Dungeon Alchemist Mapping (with FG export)

[celestian]

Says it has a FG export. Looks amazing for creating really nice looking battle maps. 3d or 2d.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FantasyGrounds/comments/lg45q7/dungeon_alchemist_our_aipowered_fantasy_mapmaking/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1024146278/dungeon-alchemisttm



Which virtual tabletop software will you support? (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1024146278/dungeon-alchemisttm/faqs#project_faq_351125)
We will have support for Foundry, Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 at release. Later, we might add support for additional VTT’s.

[Fear Grounds]

Just for D&D/Pathfinder type games this is already a valuable asset. With the planned expansions of modern, futuristic, SciFi themes; it will quickly become a must have for online/in-person TTRPG games. Not all of us are artistically gifted after all. LOL;)

[Trenloe]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1024146278/dungeon-alchemisttm
Interesting. I wonder what they actually mean by "support"? Include line-of-sight data to import into FGU along with the map images? I've had a quick look and haven't seen any further info.

[Dax Doomslayer]

Very cool celestian. I just joined the KS!!

[Fear Grounds]

Interesting. I wonder what they actually mean by "support"? Include line-of-sight data to import into FGU along with the map images? I've had a quick look and haven't seen any further info.

If you watch the promo vid it shows maps that have been exported into Foundry with full use of LOS, lights, etcetera.

[celestian]

If you watch the promo vid it shows maps that have been exported into Foundry with full use of LOS, lights, etcetera.

Yeap, my assumption is that it has (or expected to have) similar functionality for FG.

[sadwargamer]

KS Backed to join the beta, this looks awesome - though the biggest issue for mapping is no curved/angled walls - well at least to start with, I am sure with the traction they are getting that they will deliver this feature.

[Griogre]

Wow this thing is really taking off. Anyone wishing an easy mapping program solution might want to take a look.

[spoonhead]

I backed it. It looks pretty good. They’ve stopped adding more stretch foals to concentrate on the core product and delivering on time. Which I actually appreciate.

[JohnD]

Backed.

[DMDad]

I backed it today when I read that it would be good with FGU.

[similarly]

Lol. Same here. I've had my eye on it for some time, but seeing has just 12 days to go, couldn't resist. It has over 800,000 euro pledged, and apparently, if they get to a million, it will unlock the final reward.

[Aiddar]

Yep - backed as well.... Only question now is to go for the beta access or wait for standard (at the moment, waiting for standard). The lack of curved walls IS a definite issue though - hopefully something they can change soon (ish)

[Farnaby]

Backed at DM level. Couldn't resist.

[similarly]

It's amazing. It's jumped by 15,000 euro since LAST NIGHT! It's jumped by about 3,000 euro just in the last couple of hours. With just over 10 days to go, I think it really will reach that last goal. 45,000 euro from now, the last goal gets unlocked.

[DMDad]

Yep - backed as well.... Only question now is to go for the beta access or wait for standard (at the moment, waiting for standard). The lack of curved walls IS a definite issue though - hopefully something they can change soon (ish)

I am sure curved walls will follow soon or even be integrated before release.

[Griogre]

While that might be true, I would caution *anyone* against buying any software on the promise of "future" improvements. They said their item placement algorithm doesn't work well with non rectangular areas. I backed this but I do consider this one to have some risk as they have not specifically demoed FG support - but their 2D export, if all else fails, would still be useful to me.

[Neovirtus]

While that might be true, I would caution *anyone* against buying any software on the promise of "future" improvements. They said their item placement algorithm doesn't work well with non rectangular areas. I backed this but I do consider this one to have some risk as they have not specifically demoed FG support - but their 2D export, if all else fails, would still be useful to me.

Agreed. Even without true FG support, putting in a bunch of rectangular wall occluders is not a big deal to me. I backed at the level where I'll be happy if I get what I see and nothing more. Everything else is gravy.

[celestian]

While that might be true, I would caution *anyone* against buying any software on the promise of "future" improvements. They said their item placement algorithm doesn't work well with non rectangular areas. I backed this but I do consider this one to have some risk as they have not specifically demoed FG support - but their 2D export, if all else fails, would still be useful to me.

If all it does is export a flat 2D map with the content they have in the demo, im 100% satisfied. Anything beyond that at release or otherwise is a bonus. I really need a tool to generate "zoomed in" battlemap style images with "fluff" content and this is a great solution.

With the amount of financial support they've received I cannot image they won't have the resources to create what they set out to do.

[Griogre]

Exactly! That's how I feel. But it bothers me when people say, "Oh this is going to be so great when they add support for X." Sometimes, that next step never happens.

[similarly]

I know with Dundgeondraft, someone released a free tool that converts the vtt map into png and an xml file that can read the walls and doors (but unfortunately can't differentiate between doors and windows).

Hopefully it wouldn't be TOO difficult for Dungeon Alchemist to do something similar. However, as others have said, even if all I can get are 2d maps, I don't mind adding LOS myself.

[DMDad]

Exactly! That's how I feel. But it bothers me when people say, "Oh this is going to be so great when they add support for X." Sometimes, that next step never happens.

Agreed. Looks great as is for the price. Definitely has value if it performs as advertised. I wonder if/what discussions they have had with the people at Fantasy Grounds...

[Stigfinnaren]

If this becomes a popular map making tool, the Steamworks mod support is great. It allows for fan made stuff to very easily be added. Which would certainly help smaller genres (basically everything other than fantasy) to get greater support.

With all the money they got, hope that they work on more free form construction. The FAQ states with the questions "Can I only do square or rectangular rooms?" that only 90 degree corners is possible now, which makes natural cave dungeons impossible.

[BaneTBC]

Their issue currently is that for their AI generated maps, objects that are not square\rectangular in nature causes them problems. I am sure that with how much they have generated with this Kickstarter, that eventually they will include some other form of rooms\et al, but that is going to be outside what they are delivering from this Kickstarter and their initial design. And even with that limitation, I am really happy with what they are promising to deliver as this package. I can deal with square\rectangular rooms for an on-the-fly creation when I need it, or for pre-made things that fit the mold. Outside that, I have DungeonDraft to make my caves, whatnot.

[Mu77ley]

They shared a screenshot of a map exported to Fantasy Grounds Unity the other day on their discord, inlcuding all the walls/doors LOS information and lights, etc.

It's looking really good (and beta starts in about a month too).

[Hyrkali]

Beta started today, my DM just showed told me how impressed he was with the map builder... But he hadn't time to test the imports into Fantasy Grounds yet.

Anyone gave the Dungeon Alchemist exported maps a test run on Fantasy Grounds?
2D seems like a no brainer for me (you can map a JPG so... easy) but what about 3D?

I guess my question is : How compatible are DA's export into FG?

EDIT: I know. DA just came out as Beta. Might be a tad optimistic here :D

[Dax Doomslayer]

@Gwydion actually ran a Twitch session on this. It looks darn cool. I'm in the beta too but haven't done anything with it yet...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9n3ID-VVFc

[Mu77ley]

Beta started today, my DM just showed told me how impressed he was with the map builder... But he hadn't time to test the imports into Fantasy Grounds yet.

Anyone gave the Dungeon Alchemist exported maps a test run on Fantasy Grounds?
2D seems like a no brainer for me (you can map a JPG so... easy) but what about 3D?

I guess my question is : How compatible are DA's export into FG?

EDIT: I know. DA just came out as Beta. Might be a tad optimistic here :D

I've had a quick play with the top-down FGU export, and it creates an XML with the image which defines wall, door and window occluders and adds lights as well. Currently they don't appear to be the correct colour (black lights), but it's looking pretty damn good so far.

https://i.imgur.com/EdqnDXY.jpg

[Hyrkali]

@Gwydion actually ran a Twitch session on this. It looks darn cool. I'm in the beta too but haven't done anything with it yet...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9n3ID-VVFc
Looking at the video, I noticed he was exporting the FGU maps in "Perpective (3D Walls)" so the walls in FG are larger in some farther-from-camera area (you can notice that on the "Castle DA" map when he turns LoS On at 1h05m34s https://youtu.be/S9n3ID-VVFc?t=3934 - The far right wall is larger then those closer to the camera). So pretty accurate and probably map size depending: 3D would probably work better on small map since the walls would be of similar size.
See screenshot (took from the video mentioned above) :
https://i.imgur.com/bfCsDYa.png

Do have to fiddle and nudge the grid in position (or is it fine if you export with grid on?) but that's minor.

As for the top-down export that Mu77ley showed, it seems just great! Just the fact that LOS and Lights are all included in the exported XML is a big tedious job less for my DM!

I'll be watching my friend play with it but yeah, nice tool it seems!

[Fear Grounds]

Had to try it out. Even in beta, its pretty impressive what the software can do, and how well it exports to Unity.

Lights are exported blank, so you have to go through and set them to whatever type of light you want. Pretty simple fix if you ask me.

49541

[Morenu]

I am LOVING this tool. The one thing that is missing ATM with LoS is that none of the placeable object seem to block LoS or light and presumably arrows. easy to fix in FG though. Q1 2022 release and they are doing a great job listening to suggestions and such.

[Hyrkali]

I am LOVING this tool. The one thing that is missing ATM with LoS is that none of the placeable object seem to block LoS or light and presumably arrows. easy to fix in FG though. Q1 2022 release and they are doing a great job listening to suggestions and such.

For that, you need to do some more line and LoS tweaking once you imported the map in FGU. Build a small square or a circle around that big crate and it will block LoS...
My friend also discovered the usage of non-interractable windows as wall that do not block LoS. For example when at the top of a ledge or flight of stairs, you should be able to see beyond the balcony/borders without break in LoS.
I know that has always been there in FGU, he's simply getting better at it!

[Laerun]

This is pretty cool. The double walls on the 3D are not really functionally needed in FG Unity, except for secret doors maybe, and that is mainly because it adds more unnecessary data points. The top-down version map displayed is not bad though, but for larger 3D style maps, double lines are often redundant, but more eye appealing. They are not a bad thing, but just add more data and memory overhead sometimes. This makes the work a lot faster and easier though. If we learn to use the FGU built-in assets like the paintbrushes, one can covert the lines automatically into LoS lines. PNG files and such add a lot of overhead to our sessions. I am slowly trying to move away from 3rd party things and try to rely on FG Unity more. This new program is very cool though and I like and can appreciate the immersion! I do agree totally about the 'smaller' 3D maps statement. One thing that the 3-D render does is add the LoS lines a bit too close to the edge of the 3D walls, but other than that it looks wonderful. Thanks for sharing! Cool! I was curious about this program. It's good to have more options.

Laerun

[Jiminimonka]

At the moment it seems only export to Universal VTT works for LOS - made a map export to FGU and the image is done but the xml file doesnt do its thing.

[Aiddar]

Hmmm - works for me...

possibly a stupid question (sorry!!), but are you following the instructions line by line? I initially just brought it into the Image directory directly (bad pun) and used it from there. When you bring in the XML and the Image file into the Campaign Assets folder and THEN transfer just the image file to images, it works for me.

Other than that, sorry - no ideas!

[Zacchaeus]

Indeed. You need to add the image and the xml file (which must have the same name as the image) to the campiagnname/images folder and then open the preview of the image and add to campaign.

[Jiminimonka]

Indeed, I have imported many images with xml files and do this with Dungeon Draft and the Python script regularly. But its not working with Dungeon Alchemist. I also just found the map I spent ages working on is now gone... not saved where I saved it lol.

Early Access...

[celestian]

At the moment it seems only export to Universal VTT works for LOS - made a map export to FGU and the image is done but the xml file doesnt do its thing.

Works for me, the example I posted used it. However I don't use the "universal" export, I used the Fantasy Grounds Unity export.

[Jiminimonka]

Works for me, the example I posted used it. However I don't use the "universal" export, I used the Fantasy Grounds Unity export.

I tried the FGU export, no dice. So then I used the Universal VTT export and the script.

[Mu77ley]

I tried the FGU export, no dice. So then I used the Universal VTT export and the script.

Tried it just now, and it works fine.

Are you sure you're following the instructions: https://www.dungeonalchemist.com/import-to-fantasy-grounds

What settings are you using during the export as well. Here's what I used:

https://i.imgur.com/K2PxQi1.jpg

[Jiminimonka]

I am going to assume its something to do with Unity and Linux, since their "cross system" support isn't really that good. It's not saving my maps (it will remember the last one I used, sometimes) either. Doesn't seem to be adding extensions on the film names so the xml file is just missing the .xml at the end for example.

[Morenu]

I have used it since beta. exported a ton of maps to use in FGU using the FG export.

I suggest you go to the Discord channel and ask there. Fantasy ground export has had little to no issues the entire beta (foundry or R20 had an issue on the VTT end)

[Jiminimonka]

I have used it since beta. exported a ton of maps to use in FGU using the FG export.

I suggest you go to the Discord channel and ask there. Fantasy ground export has had little to no issues the entire beta (foundry or R20 had an issue on the VTT end)

It is entirely due to Linux, posted a report, worked out a fix until they patch it.

Basically you have to add .xml file extension when doing the export to FGU (doing this afterwards doesn't seem to fix the LOS not working) and you have to add .dam file extension when saving maps, otherwise they don't save.

[Morenu]

nice catch, glad you reported it.

[Booker Grimm]

This is awesome and kind of makes the graphic tools in FGU almost redundant. Caves and things are a little trickier, but overall for top down maps, indoor and outdoor, this is a superb bit of software and unmissable.