some other apps that allow the building and rendering of heightfields[link to wikipedia]. This made alot of sense to me, seeing as how the toolset will be using Heightfields as well, it may benefit me to learn more about them, create a detailed and beautiful world map and at the same time find some tools that I may be able to be reused to create my areas as well. Below is the final product of my endeavors so far. As you can see it is a fully realized 3D terrain of the Durpar, Estagund and Var nations of the Shining South, all based around the Golden Waters bay.
The overland map for the Golden Waters area. Covers the nations of Estagund, Durpar and Var the Golden as well as showing the beginnings of the Raurin Desert. Notice how I was able to replicate the golden hue to the bay area as described in the official setting.
Applications Used: Leveller Demo, Terragen, Paint Shop Pro (substitute any graphics app)
So how did I do it? What applications did I use? Read on and I'll walk you through the process I took (without the heavy learning curve) to get to this point.
Check it out:
http://www.nwcitadel.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=16&blog...
And don't miss follow-ups:
Realistic World Map Tutorial Part 3 - Landmarks
http://www.nwcitadel.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=20&blog...
Realistic World Map Tutorial Part 3 - Mixing Terrains
http://www.nwcitadel.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=19&blog...
Realistic World Map Tutorial Part 2 - Terragen
http://www.nwcitadel.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=17&blog...