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Sightless
Senior Scribe
USA
608 Posts |
 Posted - 08 Sep 2012 : 19:48:00
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A picture’s worth a thousand words, but I shall be utter frank. Without the eyes to see that image, to me that page is blank.
I am about to ask the folks of this site for a huge favor. One that is part of a long ongoing project of mine. I am trying to create a relative map of all the lands in the Realms, so I’ll have a general understanding of where everything is in relation to everything else. I already have the north pretty well set out, but when we get to Waterdeep, the Daylands, and the Bloodsone lands I’ve not a real clue. So, if anybody is willing to help me,out, I and several personal friends would be greatful.
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We choose to live a lie, when we see with, & not through the eye.
Every decision, no matter the evidence, is a leap of faith; if it were not, then it wouldn't be a choice at all. |
Edited by - Sightless on 11 Sep 2012 22:37:52
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The Red Walker
Great Reader
USA
3567 Posts |
Posted - 08 Sep 2012 : 20:26:20
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quote:
Originally posted by Sightless
A picture’s worth a thousand words, but I shall be utter frank. Without the eyes to see that image, to me that page is blank.
I am about to ask the folks of this site for a huge favor. One that is part of a long ongoing project of mine. I am trying to create a relative map of all the lands in the Realms, so I’ll have a general understanding of where everything is in relation to everything else. I already have the north pretty well set out, but when we get to Waterdeep, the Daylands, and the Bloodsone lands I’ve not a real clue. So, if anybody is willing to help me,out, I and several personal friends would be greatful.
There are many scribes here well versed in the geography of the realms....if you could maybe make specific requests of exactly what you want, I am sure you will get as much information as you need! |
A little nonsense now and then, relished by the wisest men - Willy Wonka
"We need men who can dream of things that never were." -
John F. Kennedy, speech in Dublin, Ireland, June 28, 1963
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 08 Sep 2012 : 20:46:20
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Hmmmm... this sounds like a challenge.
Could you please explain to me how you 'see' what is written on the internet? If I had a better understanding of the software/hardware you use, and how it does what it does, I might be able to create a psuedo-3d image for you. In other words, create a map that is completely text-based. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Sightless
Senior Scribe
USA
608 Posts |
Posted - 08 Sep 2012 : 21:33:04
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| Monday I'll post my map of the north, that you can see what I have and how I understand things. Then we can take it from there. |
We choose to live a lie, when we see with, & not through the eye.
Every decision, no matter the evidence, is a leap of faith; if it were not, then it wouldn't be a choice at all. |
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Thrasymachus
Learned Scribe
195 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2012 : 04:31:59
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quote:
Originally posted by Sightless
Monday I'll post my map of the north, that you can see what I have and how I understand things. Then we can take it from there.
The Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas uses files with the fcw extension. That extension can be opened by autocad. I am pointing that out because Autocad is a pretty popular program. In the program each map is it's own FCW files. Think of them like any document or spreadsheet. They're data is self contained. Now unlike normal pictures everything is consistent. Each of these maps is made up of thousands of small tiles, and all the tiles that have dense forests uses the same dense forest pattern. The swamp has it's own pattern. The cities are a black circles that are filled in.
Perhaps you might consider having the explored the possibility of sending the file to a printer who is capable of raised printing.
If that is not in your budget a cheaper solution might be to do the same thing with a bubblejet type printer. |
Former Forgotten Realms brand manager Jim Butler: "Everything that bears the Forgotten Realms logo is considered canon". |
Edited by - Thrasymachus on 09 Sep 2012 04:34:33 |
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Sightless
Senior Scribe
USA
608 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2012 : 15:09:40
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I don't have either, but will ask around. Maybe somebody I know has one, thanks. |
We choose to live a lie, when we see with, & not through the eye.
Every decision, no matter the evidence, is a leap of faith; if it were not, then it wouldn't be a choice at all. |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36982 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2012 : 16:54:16
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quote:
Originally posted by Sightless
I don't have either, but will ask around. Maybe somebody I know has one, thanks.
The Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas is an older piece of software, so it may not be easy to find. I've seen it on eBay for anywhere from $50 to $150, though generally more in the $75 to $100 price range. And this is for software I first installed on a Windows 98 computer! |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen!  |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2012 : 18:47:49
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quote:
Originally posted by Thrasymachus
quote:
Originally posted by Sightless
Monday I'll post my map of the north, that you can see what I have and how I understand things. Then we can take it from there.
The Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas uses files with the fcw extension. That extension can be opened by autocad. I am pointing that out because Autocad is a pretty popular program. In the program each map is it's own FCW files. Think of them like any document or spreadsheet. They're data is self contained. Now unlike normal pictures everything is consistent. Each of these maps is made up of thousands of small tiles, and all the tiles that have dense forests uses the same dense forest pattern. The swamp has it's own pattern. The cities are a black circles that are filled in.
Perhaps you might consider having the explored the possibility of sending the file to a printer who is capable of raised printing.
If that is not in your budget a cheaper solution might be to do the same thing with a bubblejet type printer.
Interesting.
I have very little (almost no) autocad experience. I had was thinking a text based map just for countries and regions, but hadn't considered terrain at all. Hmmmmmm....
How does braille handle font sizes? |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 09 Sep 2012 18:49:02 |
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Sightless
Senior Scribe
USA
608 Posts |
Posted - 10 Sep 2012 : 00:50:16
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
quote:
Originally posted by Thrasymachus
[quote]Originally posted by Sightless
Monday I'll post my map of the north, that you can see what I have and how I understand things. Then we can take it from there.
The Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas uses files with the fcw extension. That extension can be opened by autocad. I am pointing that out because Autocad is a pretty popular program. In the program each map is it's own FCW files. Think of them like any document or spreadsheet. They're data is self contained. Now unlike normal pictures everything is consistent. Each of these maps is made up of thousands of small tiles, and all the tiles that have dense forests uses the same dense forest pattern. The swamp has it's own pattern. The cities are a black circles that are filled in.
Perhaps you might consider having the explored the possibility of sending the file to a printer who is capable of raised printing.
If that is not in your budget a cheaper solution might be to do the same thing with a bubblejet type printer.
Interesting.
I have very little (almost no) autocad experience. I had was thinking a text based map just for countries and regions, but hadn't considered terrain at all. Hmmmmmm....
How does braille handle font sizes?
[/quote
There are only two different brail sizes. that coming from the type-writer version, and that coming from the Perkin's printer. I'd love to have one of those, but there over a thousand dollars. There is no Bold in brail, or Italized either. An apastraphy is used when translating Italicized text, and a double b for bold. A screenn-reader however, can read these formats. In JAWS, for instance, by holding down the insert key on the Num Pad, and then typing “f”, I can hear what type of font is used, as well as the style of that font, just not it’s color. A friend of mine has puffy painted part of the high forest, as we spent an entire campign there. It wasn’t great, as a lot of stuff ran together, but it’s the closest we’ve come to a real map that I could use.
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We choose to live a lie, when we see with, & not through the eye.
Every decision, no matter the evidence, is a leap of faith; if it were not, then it wouldn't be a choice at all. |
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Thrasymachus
Learned Scribe
195 Posts |
Posted - 10 Sep 2012 : 06:51:06
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quote:
Originally posted by Sightless
I don't have either, but will ask around. Maybe somebody I know has one, thanks.
and
There are only two different brail sizes. that coming from the type-writer version, and that coming from the Perkin's printer.
The raised printing I was talking about is the kind that is on wedding invitations.
Sorry, I actually didn't think you had access to Autocad yourself. I meant that with the FCW files being usable by autocad opened up options to getting this done. You aren't limited to print shops that have Campaign Cartographer software, or the Interactive Atlas Software. Telling you to find a printer with either of those software packages would be like sending you to find a certain kind of needle in a stack of needles.
On the other hand, Autocad (and programs like autocad) are used in Architecture design, so this isn't as hard. In fact an architect firm might be able to suggest a place that prints out maps with raised printing.
And failing that, maybe a wedding invitation print shop might still suit, because in autocad you could open the fcw file, and save to JPG format, and then send the jpg to the standard wedding print shop.
Regarding Braille you talk about two types; typewriter and perkins printer. So, I will point out that there are fonts used by computer that are braille. So, the question back to you would be how raised does the print have to be to be readable to you? Is a wedding invitation raised enough that if it were in braille font could you read it? Because it seems to me that this might be as easy as installing the Braille Font on autocad, and then some switching of fonts around the map. |
Former Forgotten Realms brand manager Jim Butler: "Everything that bears the Forgotten Realms logo is considered canon". |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 10 Sep 2012 : 07:45:49
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What I was thinking about is something along the lines of those old dot-matrix pictures we used to make on the old teletype computers (you whipper-snappers, with yer fancy-schmancy CRT-screen thingies...). I did the Starship Enterprise years ago (which got around - I'm talking mid-70's).
Something along the lines of THIS, but a lot less 'busy'. If I can do something like that, and sightless coverts the map to braille, they may be able to 'read' the image that way. If they have no way to convert to braille, then I am at a loss how to do this over the net.
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"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 10 Sep 2012 07:48:04 |
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Sightless
Senior Scribe
USA
608 Posts |
Posted - 10 Sep 2012 : 13:58:39
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| Well, what I was thinking was something a lot more generic. For some reason it's not letting me open my old file, but I think I originally did it in Word Perfect, which I don't have on this computer. Still, I'm thinking something more like Everland is twenty five miles east of Silvermoon. I don't need tones of detail, but a generial guide to where stuff is in regards to other places. For instance, I have an idea that the Blood Stone lands are in the south, but that's about it. So, a full brail map is more detail than what I really need, all with a descent embosser and card stack we could probably pull off what you are talking about. Does this help anybody any. |
We choose to live a lie, when we see with, & not through the eye.
Every decision, no matter the evidence, is a leap of faith; if it were not, then it wouldn't be a choice at all. |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 10 Sep 2012 : 19:52:17
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The Bloodstone lands are in the NE, actually.
I will try to come up with something basic, hopefully by the end of the day, and we can proceed forward from there.  |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 10 Sep 2012 19:53:14 |
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Sightless
Senior Scribe
USA
608 Posts |
Posted - 10 Sep 2012 : 20:55:44
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Are they past the spine of the world?
I always thought Silvermoon and that were in the North East, but they might be further south. And now you see my general geographical problem. |
We choose to live a lie, when we see with, & not through the eye.
Every decision, no matter the evidence, is a leap of faith; if it were not, then it wouldn't be a choice at all. |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 10 Sep 2012 : 21:24:52
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Map of Norther Faerun-
Ten Towns World High Ice Great Glacier
"Frozenfar" the Vassa
of Damara
Spine Silver
Marches Anauroch Moonsea
Sea Luskan
of High Cormanthor
Swords Neverwinter Dalelands
Forest
Waterdeep
Stonelands
Cormyr Sembia
Note that Silver Marches and High Forest appear on two lines, and that 'Spine of the World' appears diagonally across several lines (its a mountain range). The proportions are as close as I could get them on something this simple - this map is approximately the size of the United States. Anauroch is that whole empty place in the center. Vassa & Damara are the Bloodstone Lands. Just below Cormyr and Sembia would be the Inner Sea.
Hope this helps. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 10 Sep 2012 21:25:50 |
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The Red Walker
Great Reader
USA
3567 Posts |
Posted - 10 Sep 2012 : 21:49:02
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
Map of Norther Faerun-
Ten Towns World High Ice Great Glacier
"Frozenfar" the Vassa
of Damara
Spine Silver
Marches Anauroch Moonsea
Sea Luskan
of High Cormanthor
Swords Neverwinter Dalelands
Forest
Waterdeep
Stonelands
Cormyr Sembia
Note that Silver Marches and High Forest appear on two lines, and that 'Spine of the World' appears diagonally across several lines (its a mountain range). The proportions are as close as I could get them on something this simple - this map is approximately the size of the United States. Anauroch is that whole empty place in the center. Vassa & Damara are the Bloodstone Lands. Just below Cormyr and Sembia would be the Inner Sea.
Hope this helps.
Very cool...hope it fits his needs. |
A little nonsense now and then, relished by the wisest men - Willy Wonka
"We need men who can dream of things that never were." -
John F. Kennedy, speech in Dublin, Ireland, June 28, 1963
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Sightless
Senior Scribe
USA
608 Posts |
Posted - 10 Sep 2012 : 23:00:21
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It helps some, yes. I'm still a bit confused, but I've only listened to this thing once.
I appreciate it. |
We choose to live a lie, when we see with, & not through the eye.
Every decision, no matter the evidence, is a leap of faith; if it were not, then it wouldn't be a choice at all. |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 11 Sep 2012 : 17:15:19
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You may be losing the spacing between the words - I'm not sure how you are receiving this information. If you were able to print-out that map in braille, you would be able to get a better idea of the distances involved. If you are just using a speech emulator/reader, then I think all the spacing becomes lost.
I'm fairly certain the font sizing got lost - I have Silver Marches larger then the regular text, High Forest a bit larger then that, and Anauroch really big (it takes up most of the center). |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Sightless
Senior Scribe
USA
608 Posts |
Posted - 11 Sep 2012 : 22:43:43
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
You may be losing the spacing between the words - I'm not sure how you are receiving this information. If you were able to print-out that map in braille, you would be able to get a better idea of the distances involved. If you are just using a speech emulator/reader, then I think all the spacing becomes lost.
I'm fairly certain the font sizing got lost - I have Silver Marches larger then the regular text, High Forest a bit larger then that, and Anauroch really big (it takes up most of the center).
The font size isn't lost, but the distence is. At the moment it's when we hit the desert, everything get's all confused.
And at the moment I don't see a good way to correct my confusion. I might contact wotc and see if they'll let me buy any of the old TSR stuff, on pdf, assuming they still have it, and assuming they'll let me. Maybe after reading it from a different perspective it'll help. I mean there was a Guide to the north, right. Anyhow, it's worth a shot.
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We choose to live a lie, when we see with, & not through the eye.
Every decision, no matter the evidence, is a leap of faith; if it were not, then it wouldn't be a choice at all. |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 11 Sep 2012 : 23:35:40
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| How does your reader interpret an asterisk? I may be able to put something else between the names besides blank spaces. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36982 Posts |
Posted - 12 Sep 2012 : 00:00:26
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quote:
Originally posted by Sightless
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
You may be losing the spacing between the words - I'm not sure how you are receiving this information. If you were able to print-out that map in braille, you would be able to get a better idea of the distances involved. If you are just using a speech emulator/reader, then I think all the spacing becomes lost.
I'm fairly certain the font sizing got lost - I have Silver Marches larger then the regular text, High Forest a bit larger then that, and Anauroch really big (it takes up most of the center).
The font size isn't lost, but the distence is. At the moment it's when we hit the desert, everything get's all confused.
And at the moment I don't see a good way to correct my confusion. I might contact wotc and see if they'll let me buy any of the old TSR stuff, on pdf, assuming they still have it, and assuming they'll let me. Maybe after reading it from a different perspective it'll help. I mean there was a Guide to the north, right. Anyhow, it's worth a shot.
There was a boxed set called The North, and also Volo's Guide to the North. Both used to be available for free from the WotC site, but they moved or took down those files a while ago. They've promised to make the back catalog available again, though, so hopefully you'll be able to buy them. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen! |
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Geographical questions for blind players
