D&D 5E Mapping Software Input [What's in your wallet?]

[heruca]

I'm close to finishing and releasing my (battle)map-making software, MapForge. It's designed specifically for people who don't want to deal with the learning curve of programs like Gimp/Photoshop, yet it still has support for things like layers and filter/effects.

I posted a short video demo of MapForge here, for anyone who's interested.

It has taken longer than I expected to get it finished (sorry, Kickstarter backers!), but it's finally in Beta, so it's feature-locked and just needs testing and bug fixing, for the most part.

 

[Azzy]

Funny, I was just about to come here to start a thread on this, and this thread pops right up!

I have been looking at Campaign Cartographer, and I do see a good amount of advice here. How steep it the learning curve (for someone who really hasn't used a CAD-type program before)? How quick can one whip up decent-looking maps? It looks like the "Core 3" as plenty of options and art assets - are they enough to create varied and interesting maps, with nothing important missing?

Campaign Cartographer has a very steep leaning curve, and is not remotely user-friendly or intuitive. I've used it a bit, but I'd much rather use (and recommend) Adobe Illustrator (or just about anything else) any day.

 

[Azzy]

Can we get this thread stickied? This topic crops up every so often, and this thread is particularly informative on the subject.

 

[Tormyr]

Can we get this thread stickied? This topic crops up every so often, and this thread is particularly informative on the subject.

Add it to Best of 5e wiki thread. That one is a sticky already and can point to this one.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Campaign Cartographer has a very steep leaning curve, and is not remotely user-friendly or intuitive. I've used it a bit, but I'd much rather use (and recommend) Adobe Illustrator (or just about anything else) any day.

Nice quote from over a year ago.

And I did start using CC and have enjoyed making maps with it. The "steep" learning curve was nowhere near as bad as rumored...

 

[medriza]

If you are looking for a program that makes nice looking maps with a fairly small learning curve, take a look at Dungeon Painter Studio.

It's very powerful and easy to use. And it's pretty inexpensive at $15. It's been in Early Access for ages, I think. I'm not sure if it will ever get to the full version, and the reviews are mixed mostly with people complaining that it's buggy. But I've never had any issues running it, and with work and all the other non-gaming nonsense of life, this is my go-to mapping program for just about everything.

 

[3catcircus]

Nice quote from over a year ago.

And I did start using CC and have enjoyed making maps with it. The "steep" learning curve was nowhere near as bad as rumored...

The learning curve issue is, in my experience, due to the user expecting to "draw" a map. I've been using CC since the CC2 days and prior to that, had used AutoCAD and Mechanical Desktop in college. If you come from a CAD background, CC makes sense. It is logical in that regard. I think that in some cases, potential users may come from a single mouse button Mac background and are thrown by the fact that the right mouse button plays a huge role in the UI.

I'm still using CC2/CD2/DD2 until someone ports Mappa Harnica to CC3. I consider the Harnic mapping style to be far siperior to any other fantasy mapping style.

 

[LordEntrails]

Campaign Cartographer has a very steep leaning curve,....

.... The "steep" learning curve was nowhere near as bad as rumored...

The learning curve issue is, in my experience, due to the user expecting to "draw" a map. I've been using CC since the CC2 days and prior to that, had used AutoCAD and Mechanical Desktop in college. If you come from a CAD background, CC makes sense. It is logical in that regard. I think that in some cases, potential users may come from a single mouse button Mac background and are thrown by the fact that the right mouse button plays a huge role in the UI.
....

This was pretty much what I was going to say.

CC learning curve is highly dependent upon expectations, and if you are able to put them aside and learn the program for what it is (which can be hard if you have years of experience with graphics programs).

At least we do have lots of map making programs to choose from. Lots of different pro's and cons to each one. You just need to find what works for you.

An example that I'm working on now; I'm re-doing Undermountain, in its entirirty with not only level maps, but room and battlemaps for every location. This is hundreds of maps. Do this is anything but a vector based application like CC3+ is prohibitive (I've talked with several professional cartographers about it, and most simple refused due to the effort involved). But with CC3+ I can do one map for each level, and using a variety of effects and turning off certain sheets, I can make all the room/battelmaps for each level and an overview level map all from one map that can be developed in a few weeks.

 

[3catcircus]

This was pretty much what I was going to say.

CC learning curve is highly dependent upon expectations, and if you are able to put them aside and learn the program for what it is (which can be hard if you have years of experience with graphics programs).

At least we do have lots of map making programs to choose from. Lots of different pro's and cons to each one. You just need to find what works for you.

An example that I'm working on now; I'm re-doing Undermountain, in its entirirty with not only level maps, but room and battlemaps for every location. This is hundreds of maps. Do this is anything but a vector based application like CC3+ is prohibitive (I've talked with several professional cartographers about it, and most simple refused due to the effort involved). But with CC3+ I can do one map for each level, and using a variety of effects and turning off certain sheets, I can make all the room/battelmaps for each level and an overview level map all from one map that can be developed in a few weeks.

This.

One of the other posts mentioned CC3 taking forever to render. If that is happening, the user is using it for something it was not primarily designed for.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Do this is anything but a vector based application like CC3+ is prohibitive (I've talked with several professional cartographers about it, and most simple refused due to the effort involved). But with CC3+ I can do one map for each level, and using a variety of effects and turning off certain sheets, I can make all the room/battelmaps for each level and an overview level map all from one map that can be developed in a few weeks.

Can you elaborate on why vector graphics are so much better suited for this task?