making maps and applying the grid

[greowhiste]

With FGI i wasn't really using the grid function, just letting the tokens spread on a grid I built into the map graphic. Now that there are so many nice fucntions with the grid (space/reach, hostility colors, snapping, etc.) I'm finding some slight problems.

Even though in my jpg map files that I bring up in FG have a grid size of exactly 25px per square, when I draw a grid overlay on one of those squares, either visually fitting it perfectly or fitting it by the rollover precision number (25px obviously), the grid never fits! It is close for the room the PCs are in at the time, but it just never lines up with the walls, features, doorways or halls.

Now, maybe i'm being persnickety, but this is bothersome to me, especially when i can create an underlay grid in photoshop and have everything line up perfectly. Then I miss out on all the cool functions.

Any advice here? (I realize a lot of you are going to say just get over it, I'm more interested in seasoned DMs and mapmaker's advice to improve mapmaking skills)

PS. Is anyone else also seeing the pointer fucntions for cones and circles/bursts/spreads giving strange numbers of increments? I'm getting 17' cones and stuff like that, and I LOVE the idea of the highlighted squares in the grid showing affected areas, but they don't exactly match the exact formats in the DnD DMG. Suggestions? Anyone else have this problem?

[Sir Bayard]

For the map issue, I know that in FG 1.05 whenever I made a map with the my own grid aligned in photoshop at the correct pixel dimensions, the grid never lined up properly. So, I came up with a small little workaorund that help.

First, I downloaded AutoRealm (because it's free) and I went in FG and opened up a blank map, drawing the grid to the dimensions that I wanted (be it 25 or 50 pixels.) Then, I took a screenshot, open the screenshot, cut and pasted out that grid. I pasted that into Autorealm and then painstakingly sized the automaticaly grid that it has to make sure that it overlapped perfectly. Then, I saved that and used it as a template for everything I did in Photoshop. Of course, I'm not awesome map maker with super graphics and trees and the like, but I'm sure you could probably take whatever map you make in PS (with no Grid) load it into AutoRealm after sizing the Grid AutoRealm makes witht he above practice to have it preset, and then just save it with the AutoRealm grid on it.

Maybe a much much more experienced map maker has a solution, but I too ofund the fact that my grids I drew never lined up right with the grid in FG to be quite annoying.

As for the PS, I noticed the same problem, and found sometimes I had to contintually tweak the circles and such to get the increments I was looking for (soemtimes turning it and pulling, shortening, etc etc) Sometimes I'd end up with a 31' circle, then a 28', etc until I finally got a 30' just tweaking a lot.

[Griogre]

Guys, I hate to say this but the "easy" solution is don't put grids on your maps. Use FG's grids only, that is the easiest fix. It really is not worth your effort or bandwidth to get "perfect" grids on a map.

Why don't your grids line up? It typically is because you map has been resized such that the actual grids are no longer an integer. IE instead of 25 they are really 24.4 or something or after you have zoomed the map in a few clicks the grid is at an effective 51.3 or something. Even if you are very carefull but use dithering or compression you grid may "drift" on the map.

[richvalle]

Yeah, but I'm using premade maps (for WLD) that have the grid on them. Remaking them is not an option but I have the same problem as those above except worse... I can't even get the grid to line up very well in the room the players are in.

rv

[VenomousFiligree]

I too use Maps that are "pre-gridded", and it irks me as well that you can't get the FG grid to line up. Maybe there should be more grid options, the best (for me) would be to have an option to grid the map 5x6 or 10x7 etc...

MB

[Griogre]

You need to re-size the map so that the grid is an integer value. There is a pretty good discusstion of this here (https://rptools.net/doku.php?id=maptooldoc_1_1:maps) at the bottom of the page under Scanned Maps and Gridlines.

My one comment is this was done by an artistic guy. For the rest of us, you want to resize the map smaller not larger unless you really know what you are doing so in the example table at the bottom you want to change the map grid size from 31.67 to 30.

[sppeterson]

I mainly use pre-made maps too, so this is a (not too major) issue for me as well.

What would be nice is to have some grid-like functions without the grid on -- highlighting the active token, perhaps a shaded area around the token showing reach, and ideally some means of measuring distance. Perhaps these would only be activated when you go into combat rounds.

[kimba]

Yeah, but I'm using premade maps (for WLD) that have the grid on them. Remaking them is not an option but I have the same problem as those above except worse... I can't even get the grid to line up very well in the room the players are in.

rv


I too am running the WLD - Rich - i just use teh drid already on the map, if the players want more of a specific description - I look at my map - the DM's copy with all the secret doors on it and that has a good grid if zoomed out -
So far we have had only one combat where it was required.

Those of you useing campaign catragrapher, I personaly suggest puttin gin the grids in that program and not using the grid in FG. I have found it is impossible to match the grids anyway.

[Sir Bayard]

I too am running the WLD - Rich - i just use teh drid already on the map, if the players want more of a specific description - I look at my map - the DM's copy with all the secret doors on it and that has a good grid if zoomed out -
So far we have had only one combat where it was required.

Those of you useing campaign catragrapher, I personaly suggest puttin gin the grids in that program and not using the grid in FG. I have found it is impossible to match the grids anyway.

The concern wasn't in the description or the like,, it was in the fact that they want t use the new grid functions in FG II. Anyone can easily just use the pre-exitsing grid and not worry about it., but they want to be able to use the new functions such as the shading of friend and foe, grid snapping, waypoint movements, etc, and the fact that it doesn't line up right creates a distroted look and leaves them either A) Unable to use the new FG II grid with all the great features or b) Painstakingly re-do all their premade maps in a mapping program for the function.

Me, like I said, I simply wanted to draw out my own grid on the maps I made so that I, personally, new all the measurements and steps and dimensions of every single room I was creating to a T as I made the map in PS. And, I wanted those precise measurements to carry over in FG, so I developed my templates that match up perfectly every single time to my drawn grid and my FG grid. It was a pain, but to me it was worth it, and ocne I made the template all my maps were easy to draw. And as long as I lay the grid down first, it zooms in and out just fine as well. It just seems the 25 pixel standrad in FG is not the same as the 25 pixel standard in PS or AutoRealm as odd as that sounds. I understand that's not a feasible solution for pre-made maps of course.

[AndyPan]

I would like to see more versatility to the grid utility, but only in the area of affacting the appearance of the grid itself. Often times, the thin black lines of the grid disappear on a map that is dark. I'd like to see the ability to change the color of the grid added, or at the very least, the ability to change it from black to white for contast. Perhaps even the ability to adjust the width of the lines would be a boon as well.

I don't have an issue with the grid lining up as much, but then, I make all my own maps for my games, even the ones that are provided with the published mods, and I make them grid-less. For me, that's just half the fun of prepping the game. I use Dundjinni primarily for my map-making, as I like the amount of detail I am able to get with the program. But then, that's just me. Most folks may not have the time nor the desire to make their own maps, or edit premade maps for their games. I can certainly empathize with that. However, I have made do with pre-gridded maps in a pinch. I think adding the ability to affect the grids actual color/line width would greatly benefit everyone.

[nezzir]

Guys, I hate to say this but the "easy" solution is don't put grids on your maps. Use FG's grids only, that is the easiest fix. It really is not worth your effort or bandwidth to get "perfect" grids on a map.


That's what I do. I create maps in Dundjinni and CC3 and leave the grid off. I do however make sure there's a map scale device on the map. When I get into FG, I just draw the grid on top of the map scale device so I know it's the right size.

[greowhiste]

Sir Bayard, is it too much to ask for the psd document you made that one time that only has the grid on it, the one that you use as a template for all of your other maps? You say that it has the right dimensions, and if you put so much time into it, i would feel good if it helped others :)

[Sir Bayard]

Sure. They're all mostly in PSD files, since I use Photoshop to do most of my stuff. I took and zipped all my templates together, there are a few jpeg ones in there for non-photoshop users (The .jpeg was the output from AutoRealm so I could make the Photoshop files from)

There are templates for 25x25 and 50x50. The 50x50 are labled 50Template, the 25x25 are just like Template. There are also multiple sizes, where I combined the smaller templates into larger ones, so there are like 50LargeTemnplate (which is 2 combined) and 50HugeTemplate (which is 4 combined). After I finish drawing out my map in Photoshop, I just crop the map part to what I need. Here's the file:
Templates (https://www.anrathianshadows.com/files/Templates.zip)

I warn you, it's large because there's a lot of diff templates and they are the original PSD files, wihch are way larger than a normal picture.

[kimba]

I was not aware that all those features relied on the Grid being down. I will have to play with this when I get home.
And yes I am using premade maps. but... I like the idea of a templet so the grid will always work.

[Cantstanzya]

The ability to align grid would be nice. You could select a menu that would allow you to move the grid around after it was drawn.

[Griogre]

I'm not sure align grid would be a cure all unless they allow non interger numbers but it would be nice for me. I have been known to have to try serveral times to make the grid even close on a map that already has lines. :p Mostly I use maps without lines if I can.

[greowhiste]

Sir Bayard, that really worked. It took me a little while, but i like to use my own lines. So I basically used the line tool to draw right on top of the grid you laid out.

The REASON the grid doesn't line up though, is that I was not accounting for the grid lines' WIDTH. So basically, when I drew out my grid in photoshop, I measured the square. The inside of the square should be 24px, the outside was 26px. The exact 25 pixel grid included only one side of the grid square's 1px line width. I know that sounds a little confusing but after zooming 700% on the screen grab you made of a blank grid and measuring them out, it all made sense.

Now there's no need to worry. Just lay the grid down once and we're golden!

Btw, I usually draft my maps out on graph paper (still, i know), then i scan them and use them as an underlay for plopping textures and things on top. I use a mask for my grid layer (and all my texture layers) so I can easily update (if I need a hall somewhere, for instance, in between sessions, I can easily do it without all the erasing and redrawing). After I scan the underlay, I just resize the grid of the graph paper to match the grid in my file. Voila. It was all working without using the grid function in FG, but now with all the great features, and your help, I can have my cake and eat it too.

rock on.

[Sir Bayard]

It does sound a little confusing, but I think I understand what you were saying :P Glad it was able to help out out a little. I do all kinds of thigns off that base template, and I was thinking while I was zipping them of drawing a new grid layer on top of the one there, then deleting the original to have a transparent grid that could be plopped onto any random map and work. but, right now I'm buy trying to do a complete re-design and overhaul of my website, so probably won't get around to it.

Me, I'm not good enough at all the fancy map drawing programs out there, so I use the line tool in Photoshop and just draw out some old school maps on that grid there. usually I draw it out on Graph Paper, and then I just recreate it in Photoshop once I'm done. But, a transparent layer grid would be nice to have if I ever could figure out how to draw a decent detailed map to just drop on top of and go. lol

Again, glad to help out even if just a little bit.

[greowhiste]

well if you, or anyone would like some guidance on how to use masks or anyting in photoshop, I am available to help. Please just ask, I would also be happy to send psd files for examples.