Best export setting for Campaign Cartographer3 generated FG maps ?

[Targas]

Is anybody using Campaign Cartographer to generate dungeon/indoor maps for FG, and what would be the best export setting in the CC save as Options dialog ? I don't want to have it too artificial and pixel like, though.

[seycyrus]

I use the PNG option, but haven't seen any difference in the sub-options (fast,default...).

[Targas]

PNG is my choice as well, using default compression. Which resolution and other params are the best choice ? I assume loading a 6.5 meg file to clients isn't probably a good idea. Otherwise splitting and loading lots of 10 x 10 square maps isn't effective either. Any recommendations ?

[damned]

jpg files generally are far better at handling any type of image that has gradients in it - like pretty much any type of photo.
png and gif are far better at handling images that contain predominantly block colours or that require transparency.

images of 6.5mbs look good - will not be much waiting for them to load.
maps are generally done best in jpg format and for your gaming experience at 40-70% quality.

for printing you may well want them in png or in jpg at 80%+ quality.

[Blacky]

I don't know about export from CC (haven't used it since 1.x, a while ago) but for FG maps I would recommend JPEG (unless for some modern or SciFI schematics, very bares ones, where PNG might be more efficient) and a size below 1MB if you don't preload and have a regular domestic DSL line. With a little more management, I wouldn't recommend going above 3~4MB on a regular basis (unless you have a fibre optic line, or a decent synchronous DSL line with several Mb of upload).

[Xorn]

When I finish my map with CC3, I export the map to a PNG at 100 px/square (which is bigger then I'll use in FG).

Then I open that PNG with GIMP, resize it to 50 px/square (50%), and save it as a JPG (30% quality). This CRUSHES the filesize, and still looks great, in my opinion. If I see any artifacts in the 30% JPG I bump it up to 60.

When I did the entire Caves of Chaos map (it's in the Gallery) I exported that as a 10% quality JPG, and it still looks good. Bear in mind the image is over 3500 px across, and less than 1 MB!

[seycyrus]

When I finish my map with CC3, I export the map to a PNG at 100 px/square (which is bigger then I'll use in FG).

Then I open that PNG with GIMP, resize it to 50 px/square (50%), ...

Why the resize in GIMP? What is lost if you start at 50 px/square in CC3 and just use GIMP to convert to 30% jpg?

Actually, why not just do the whole process in CC3 (50 px, save as jpg at 30%)?

[Targas]

Xorn, your maps are amazing! I hope one day I can make similar maps. Currently I just started to learn how to do this with CC / DD / CD.
Long way to go I guess.. Btw. if some of you know Harnworld, those maps were created with CC2. 100 px/square looks quite nice.
How do you set the 100px/square setting ? I assume GIMP is having better algorithms for compressing ?

[Xorn]

Why the resize in GIMP? What is lost if you start at 50 px/square in CC3 and just use GIMP to convert to 30% jpg?

Actually, why not just do the whole process in CC3 (50 px, save as jpg at 30%)?

Rendering a raster image from CC3 takes a long time, so I only want to do it once. Therefore, I pump out a lossless PNG at double the pixels I intend to use in FG2, typically.

Resizing it in GIMP is very fast, plus you can preview the results before resizing to see if 30% will be sharp enough.

[Valarian]

Export to PNG at the right size for the scale you want (e.g. 15 squares x 50 pixels for 50px/sq scale). Then open in Photoshop or other graphics package to play around with the quality settings to get a decent size file.

[Blacky]

Export to PNG at the right size for the scale you want (e.g. 15 squares x 50 pixels for 50px/sq scale). Then open in Photoshop or other graphics package to play around with the quality settings to get a decent size file.
Then optimize it (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?20303-Please-optimize-your-images-in-your-ruleset-tokens-battlemap-and-such!), since neither Photoshop nor Gimp do a good job of that.

[Lillhans]

I'm very much a newbie with CC, but I'm getting there. Slowly. That 50px/sq talk has to do with FG grid layer alignment, by any chance? (yes, did I mention I'm a newbie :) )

[Trenloe]

I'm very much a newbie with CC, but I'm getting there. Slowly. That 50px/sq talk has to do with FG grid layer alignment, by any chance? (yes, did I mention I'm a newbie :) )
It is indeed to do with the FG grid - the size of each square in the grid. When you first draw a grid on an image FG shows the size of the square you are drawing - if your map has 50 pixel squares then you want to draw a size 50 square on your map in FG when creating the grid. Don't worry about it lining up exactly at first -the key thing is to get the square size right (hopefully you'll know what this is - if not you will have to do it by eye), once you've draw the square you can use the grid tools at the top of the image to nudge the grid into position and/or increase/decrease the size of the grid if needed.

[Lillhans]

It is indeed to do with the FG grid - the size of each square in the grid. When you first draw a grid on an image FG shows the size of the square you are drawing - if your map has 50 pixel squares then you want to draw a size 50 square on your map in FG when creating the grid. Don't worry about it lining up exactly at first -the key thing is to get the square size right (hopefully you'll know what this is - if not you will have to do it by eye), once you've draw the square you can use the grid tools at the top of the image to nudge the grid into position and/or increase/decrease the size of the grid if needed.

Thanks! Will dig into CC settings next then :)