Map Making Software - summary

[Trenloe]

I don't see those as cons - Map Forge uses wonderful art from a wide variety of talented mapping artists in a wonderful way - the 4g is not relevant as users of FG make maps outside of the FG program - and must then then resize and import them accordingly (less than 2600x2600px) to meet the restrictions imposed by the program.

The 4GB limit is a relevant con - it's not directly to do with the 4GB Fantasy Grounds memory issue, but it is related. It's to do with any 32-bit application having memory limits (2GB or close to 4GB depending if the executable is made large address aware). If a 32-bit application loads a lot of stuff into memory it can start having issues in the 3GB+ memory use zone - @gtw2017 remember some issues you've have when working on very large maps in 32-bit GIMP?

[gtw2017]

The 4GB limit is a relevant con - it's not directly to do with the 4GB Fantasy Grounds memory issue, but it is related. It's to do with any 32-bit application having memory limits (2GB or close to 4GB depending if the executable is made large address aware). If a 32-bit application loads a lot of stuff into memory it can start having issues in the 3GB+ memory use zone - @gtw2017 remember some issues you've have when working on very large maps in 32-bit GIMP?

I see - I stand corrected then.

[heruca]

MapForge now support variable-size map canvasses, so if you use the smaller canvas sizes you won't be getting near the upper limit of allocated RAM, even when using multiple layers.

In any case, I suspect the vast majority of FG users will be using MapForge unlicensed (there's little need for high-res output if you're just going to be reducing a map to 50 dpi for use in FG), so they'll never even use 2 GB of RAM.

[WESeib]

Although it isn't exactly mapping it is more of a world creation / building tool, you can make some absolutely incredible things with this, relatively easily. It's called Flowscape and can be found here: https://pixelforest.itch.io/flowscape

You can create maps with it and I did not see it listed here, which is why I mention it.

[alfarobl]

I like Illwinter's Floorplan Generator: http://www.illwinter.com/floorplan/

[rob2e]

Although it isn't exactly mapping it is more of a world creation / building tool, you can make some absolutely incredible things with this, relatively easily. It's called Flowscape and can be found here: https://pixelforest.itch.io/flowscape

You can create maps with it and I did not see it listed here, which is why I mention it.

So wait this CAN be used for top-down 2D maps?

[WESeib]

Yes, as of 3 months ago, the developer added an orthographic gridded export feature.
Sorry for the delay, it took me a minute to find the exact procedure:

From the developer:
"Since there were so many requests for an orthographic map maker with grids ive updated it to 1.01

Simply go to the menu, choose Map, click orthographic, set your preferred grid or hex and the tiling, then hit F8 and after a second or 2 an image will be saved at 7680x4320."

[rob2e]

Yes, as of 3 months ago, the developer added an orthographic gridded export feature.
Sorry for the delay, it took me a minute to find the exact procedure:

From the developer:
"Since there were so many requests for an orthographic map maker with grids ive updated it to 1.01

Simply go to the menu, choose Map, click orthographic, set your preferred grid or hex and the tiling, then hit F8 and after a second or 2 an image will be saved at 7680x4320."

Cool, well for $10 how could you not?