Dundjinni - any good?

[Fester]

Hi folks,

I'm thinking of purchasing Dundjinni, so I was wondering if anyone here had any good/bad experience of it?

I've spent a while going through their site to check out what it can do, but I haven't been able to find out what it can't do.

Some points of particular interest:

It looks like it can generate nice village/city maps, but how freeform are these - that is, if it ain't a grid, is it any good? What are the restrictions/limits etc?

Same goes for dungeons - I've seen pretty formulaic dungeons, but what about a natural dungeon? Can it do those (and, if yes, are they any good)?

Also, do users consider the final product (ie, the maps produced) of professional quality or just good for home use? So, you buy a pdf and there's a map done using Dundjinni - would you sigh (cheapsters!) or smile?

Finally, is it possible to generate your own graphics (in, say, photoshop) and export it to Dundjinni? I got the impression that something along these lines was possible.

Any feedback would be appreciated (as I'd probably buy the platinum version - and it ain't cheap!) and apologies if this has been asked elsewhere.

Many thanks.

 

[Hand of Evil]

see http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=90699

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=90546&highlight=dunjinni

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=88401&highlight=dunjinni



I think there are some other threads too in the Cartography and Art forum.

 

[Cecil]

Fester,
I am a solid advocate of DJ, and it is my mapping program of choice, but like any program, there are weaknesses.

The maps can be pretty freeform. Take a look at some of the ships in the mapping section of their forum for an example (particularly their current spotlight). The greatest limitation is currently in the size of a map displayed (essentially 8x10), but Fluid is working on that and is due to have a solution out in the next couple of months.

You can draw free-form walls and then use a floor filler to fill out the floors, but occasionally there are some small white "artifacts" (ie, single pixels that are not filled in automatically).

The final product? Well, it depends on who puts it together. I can take gourmet ingredients and bake a cake that tastes like cardboard. Generally, I think you're working with high-quality material (even from the user-art group). I think I'd smile. Unless I started finding all maps looking the same. (Note: Fluid artwork is not currently available for use in commercial products).

Yes, you can import your own graphics, or more specifically PNG files that you make in Photoshop, Photopaint, Realdraw, etc. In fact, I spend more time making objects for use in the program than I do mapping. My website now has almost 300 MB of items for use in the program. (Note: these objects can also be used in most other programs too).

 

[Fester]

see http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=90699

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=90546&highlight=dunjinni

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=88401&highlight=dunjinni



I think there are some other threads too in the Cartography and Art forum.

Thanks, Hand of Evil. I'll go check out these out.

 

[Xath]

Wow. I just got Platinum at Gencon, and boy am I ever addicted. I highly reccomend it.

 

[Rel]

The only complaint I've heard is that these gorgeous maps eat up a toner cartridge on your printer like there's no tomorrow. So keep in mind your method of output.

 

[Henry]

Moved to Software & Computers Forum.

Second Rel's comment, although that applies to any graphics or layout program - Campaign Cartographer included. But yes, other than that some users take issue with their license protection of their prepackaged artwork for commercial use, I've heard nothing over in the Software & COmputers forum but praise for the product's interface and capabilities.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I tried the demo version and found that

a) I had lots of problems setting up Java to run it properly on WinXP (this isn't everyones experience by a long shot, but it was mine)

b) as a Java app I found it very slow and unresponsive. On a more powerful computer this might not be an issue (although my current computer is powerful enough to run every business app I need including photoshop...)

Regards,

 

[Jupp]

I bought the Plantinum edition 3 days ago and have since then played around with it a bit

Pros
====
Very intuitive way of working. After some hours you are ready to produce your first usable map for the next game session.

Lots of pre-built icons, terrain and objects are already included (at least in the premium edition) So you are able to create very detailed and interesting maps right on from the start.

Ability to create one map and then print out different versions of it (i.e. Player handout without any info on it, DM version with all encounter tokens and traps included)

The graphics used in this app are very nice and they are all clear and crisp. No blurry stuff and all. Also all graphics are made in a way to fit nicely together.

Ability to create a whole adventure in one application. You can add all stats of an encounter in DJ and print it out later on. Very neat idea. The only thing missing here would be a direct connection to eTools

It is not too hard to add your own custom images to Dundjinni. So in case you are missing that huge pile of coins for your next treasure hunt adventure...just create it and add it.

If you have 2 or more monitors you can easily spread different maps over them and work pretty fast like that.



Cons:
=====

Dundjinni can get veeeeery slow as soon as you use free-form geometry like caves and nature/overland maps. And by slow I mean slow. This is one of the issues that Fluid really has to fix IMO. I am not sure what it is but I suspect it's Java that makes it that slow.

You are restricted to a certain map size. So producing that nice and big city map or that epic dungeon plan is out of the question with Dundjinni. Fluid wrote some days ago that they think about adding this features but they didnt give a time estimate at all. So it could very well be some time until we will see this.

Very tiresome printer handling. People in countries that dont use Letter/Legal paper are somehow lost. Also there is no support for any kind of large format printers like plotters or A3 (or any DIN sizes at all) color lasers. According to Fluid they are working on this issue for a future patch. For me the way to work at the moment is to export the map to Photoshop and print it from there. Not very elegant but it works.

That's all I found so far. Should there be anything more I 'll try to post here again.

My verdict at the moment is: The application is worth its money but you have to live with the restrictions (performance is my biggest issue at the moment). Luckily, Fluid has acknowledged some those problems and confirmed that they will be fixed in later patches. IMO if the cons from above are out of the way this program will be worth every single penny and then some

Greetings
Jupp

Edit: to clarify the thing about the map size restriction: The only way at the moment is to create several map that can be put together later on after you have them printed out.

 

[Fester]

Interesting responses - thanks guys. I'm still undecided, though, to be honest, the cons are presently beginning to outweigh the pros, especially the lincence thingy.

Still, I just might

Thanks again.