Faux Terrain Map Style

An idea I've had for a while is a Second Life map style somewhere in between the original in-world map and a true textured view. The in-world map does a good job of expressing the basic shape of the land and water, but uses only a few gradations and somewhat eccentric colors. The 1.7 map apparently renders the terrain with textures, but I think this might lose some of the useful schematic qualities of the current version. I've been experimenting with a style in between. The idea is to use colors which the user associates with natural terrain features (sand, grass, rock) to communicate elevation even though these features don't correspond to the actual textures of the sim terrain. The style also displays three different ranges of water depth which I find useful. Below is an image saved out of Grid Chart which shows the current state of this style.

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