Map Making Software Summary

[claedawg]

Do you have recommendations on how to use the - World Map Hex Tiles Free or PWYW hex tokens inside of FG?
The "isometric" layout makes it hard to place the tokens and keep the raised edges from showing when making overland hex maps on the fly. Basically, you have to lay everything out from the top of the map then down, and that only works for one line hexes.

I really like these tokens, but they are not easy to use.

[LordEntrails]

Do you have recommendations on how to use the - World Map Hex Tiles Free or PWYW hex tokens inside of FG?
The "isometric" layout makes it hard to place the tokens and keep the raised edges from showing when making overland hex maps on the fly. Basically, you have to lay everything out from the top of the map then down, and that only works for one line hexes.

I really like these tokens, but they are not easy to use.

So hopefully someone with experience with those tiles and doing isometric in FG can give you some better advice, but from my work doing Isometric in CC3+, it sounds like you are already doing the best there is, and that's placing them from back/top to front. Or re-ordering the layers when required. I don't think there is much else that can be done when using isometric tiles that extend beyond the grid lines. CC3+ has a function to automatically reorder things back to front, but FG does not and I would not expect such a function to be implemented.

[Trenloe]

Do you have recommendations on how to use the - World Map Hex Tiles Free or PWYW hex tokens inside of FG?
The "isometric" layout makes it hard to place the tokens and keep the raised edges from showing when making overland hex maps on the fly. Basically, you have to lay everything out from the top of the map then down, and that only works for one line hexes.

I really like these tokens, but they are not easy to use.

Quite a lot of options and discussions in this thread: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...ex-crawl-in-FG See post #19 for an example of the World Map Hex Tiles.

FG draws layers (images) from the bottom of the layers list up, and you can re-order FG layers, so you can control the overlapping of the 3D effect. If you create one folder per hex line it will make it much easier to avoid the 3D edge effect, as you can just add a new hex image (layer) to the correct line folder and order within that folder based on the horizontal position of the hex tile within the hex line.

EDIT: To clarify, it's lines not columns that need to be in folders. Here's an example, and more details: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...l=1#post760949

Probably best to take any discussion about this to the thread I linked above.

[claedawg]

Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

Edit: I just remembered, using the Tile Stamp will cause performance issues after about 6 hexes out.
Using the stamp feature under the paint brush menu fixes that issue if you put all of the stamps on a single image layer. That will probably mess with the alignment since you would not be able to adjust the layer level for each individual hex when going from west-east or east-west on the line.

[Griogre]

I think the donjon Fantasy World maker deserves a mention. Fantasy World Generator is a web based generator that will make an old school hex style map with points of interest. You can download a map file or a htlm file (the better option). The htlm file allows you to click on the points of interest on and the map will center on the location and highlight it. I love this tool just for the inspiration.

The also have just a Fractal World Generator too.

[pindercarl]

Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

Edit: I just remembered, using the Tile Stamp will cause performance issues after about 6 hexes out.
Using the stamp feature under the paint brush menu fixes that issue if you put all of the stamps on a single image layer. That will probably mess with the alignment since you would not be able to adjust the layer level for each individual hex when going from west-east or east-west on the line.

I'm not sure when the last time you tried out using the Tile Stamp, but there have been many rendering improvements over the years. I stamped down about 150 tiles and maintained 60fps.

[claedawg]

It has been a while, maybe a year, since I tried using the Tile Stamp extensively. I will give it a shot since I know other things have improved over that time too. Thanks for the update!

Afterthought: The issues I was having with slog for medium to large maps using these tokens was most likely to me using the 300 DPI version.
AI is suggesting to use the 150 DPI since I want zoomed in detail.

What are y'alls thoughts?

[Pharoid]

I found that too many in a single layer would slow down a bit. But if you split it into folders its was fine and could handle a ton of them. so basically split 100 stamps into 2 50 stamp folders and close the folders your not working on. That worked for me many months ago and probably still does.

[dendarii]

Very helpful, thanks.

On the Dungeon Alchemist entry, I think "Export to FG VTT" should be on the Pro side?

[hawkwind]

Big fan of paint.net , its free and you can open psd files on it https://www.getpaint.net/