Map Align - Utility to scale and align map to grid

[valeros]

I find it tedious to get maps to line-up with the grid (especially WoTC maps.) So I made a utility to do it quickly. Works great for FG and Roll20. (Also good for adding a grid or for preparing to print as 1" squares.)

Directions located under Help menu in application.

Added a new version complied for .Net 4.8 and x64

----

This program is intended for adding or aligning Role Playing Game (RPG) maps to a grid, usually for use in virtual tabletop applications (such as Fantasy Grounds or Roll20), or for preparing the map to print with one inch tiles. (This program does not print the map.)

It can be used to quickly and easily add a grid to a map or align a map to a grid, even when the grid already in the image is not an exact number of pixels wide or the width and height of a tile are not the same (e.g., many Wizards of the Coast maps.)

The program will adjust the map to make each tile square, make each tile one inch for printing, and add borders to partial left, right, top, and bottom tiles to make the map an even number of tiles wide and tall.

The grid used to align the map can optionally be saved with the map to add a grid to the map if it did not have one or if the virtual tabletop application does not provide grid options such as line color and width.

EDIT: (Zacchaeus) a more up to date video (https://youtu.be/DduOSGWBHAg) on how to use this utility

[gmkieran]

Epic! Must try this when I get home. Thank you, sir!

[jshauber]

Going to try this later today.

THANKS!!!

[Ikaris]

This is simply the coolest utility, thank you very much valeros.
This will save me much time.

[VenomousFiligree]

Thanks for sharing. Couldn't get it to run on Crossover though :(

[Trenloe]

This is indeed a very cool utility.

In addition, most rulesets in FG 3.0 that are based off CoreRPG now have a grid alignment tool built in (in FG 2 quite a few rulesets had this as well). Just in case people aren't aware (as I've come across a few GMs who weren't) the grid alignment tool appears on the toolbar once a grid is drawn - it allows the GM to increase/decrease the grid size one step at a time and shift the grid up/down/left right within an FG image/map on the fly:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39085830/Screenshots/Fantasy%20Grounds/Grid%20Alignment.JPG

Initially just the "#" icon is shown when a grid is first drawn, click this to expand and see the grid controls.

[Willot]

I downloaded it unzipped it and Immedtely My Norton went insane jumped on it and shredded it Telling me it was infected with Sonar?

[darrenan]

Feature Request: Toggle grid on/off with a simple button click. Sometimes the grid hides existing cues in the image, would be nice to be able to quickly toggle the grid to make sure it's in the right place.

Love this tool, FG GMs everywhere rejoice!

[Trenloe]

Feature Request: Toggle grid on/off with a simple button click. Sometimes the grid hides existing cues in the image, would be nice to be able to quickly toggle the grid to make sure it's in the right place.
Add the request to the FG wishlist, this is where requests are tracked and voted on: https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/

[darrenan]

This was a feature request for the Map Align tool, not FG (although I guess having higher fidelity in FGs grid tools would be nice as well).

D.

[valeros]

Updated utility:
1) Added ability to turn the grid on and off on the display with a right mouse button click.
2) Added ability to pan the map with the left mouse when the grid is locked (i.e., after selecting the tile size with the left mouse.)
3) Bug fix for output sizes sometimes not calculated correctly when first selecting the tile size.

[darrenan]

excellent!

[jh79]

This is sweet! thanks

[hawkwind]

nice thread necro, I missed this the first time round and will try it out later

[nytemare3701]

I'm unclear as to the purpose of this tool. I found it while trying to find a program to stretch the wonky grids in WoTC into squares.

[Trenloe]

I'm unclear as to the purpose of this tool. I found it while trying to find a program to stretch the wonky grids in WoTC into squares.
That's exactly what it does - resizes the map in separate horizontal and vertical dimensions to help align grids.

There's a demo video available for download in post #1.

[nytemare3701]

Watched the video, tried to mess with it again. Still confused.

9357

EDIT: Didn't mean to post yet, hadn't finished my message.

I'm editing the full version of this map (this is just a small portion of it, for reference). The video is hard to see and not clear as to what is actually going on.

[darrenan]

1. Load image.
2. Use cursor to draw a 'starter' square, aligned as closely to your grid as possible.
3. Use the adjustment and arrow buttons to align the red grid as close as possible to your image.
4. Select output grid size.
5. Save new image.

The resulting saved image will be scaled independently horizontally and vertically to produce squares that line up with the red grid you positioned over the image.
When you then load the image into FG and set the grid, the grid size should exactly match the grid size you selected in step 4.

EDIT: Looking at the map you posted above, it's possible that this tool won't solve your problem 100% because I see spots in that image where the grid size doesn't appear to be consistent. This tool really only helps for those images where the grid is consistently scaled horizontally and vertically, but the horizontal grid size is not equal to vertical grid size (i.e. the grid squares are not perfectly square). If you have an image where the grid width or height is inconsistent from one row or column to the next, then this tool won't help you fix that and you'll need to live with some degree of grid mis-alignment. Usually you can adjust this on the fly within fantasy grounds as the party moves around on the map to keep the grid mostly aligned to the image in the vicinity of the players.

[valeros]

I got it pretty close using 13.625 for horizontal & 13.583 vertical. Here it is at 50px. Put this in FG and put a 50px grid on it. Not every square is exactly perfect, but pretty close.

[nytemare3701]

13.625 for horizontal & 13.583 vertical.

How the heck do you get such odd values? My vertical goes from 13.500 to 13.625

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1163241/FRMAP_lores.jpg

The full version of the map, which has different proportions.

[valeros]

To get other increments, use 1/6 and 1/8 together. That is, add 1/6 and subtract 1/8. That is the same as adding 1/24.

For the map you posted, the proportions definitely seem a little different or offset from other areas on the whole map. The tool was not designed to handle that. It assumes a fixed grid has been used. But that grid can have different vertical and horizontal sizes and the sizes do not have to be whole pixel units.

For the map you posted, I would use 20.458 (20 then add 1/6, 1/6, 1/8) and vertical of 20.333. That is a off on various portions of the map. But since FG allows you to move the grid a pixel at a time, you could move the grid a little bit whenever it gets too far off.

[Zacchaeus]

This is a hugely valuable and important utility which needs to get much more publicity. It should be stickied in every forum.

Well done young person.

[The Overlord]

I am creating my own maps with grid lines, and I was curious if someone knew the answer to this question.
What is the best dimension to make each 5' square? Should you make each square 50x50 pixels surrounded by a 1 pixel grid, or make each square 49x49 pixels? What works best with FG default grid tool?

Thx.

[damned]

I am creating my own maps with grid lines, and I was curious if someone knew the answer to this question.
What is the best dimension to make each 5' square? Should you make each square 50x50 pixels surrounded by a 1 pixel grid, or make each square 49x49 pixels? What works best with FG default grid tool?

Thx.

it is 50px including the grid lines...

[The Overlord]

it is 50px including the grid lines...

So 49x49 with an additional 1 pixel grid totaling 50pixels?

[damned]

what application are you using?
the grid is usually an overlay. you create your image and then you create a grid layer or overlay a grid and the grid lines occur at 50/100/150/200/250/etc px in each direction.
you may additionally have an offset in either direction.

[The Overlord]

I am using paint.net
So I had it right at 49x49pix inside of the 1pix grid.

Thx damned.

[shemantis]

Well, I can't believe I *just* found this, because it is amazing. Thank you for this. It has literally changed my D&D life.

[ChazRambone]

If only there was some ability to rotate/deskew.

Even without this functionality this tool is amazing... thank you so much!

[Talonhawke]

In the help section it recommends 300 output tile size for printing but I am having issues there anything above a 150 output size creates an exception and doesn't save.

[LordEntrails]

In the help section it recommends 300 output tile size for printing but I am having issues there anything above a 150 output size creates an exception and doesn't save.
Welcome to the community :)

I imagine it is because you are reaching a process size limit of the tool. Watch the task manager and see how large the process gets as you try higher and higher resolutions. You might end up having to do your map in pieces.

[Talonhawke]

okay thanks ill try that

[damned]

Talonhawke what help section? Files for FG should be much lower quality.... 50px per 5' grid square is a good guide.

[Talonhawke]

The blue circle with the i in the middle it's actually labeled directions. So the next question would be how to get that to print at 1inch for each 5ft square when printing if I use 50px.

[Zacchaeus]

Talonhawke what help section? Files for FG should be much lower quality.... 50px per 5' grid square is a good guide.

I think he wants to print the map, not use it in FG.

[Zacchaeus]

The blue circle with the i in the middle it's actually labeled directions. So the next question would be how to get that to print at 1inch for each 5ft square when printing if I use 50px.

The dpi (dots per inch) is a measure of quality of image not the size of the square. You can print out at anything from 50px right up to super high dpi. As reported above it may well be depending on the map you are working on. If it is a big map and you are wanting it to print in a high resolution then that will make it massive. So either break the map into smaller chucks or print out in a lower res.

[damned]

if the scale is 50 then print it at 50dpi
if the scale is 150 then print it at 150dpi

[Trenloe]

If you're looking to print out the map, just use this tool to get the grid sized correctly, don't change the base size of the map. For example, if the base DPI of the map is 100 don't change that. Just export your map with the grid aligned. Then load up the map in a graphics app (e.g. GIMP) and do whatever resizing you want to do (and probably sharpening to reduce the blur if you're increasing the DPI above the original). Then print from the graphics app.

[Morbid-Don]

Keep in mind - if it hasn't been stated before - a lot of maps will not fit correctly unless you load it into a graphic editor - lay down a grid and resize X / Y until it fits the grid you've put down - I've converted over 200 maps by now and more than half had to be hand-adjusted before even attempting to use them...

[Trenloe]

Keep in mind - if it hasn't been stated before - a lot of maps will not fit correctly unless you load it into a graphic editor - lay down a grid and resize X / Y until it fits the grid you've put down.
Absolutely - that's the main purpose of the excellent application Valeros created and attached in post #1.

[irish_carbomb]

So i'm a little confused. I have a town map that has a grid on it that says Each square equals 20ft. So when I use the Map Align tool do I set the output tile size to 200. And if I do, do that it blows the map up to 6800x4600, the original map was 1235x831. Am I doing this correctly or not..

[irish_carbomb]

Whoops double post..

[Trenloe]

So i'm a little confused. I have a town map that has a grid on it that says Each square equals 20ft. So when I use the Map Align tool do I set the output tile size to 200. And if I do, do that it blows the map up to 6800x4600, the original map was 1235x831. Am I doing this correctly or not..
If you want 50 pixels per 5 foot square (which is the usual default for most people) then 200 pixels per 20 ft square is correct. However, for some large maps this will result in an image much larger than is recommended for Fantasy Grounds - which appears to be the case for the map you're using. The recommendation is to keep FG images below 2000x2000 pixels. It's OK to have *one or two* images that are a bit larger than this (maybe up to 3000-3500 pixels), but be aware that these will take a lot of memory, and will probably take a long time to transfer to your players.

You can either split the map up into smaller portions, or use a lot smaller pixel count (e.g. 20/25 pixels per 5 ft square = 80/100 per 20 ft square) but you could lose details if the original image you're using is large and contained a lot of details. If you're actually enlarging the image as a result of this process then you may have too little detail/pixelation.

[irish_carbomb]

Yeah I'm dumb.. Math hard.. I just used 20/80, instead of 50/200. That made a huge difference.. Thanks for the quick reply and the help

[Talen]

:Loving this tool for FG, but looking to expand to using it with PosteRazor to print maps to 1 inch scale. I seem to be doing something wrong since the squares are not printing with 1 inch squares. Ive set the outrpout size in Map Align to 300 pixels and daved the file and loaded that in to Posterize with launches Acrobat to print. What am I missing in the process to get 1 inch printed squares?

[Acadia]

I think I might be too dumb to be alive because I cannot seem to be able to download the attachment. There is no link near the paper clip in OP. Any help would be appreciated.

[Nickademus]

Click the phrase 'Map Align 2014_0523.zip'.

[Acadia]

Click the phrase 'Map Align 2014_0523.zip'.

Ok so I know I am not crazy. I don't see that link and I did a find on the page and the word zip does not show in that context. weird, right?

https://i.imgur.com/W1mb9uB.jpg <--what I see

[Nickademus]

You are looking at a thread preview. To get to the attachment, you will have to view the actual thread. I have noticed that some search engines are linking the preview now instead of the threads. Try this link to see if it takes you to the actual thread:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?19813-Map-Align-Utility-to-scale-and-align-map-to-grid

[Acadia]

Wow I cannot thank you enough. Seems silly now. Now only did I get the attachment but now I don't have to secretly wonder why the FG message board looked so terrible. Thanks a million!

[Trenloe]

Ok so I know I am not crazy. I don't see that link and I did a find on the page and the word zip does not show in that context. weird, right?

https://i.imgur.com/W1mb9uB.jpg <--what I see
If you see that view scroll down to the bottom of the page and select the "Full Site" link.

[ravenloft713]

This utility is amazing! I recently got FG and am in the process of locating old/new maps (some I had, others spur of the moment searches) and building my campaign database for the sudden tavern fights or random NPC which convinces the party to do a side quest or be destroyed.

Thank you!!!!

[Patou]

Finally got this to work. Was adding the 4x4 squares in a 20'square scale for SKT and the software kept saying error. Had to simply trace over exsisting square without breaking into a 4x4.

Yeahhh!

[twistedtechmike]

Just downloaded and tried this app. Brilliant work! The only issue Ive seen is with really large images, but Ive found ways around that already.

[capt_j_dawson]

[QUOTE=darrenan;203318]1. Load image.
2. Use cursor to draw a 'starter' square, aligned as closely to your grid as possible.
3. Use the adjustment and arrow buttons to align the red grid as close as possible to your image.
4. Select output grid size.
5. Save new image.

The resulting saved image will be scaled independently horizontally and vertically to produce squares that line up with the red grid you positioned over the image.
When you then load the image into FG and set the grid, the grid size should exactly match the grid size you selected in step 4.


Alright I am still confused. I took a Wotc map (Sunless Citadel).
Loaded it up.
Drew a starter square. Got it to align closely to that starter square.
I then saved it to 50 pixel grid.

When I opened up the modified picture the map and grid seemed unchanged.

Thanks for any help you suggest.

[LordEntrails]

Alright I am still confused. I took a Wotc map (Sunless Citadel).
Loaded it up.
Drew a starter square. Got it to align closely to that starter square.
I then saved it to 50 pixel grid.

When I opened up the modified picture the map and grid seemed unchanged.

Thanks for any help you suggest.
The map most likely won't look different in your graphics program. But it's pixel size will be different and if it wasn't square before it should be now.

The big difference will be when you add the new image to FG and add an FG grid to it the grid won't drift (as much) and the original grid will be square and therfore match the FG grid (better).

[twistedtechmike]

Pro Tip: always draw the starter square in the top left, and align to the bottom right. This gets it damn near perfect inside FG.

[capt_j_dawson]

LordEntrails, twistedtechmike. Thank you both for taking the time to comment. Now I totally understand and I am getting the results I expected.

:D

[shadzar]

So 49x49 with an additional 1 pixel grid totaling 50pixels?

i just found this also, which seems the silliest thing i ever saw. FG only draws the top and left lines of the grid

line + (grid_size - 1 pixel)

sure the top and left of any grid will line up, but the human eye can tell on the bottom and right that it isnt.. would either have to make every map with 50 pixels grids have an extra single pixel between the grids so they line up with FG grids. meaning EVERY map ever map has to be remade to use with FG.


or FG should just draw all four borders of the grid.

1 pixel + 48 pixels + 1 pixel = 50 pixels

then you wouldn't scroll down the the bottom of a map and see there is no grid lines at the bottom or right most grid squares.

23291

sure the outer most border of a "map" will be 1 single pixel, and the inner grid squares will have 2 pixel borders, but it means people actually putting grids on map, will have FG grids line up with the full grid center and people using FG wont have to always guess which way to nudge (NW/SE) when a "map" doesnt extend to the top left with its floor tiles to denote where a built-in grid is to line up.

23292

_________________________________________

oh, i seem to not be able to find a video in the first post... was it taken down so isnt showing in the video tag?

[Stormhound]

I'm going to give this a huge thumbs-up. I was going nuts with some maps that I was exporting from CC3 that were inexplicably coming out at 54.5 pixels to the inch...despite my fidding with export settings (all of which were in whole numbers!). They were thus impossible to align in FG. I put a map through this, and it gave it just the perfect stretch to output it in whole pixels. Result: a perfectly fitted grid.

(Though if any CC3 experts feel like contacting me to tell me what the hell was going on, said input is more than welcome too...)

Edit: Even stranger, they were originally coming out at 54.5 by 54.542 pixels. I didn't stand a chance in the world without this little utility...

[celestian]

(Though if any CC3 experts feel like contacting me to tell me what the hell was going on, said input is more than welcome too...)

Edit: Even stranger, they were originally coming out at 54.5 by 54.542 pixels. I didn't stand a chance in the world without this little utility...

Put the bottom left corner at 0,0 and the top right at the size you need to make the map fit such as 250,250. Once you've done that when you save as a png just make the map either 2500x2500 and you'll have 100 pixel grid... just also make sure when you save as you enter the values of 0,0 and 250,250 when selecting the map corners.

ONce you get used to that it should be quite easy to figure out what you need to do.

[LordEntrails]

I will add that what often happens is say you create a map at 300x400 with a border, the border actually often ends up being something like 301x401 or such. And when you do your export you're not accounting for the extra size of the border. Drives me crazy :)

[Leohart]

I'm having trouble getting the whole of the map I'm trying to align to stay that way. Maybe the image isn't sized consistently and there's no way to fix this? But this is a Dyson map from the new Dragon Heist book and came from the image file on D&D Beyond, so I would think they would have a pretty good image to work off of.

Here is what happens when I align the grid to the bottom right:

24573

And this is what the top part of that same building looks like, no matter how much I tweak it:

24574

Is there no way to fix this? I just wanted to make sure I was using the tool right and there wasn't something I was missing!

[damned]

Welcome Leohart

If the grid is not a whole number of pixels then it will drift. You may have to resize the map.
Also the drift there is not significant - as the party progress you can use the nudge tool to make minor adjustments on the fly.

[Zacchaeus]

These are the same maps that are in the Fantasy Grounds module and supplied to me by WotC. I used this tool to align the grid on all of those maps so it is certainly possible to do. The question I have is how are you using the tool? I recommend starting at the top left of any map and then draw your initial square (BTW I would recommend 50 px rather than 70 as shown on your image). Once you have the initial grid them move the image to the left until the red grid starts to drift from the grid on the map. Now use the 1/6 and 1/8 to move the red grid left or right until it lines up. Now move the map a bit more to the left until again there is a misalignment and repeat the process. Once you get the left/right grid aligned then do the same for the up/down grid. Move down until the grids don't align and nudge the red grid until it matches. Continue down until the red grid matches the underlying one.

Since all of the Dragon Heist maps are hand drawn and the lines tend to not be exactly straight you will find that there is some mismatch which you will just not be able to completely sort, but you should be able to get a result a lot better than the one in your graphic.

[LordEntrails]

Leohart,
Since it seems like you didn't buy DH in FG format and are working on putting it in yourself (from DDB), rather than bother with the official maps, you might wish to look at the maps Mr. Z put together. Those are already done as a FG module with grids etc. https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?45448-Zacchaeus-Dragon-Heist-Map-Pack

[Trenloe]

...rather than bother with the official maps, you might wish to look at the maps Mr. Z put together. Those are already done as a FG module with grids etc. https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?45448-Zacchaeus-Dragon-Heist-Map-Pack
Zacchaeus has removed the module now that it's included in the FG product as an additional module.

[Ampersandrew]

:Loving this tool for FG, but looking to expand to using it with PosteRazor to print maps to 1 inch scale. I seem to be doing something wrong since the squares are not printing with 1 inch squares. Ive set the outrpout size in Map Align to 300 pixels and daved the file and loaded that in to Posterize with launches Acrobat to print. What am I missing in the process to get 1 inch printed squares?

I know, I know. Thread Necro. But, since no-one answered this when you asked it.

When I started using PosterRazor for jpg images extracted from Paizo PDFs, I often had this trouble. I'd edit the jpg in paint and resize to be 1" squares. If I saved that jpg and imported it to PosteRazor, it didn't work, the sizing was horribly off. What I had to do to get it to work was save the images as pngs. When I import that a resized png into PosterRazor it works perfectly.

I'm not sure if this is something that PosteRazor gets wrong about resized jpg images.

[Leohart]

These are the same maps that are in the Fantasy Grounds module and supplied to me by WotC. I used this tool to align the grid on all of those maps so it is certainly possible to do. The question I have is how are you using the tool? I recommend starting at the top left of any map and then draw your initial square (BTW I would recommend 50 px rather than 70 as shown on your image). Once you have the initial grid them move the image to the left until the red grid starts to drift from the grid on the map. Now use the 1/6 and 1/8 to move the red grid left or right until it lines up. Now move the map a bit more to the left until again there is a misalignment and repeat the process. Once you get the left/right grid aligned then do the same for the up/down grid. Move down until the grids don't align and nudge the red grid until it matches. Continue down until the red grid matches the underlying one.

Since all of the Dragon Heist maps are hand drawn and the lines tend to not be exactly straight you will find that there is some mismatch which you will just not be able to completely sort, but you should be able to get a result a lot better than the one in your graphic.

Wow, Zacchaeus! That helped immensely! I was aligning it at the top left then IMMEDIATELY going to the bottom right to try and fix the grid. Your process made it quick and easy to get it right. That huge drift is gone.

Thanks again!

And thanks to everyone for the responses and help! The FG community is awesome!

[Ampersandrew]

Oh my!

I just used this on two maps. I managed to get 99% perfect grids in FG in less than 5 minutes a map.

This is extraordinarily good.

[Talsar]

Superb tool, thank you very much. Has made the switch to fantasy grounds a lot easier for me as DM.

[wheresthemead]

Thank you for this wonderful utility. Even without watching the demo I was able to adjust my first map in maybe 10 minutes.

[sulriel]

Question. This software says DEMO.. is there a way to get the full version? I don't mind paying or donating for this great little piece of programing!

[Zacchaeus]

Question. This software says DEMO.. is there a way to get the full version? I don't mind paying or donating for this great little piece of programing!
I think it is the video which is the demo, that is demonstrating how it is used. The utility is complete.

[mattekure]

I am having an issue with this utility crashing on very large maps giving an out of memory error. I know I can resize it before passing the image to the utility but I was wondering if the utility was still being supported and if support for larger images could be added.

The large images I am getting the error with are about 110Mb in size.

[Trenloe]

I am having an issue with this utility crashing on very large maps giving an out of memory error. I know I can resize it before passing the image to the utility but I was wondering if the utility was still being supported and if support for larger images could be added.

The large images I am getting the error with are about 110Mb in size.
Look at the amount of memory the app is using in Windows Task Manager just before in crashes. I'm guessing that this is hitting the 32-bit app memory limit of 3.7GB (you usually experience issues with apps as memory use approaches this) - which has nothing to do with how much memory you have on your computer.

[mattekure]

Look at the amount of memory the app is using in Windows Task Manager just before in crashes. I'm guessing that this is hitting the 32-bit app memory limit of 3.7GB (you usually experience issues with apps as memory use approaches this) - which has nothing to do with how much memory you have on your computer.

I've monitored it and it gets nowhere near the 3.7GB limit. It crashes at about 500Mb.

[mattekure]

I just tested it to see if it was file size or dimensions. I created a blank png of the same dimensions as my 110 Mb. the file size of the blank one was 69 kb. The application had no issues with the blank file, but crashes on the large file.

[Targas]

Whatever mapsize you work with in mapalign, it sounds it wouldn‘t fit into FG, either. 500MB sounds like several 1.000 pixels across.
The recommended size is not above 2.048 x 2.048 pixels. It‘s so easy to combine maps by putting maplink pins on them instead.
Why use maps with several 100 MB, which would never finish downloading on the client end side?

[mattekure]

Whatever mapsize you work with in mapalign, it sounds it wouldn‘t fit into FG, either. 500MB sounds like several 1.000 pixels across.
The recommended size is not above 2.048 x 2.048 pixels. It‘s so easy to combine maps by putting maplink pins on them instead.
Why use maps with several 100 MB, which would never finish downloading on the client end side?

I understand the recommendations for maps within FG. My intention is to use this utility to resize the maps to be usable. The originals I am editing are very large, with square sizes of 200+ pixels. I am resizing them down to be on a 50px square grid.

[Targas]

When changing from 200+ pixels/square to 50 pixels/square, why not at least halfing the resolution with some professional paint program first?
You can still run the aligned PNG mapalign generates, with the professional paint sw afterwards as well for compression, if you like to.

[Trenloe]

Try the attached - I've made it LAA (large address aware - which allows it to nearly double the memory it can use on a 64-bit operating system - the original was not LAA aware and so was limited to 2GB).

Even with this, when I try to load a 20,000 x 20,000 map it raises an out of memory error. The old app (not LAA aware) would just say it couldn't load it.

If you still have issues, you'll have to resize the map before you load into the map align utility and do your grid alignment.

[mattekure]

When changing from 200+ pixels/square to 50 pixels/square, why not at least halfing the resolution with some professional paint program first?
You can still run the aligned PNG mapalign generates, with the professional paint sw afterwards as well for compression, if you like to.

As I stated in my first post, I am aware that I can resize it before passing it to this utility, and I have done so for the maps that are too large. I was wondering if there was support for the application to allow it to handle the large files without pre-editing.

[mattekure]

Try the attached - I've made it LAA (large address aware - which allows it to nearly double the memory it can use on a 64-bit operating system - the original was not LAA aware and so was limited to 2GB).

Even with this, when I try to load a 20,000 x 20,000 map it raises an out of memory error. The old app (not LAA aware) would just say it couldn't load it.

If you still have issues, you'll have to resize the map before you load into the map align utility and do your grid alignment.

This works perfect, it opened my large images without issue. Thanks much!

[Trenloe]

This works perfect, it opened my large images without issue. Thanks much!
Cool! I've added the LAA version as an optional download in post #1.

[valeros]

Thank you. I guess I should also build a 64-bit version in the future. Thanks

[Zacchaeus]

I added a video linked in the first post to explain in a bit more detail how to use this rather fine utility.

[The Decorated Man]

Great Work.

[celestian]

I put together a video on how I use the Map Align tool to align old maps. It's by no means the be all end all but it should help content devs get things done a little better.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAkvUl6ZK28

[hawkwind]

hey i recognise some of those maps in the folder you are saving to!

[celestian]

hey i recognise some of those maps in the folder you are saving to!

Indeed. It was one of the reason I decided to put together the short vid ;) I'd been doing various work on maps with other folks as well.

[macDsinfo]

is there any equivalent of this for macOS? thanks.

[Drogo210]

is there any equivalent of this for macOS? thanks.

Quote, we are ****ed :)

[rickycilantro]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I cannot get any map to resize using this tool. No matter how I adjust it, the map always become misaligned as you go further from the center. Utter waste of time. And for the amount of money charged for FG, this is a feature that really ought to be core to the program itself.

[Drogo210]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I cannot get any map to resize using this tool. No matter how I adjust it, the map always become misaligned as you go further from the center. Utter waste of time. And for the amount of money charged for FG, this is a feature that really ought to be core to the program itself.

It is :). Assuming you are using fantasy ground unity. Post a screenshot and I'll try to hel u

[Ampersandrew]

This utility is superb and massively useful, if you think differently then you likely are doing something wrong.

Celestian posted a video tutorial on the page before this one, about fixing maps from really, really old modules have you watched it?

[Zacchaeus]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I cannot get any map to resize using this tool. No matter how I adjust it, the map always become misaligned as you go further from the center. Utter waste of time. And for the amount of money charged for FG, this is a feature that really ought to be core to the program itself.

Watch the video linked at the bottom of the first post - it will show you how to align your map. Additionally you can set the grid to any size in Unity (including to decimal places) and define the horizontal and vertical lines independently. More here https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/996640166/Working+with+Images+as+the+GM#Grid-Mode Although I still find it easier to use this tool to align maps.

[rickycilantro]

Watch the video linked at the bottom of the first post - it will show you how to align your map. Additionally you can set the grid to any size in Unity (including to decimal places) and define the horizontal and vertical lines independently. More here https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/996640166/Working+with+Images+as+the+GM#Grid-Mode Although I still find it easier to use this tool to align maps.

Yeah, with the Scottish guy. I did. Dunno what to tell you, my maps are still askew. Happy it's working for other folks though.

I'm just going to keep turning the alpha to zero on FG's grid and use as many gridless art assets as possible.

[Zacchaeus]

Yeah, with the Scottish guy. I did. Dunno what to tell you, my maps are still askew. Happy it's working for other folks though.

I'm just going to keep turning the alpha to zero on FG's grid and use as many gridless art assets as possible.

If you can attach your map here or PM me a URL where I can download it I can have a go at sorting it for you.

[Ampersandrew]

Yeah, with the Scottish guy. I did. Dunno what to tell you, my maps are still askew.

What do you mean when you say askew?

[damned]

Welcome rickycilantro

Please post a screenshot of your map + grid.

[Pyrazire]

anyone else having issues with this now that the newest patches rolled out? I had maps that were lined up and now they are not lined up. I tried realigning them and no dice. It is incredibly frustrating.

[Zacchaeus]

anyone else having issues with this now that the newest patches rolled out? I had maps that were lined up and now they are not lined up. I tried realigning them and no dice. It is incredibly frustrating.
Welcome to FG.

The client hasn’t been updated in some time and nothing should change the image size, nor the grid. Make sure you are testing in a new campaign without extensions.

[Pyrazire]

Welcome to FG.

The client hasn’t been updated in some time and nothing should change the image size, nor the grid. Make sure you are testing in a new campaign without extensions.

Yeah. Not sure what exactly happened with it. BUT while I do not understand why maps that were working stopped working, with a bit of fiddling I managed to get them working again. I think it was just a weird one-off bug or something with a specific map I had put in. Computers do some weird **** sometimes.

[flukasieviez]

It seems that the links for the attached files no longer exists. Is there any way to download this tool or at least a similar one?

[Ampersandrew]

I just downloaded it using those links. It's working for me.

[Zacchaeus]

It seems that the links for the attached files no longer exists. Is there any way to download this tool or at least a similar one?

Make sure that you aren't viewing the site on mobile view (go to the very bottom and select something else in the dropdown), or check your browser isn't set to block downloads.

[rkjanik]

@trenloe & @valeros

I got this strange .NET message when opening the Map Align tool, both regular and LAA versions, on the latest updated Windows 11 w/latest .NET. After the error the tool still seems to work, but it may lead to future issues, so I thought to at least bring it to your attention. Screenshot of the error w/ error code below.

58343

[valeros]

Thanks for the info, I am going to assume it is because .Net 2.0 is so old. I just added a new version (on the first post) complied for .Net 4.8 and x64 that may not generate that error.

[rkjanik]

Thanks for the info, I am going to assume it is because .Net 2.0 is so old. I just added a new version (on the first post) complied for .Net 4.8 and x64 that may not generate that error.

That did the trick! Thanks for your continued commitment to support the fine application! It truly has made managing maps in VTTs far more enjoyable so we can spend more time gaming and less time scaling our maps!

[Poe the Homunculus]

I'm sorry - first, thank you for the awesome tool. I watched the video.
Second, I don't know which one of the three files I should be installing... Can you help? Sorry again. I am using a Nitro PC with Windows 11.

Map Align 2014_0523.zip
Map Align_LAA aware.zip
Map Align 2023 .net4.8 x64.zip

[rkjanik]

I'm sorry - first, thank you for the awesome tool. I watched the video.
Second, I don't know which one of the three files I should be installing... Can you help? Sorry again. I am using a Nitro PC with Windows 11.

Map Align 2014_0523.zip
Map Align_LAA aware.zip
Map Align 2023 .net4.8 x64.zip


Use Map Align 2023 .net 8 x64.zip. it will work with Windows 11 and the newest versions of the .net framework.

Have fun!

[hawkwind]

Great tool. Now that Smiteworks are recommending to community developers to use the .Webm format for maps would it be possible to modify this app to output to that format?

[valeros]

Now that Smiteworks are recommending to community developers to use the .Webm format for maps would it be possible to modify this app to output to that format

Great suggestion! But sorry, not at this time.

This application is done completely with standard .NET libraries. I do not see a good way to do this without pulling in a third party library which then creates a set of maintenance issues. And the libraries I see for .Webm creation like FFmpeg seem to work by spawning background processes, something I definitely do not want to do with this application. So while it would be convenient and save a step, probably better off taking the extra step and converting using one of the online tools. They may even give you more options on the conversion.

But if I am wrong and someone knows of an easy way to convert from a bitmap to .Webm in .NET, please let me know and I can try to incorporate that.

Thanks

[valeros]

Was having some trouble getting some maps to lineup with just the existing options, so added 1/10 and 1/100 options for the tile size.

https://i.imgur.com/62FG1K1.jpg

[Zacchaeus]

Great tool. Now that Smiteworks are recommending to community developers to use the .Webm format for maps would it be possible to modify this app to output to that format?

You may wish to have a go at lining up the grid inside of FGU since you now have many more options to do so that weren't available in Classic when this tool was written.

[hawkwind]

It's certainly better than it was however one thing Map Align also does is reduce the file size of a map.

[valeros]

You may wish to have a go at lining up the grid inside of FGU since you now have many more options to do so that weren't available in Classic when this tool was written.

Yes, absolutely, the grid align feature in the FG tool itself is super nice and should definitely be the preferred choice in most cases. And as well for another reason I do not believe anyone mentioned. In my personal opinion, I believe the image scaling that FG does is better than any of the choices in the tool. Obviously, that is personal preference, so others may not agree, but I like FG scaling best on most maps.

(But I still use the tool for printing maps at exactly 1" for in-person sessions. For some reason, FG does not help with printed maps. Who would have thought? :) )

[pindercarl]

Yes, absolutely, the grid align feature in the FG tool itself is super nice and should definitely be the preferred choice in most cases. And as well for another reason I do not believe anyone mentioned. In my personal opinion, I believe the image scaling that FG does is better than any of the choices in the tool. Obviously, that is personal preference, so others may not agree, but I like FG scaling best on most maps.

(But I still use the tool for printing maps at exactly 1" for in-person sessions. For some reason, FG does not help with printed maps. Who would have thought? :) )

I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but you could export maps at 1" per grid from FGU. The resolution of the file export is based on the grid size. If you set the grid size to 300, for example, the exported file would 300 pixels per grid. A little math gets you the rest of the way. If the original grid size is 35, the ratio is 300/53 or 8.57142... Change the grid size to 300. Then in the layer tab, select the layer and multiply the dimension by 8.57142... So, if the new width 3.5, 3.5 x 8.57142... is 30. Change the width to 30 et voilà! An export would now be 300 dpi. If you have multiple layers, put them in a folder first and scale the folder. You'd still need to go into Photoshop or something similar and change the resolution from 72dpi to 300dpi without resampling. The map render is done on the GPU, so at a certain size it isn't going to work based on your GPU.

[valeros]

FG does not help with printed maps



... you could export maps at 1" per grid from FGU...

Ha! I stand corrected :)

[sevrick]

I don't suppose you could add the ability for hex grids could you?