Dundjinni & Gridsmith - best for battlemaps?

drnuncheon · Oct 24, 2004

So I'm wondering if anyone has used both of these products, and how they compare in terms of features, ease of use, etc.

Gridsmith is half the cost of DJ platinum, but it only runs on Windows which means I'd have to battle my wife for her computer. DJ is supposed to have an OSX version soon, which is a plus in its favor.

To give some background on where I'm coming from, I'm looking for something that would let me make decent-looking battlemaps in a short period of time - that's why I'm looking at the tile-based programs. My favorite mapping program ever isn't CC2 or Autorealm, it's Hexmapper - simple, looks better than my hand-drawn stuff, easily readable, gets the point across, and I don't have to fiddle with a lot of weird settings.

So...who's used them both? What do you think?

mindy from fluid · Oct 27, 2004

I'd favor Dundjinni - but then, of course, I'm a bit biased ;-)

Seriously though, you might try flagging this thread (or posing the question) on the Dundjinni forums - I believe we have a few users who have used both and might be able to give you an informed opinion.

Xath · Oct 28, 2004

I also favor dundjinni, though truth be told, I've never used gridsmith. And if the price bothers you, do what I did. Go to Gencon and get DJ Platinum for half the price

LathanM · Oct 29, 2004

Go with DJ. Gridsmith does not appear to be supported anymore (no email replies or updates in quite awhile).

drnuncheon · Oct 29, 2004

LathanM said:
Go with DJ. Gridsmith does not appear to be supported anymore (no email replies or updates in quite awhile).

Well, that combined with the Mac version makes a pretty powerful argument.

Thanks, all! I'll wait patiently for Fluid to announce they've finished up.

barsoomcore · Nov 5, 2004

I make battlemaps in Create for OS X. Works a charm. Don't have all the bells and whistles of DJ, but has a lot more out-of-gaming applications.

http://www.stone.com/

Eremite · Nov 5, 2004

I have both.

Gridsmith is really, really simple to use and takes about 10 minutes or less to learn. While it is not officially supported, there is more than enough stuff on the wesbite and on the yahoo group to cover most things.

Dundjinni, of course, is spectacular, but it is a real resource hog and takes some time to master. My old 2.4Ghz/256MB RAM machine struggled to run it; this new PC is OK provided I don't try anything too fancy.

On balance, I actually prefer Gridsmith because of the ease of use.

drnuncheon · Nov 5, 2004

barsoomcore said:
I make battlemaps in Create for OS X. Works a charm.

Interesting. Where do you gank your tiles from?

Eremite said:
My old 2.4Ghz/256MB RAM machine struggled to run it; this new PC is OK provided I don't try anything too fancy.

That, I hope, shouldn't be a problem - the mac is a dual 1.8 G5 with a Gb of RAM and it's pretty much handled anything I've thrown at it so far with ease.

Since you've used both, could you give me an example of why DJ is harder to use than Gridsmith? I'm assuming Gridsmith at least works sort of like Dungeon Crafter or Hexmapper - you drop tiles onto a grid. How does DJ work compared to that?

J

D'arc DeWinter · Nov 22, 2004

Are you aware that you can download a free demo of dundjinni? Why not try it out for yourself?

Of course, that doesn't help you evaluate Gridsmith, but it gets you halfway there.