do we need another mapping program

[lior_shapira]

Following this thread which reminded me of my ancient(7 years old) mapping program I started thinking of creating a new version.

What I had in mind was the following:

A battlemap creator, you select the size of the map in pages (1 page, 2x2...) and are presented with a grid to paint on.
- You can fill in the squares with textures (stone,wood,grass...)
- You can paint geometrical shapes on the map (rooms etc.)
- You can put as many custom images as you want on it (scaled and rotated), the images should support png,jpg,gif,bmp so you can use images from other programs
- The program should be able to save/load maps, print maps to multiple pages, export to an image
- The program should have good management of the custom icons/images you use so its easy to find what you want and add it
- The program should be FAST and STABLE, my main goal is for it to be very easy to use and very fast. You won't be able to make dundjinni/CC3 quality maps with it.


So my question(s) is

Do you think there's a need for such a utility? are there any important features you think I forgot? any other comments?

lior

 

[heruca]

Can't you already do all this with the free DungeonForge/MapX programs?

Are there any important features you think I forgot? any other comments?

How about making it cross-platform compatible, so Mac and Linux users don't get left out? What would you be coding this in?

 

[Redrobes]

I wasn't going to keep posting about my mapping program but alas I feel I must.

Firstly there are a lot of mapping programs out there and they all have different styles and purposes so you have to get to know each one and decide which one fits the way you want to make maps. Some people like bitmap editors like Photoshop and they work extremely well for some people - particularly those who are artistic. Some other like a CAD like interface and vectored lines / art and these appeal to people who use CAD or are at least comfortable with that kind of map.

For image editors you have ultimate freedom to change each pixel so you can blend add nice effects and draw anything. Its unlimited. Its also very slow and tedious. You need a large collection of art as brushes to use and you are going to have to scale and rotate all of them to place them down. If you want to change it then either you need to put massive amounts of layers down which chew through memory like anything or else you don't edit it. Photoshop is great for art. Useful maps are not art. Photoshop et al are not good for making useful maps.

CAD programs are great for drawing man made stuff with perfect corners at specific dimensions etc. Its not good for trees. You can use pre-existing vector art but you cant create vector art easily.

I think that image splatting / stamping or whatever you call it is the best answer. You can create art from photos or scans of your pen and paper maps.

So onto your list.
Firstly Dundjinni does all but the last item on that list so if your map is small then there is one option. It has been said that it is a bit of a resource hog. It runs in Java so there is a limit as to how fast it can go. However, many people like it and there are a lot of good maps made from it.

I started writing ViewingDale long before Dundjinni was released and although Im obviously biassed, I think it fixes the problems inherent in it. Though not being written in Java it is not a portable program.

ViewingDale uses graphics card hardware acceleration to make it extremely fast. Because its so fast it is real time and as such is a zoom browser which frees you from having fixed scale bitmap art. So it has all the best features of CAD scalability and ease of art creation. Because it works in any scale you can create battle maps and wilderness maps or continental maps. It supports png,jpg and bmp - gif is deliberately not supported due to Compuserve being such gits with the patent extortion. Though the patent has run out now I dont see that gifs offer anything that png cannot do. Gifs are history. Anyhoo - you can check out the results of its maps on the website.

So is there a need for another utility. Well, No. I think its well covered. But I did not believe that it was done right when I started to write one so you may disagree.

www.viewingdale.com
Free demo available - try it ! Is it fast and stable enough for you ?

 

[lior_shapira]

Can't you already do all this with the free DungeonForge/MapX programs?

How about making it cross-platform compatible, so Mac and Linux users don't get left out? What would you be coding this in?

I thought about writing it in c++/qt which would make it cross platform (linux/mac/pc) quite easily.

Redrobes - Regarding dundjinni I know a lot of people use it and I've tried it too, and the results are very (very!) nice. However, it is soooo slow and crashes (at least on my computer) all the time, and its hard to print from... I think a natively written program (or at least a more efficiently written one) would be of much help.

Regarding vieweingdale, I wasn't aware of it, I looked around on the net but didn't stumble on it. It looks very interesting and I'll download the trial to check it out.

One more point that I didn't mention. If I will do this, it will probably be as an open source application. Perhaps there is room for a free mapping utility

In any case thanks for your comments

lior

 

[lior_shapira]

one question regarding viewingdale, does it print battlemaps on multiple sheets of paper automatically?

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I guess it depend on its ease of use.

 

[trancejeremy]

Viewing Dale looks neat, until you get to the price tag. $50 isn't much if you actually end up using it a lot, but a lot of times with mapping software, you buy it, then don't use it (because you don't like it, or it's too hard to use, or not suitable).


I guess what's really needed is a really nice, free, mapping program. Which is unlikely, because writing a mapping program is quite a bit of effort, much less writing a good one.

 

[Redrobes]

one question regarding viewingdale, does it print battlemaps on multiple sheets of paper automatically?

No. It can save out extremely large images at full res of the battle field. Once you have this image however you can use an image splitter to sent it to a printer. The image splitters generally create PDF documents to print out. The one below is quite neat as you can specify overlap too.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/posterazor/

Viewing Dale looks neat, until you get to the price tag. $50 isn't much if you actually end up using it a lot, but a lot of times with mapping software, you buy it, then don't use it (because you don't like it, or it's too hard to use, or not suitable).

I guess what's really needed is a really nice, free, mapping program. Which is unlikely, because writing a mapping program is quite a bit of effort, much less writing a good one.

Its a mapping program and a virtual table top in one - together that makes for better value. Because its a VT you dont print out the maps because icons are included for characters and monsters to move about on the map.

It is a lot of work and you get a lot of artwork supplied with it too. Theres plenty of free options about. Toga Mario has his Free Country and there is MapTools too.

Writing programs costs. It might not cost money but it costs time, web hosting and other resources. I advertised in Dragon Magazine and the disks are supplied as a professional printed disk (i.e. not a CDR) in a DVD box with commercial print cover. You get a laminated keyboard chart and lots of free art updates. And all of this has to get shipped to you worldwide (which is included in that price). Whilst the free programs have been paid for by the developers time and own money, you will have to find some generous philanthropists to spend thousands of dollars to get you resource hungry free software for D&D.