When map lines start behaving like roads

The first TownSquare map drew a line between two towns when their owners linked them together. It did the job, but it also looked exactly like what it was: a graph laid over a map. If you would prefer the in-universe version, The Town Square Gazette has also published Gazette Notice: the cartographers have at last learned what roads are. The lines were thin, even and happy to pass straight through anything in their way. Forest in the middle? Straight through it. Mountain range? No problem. A town that had nothing to do with the connection? Right across the centre. That is fine for a network diagram. It is odd for a landscape. I have been working on a new road renderer that asks a more useful question. Instead of only asking which towns are connected?, it also asks how would a road get from one to the other? The first terrain-aware roads on the TownSquare map. Before and after The change is easiest to see when the same part of the map is shown at the same zoom level. Before:…