Map Making Software - summary

[heruca]

This thread is designed to hold details of map making software that can be used to make maps appropriate for use in Fantasy Grounds.

If you know of some software that can be used, please post in this thread with as much detail as you can provide - the details needed are shown in the following table.

Trenloe, thanks for putting together that excellent chart of map-making software.

Would it be possible to add my MapForge application to the list? It’s not an already-shipping product, but it’s been successfully funded since day 1 of the Kickstarter campaign, so it’s definitely coming to market, probably near the end of July 2017.

Here’s the info for the chart entry, in case the answer is yes.

Name: MapForge

Website: https://www.mapforge-software.com/

Platform/OS: Windows 7 - Windows 10, Mac OS X (no native Linux support, but should be usable with WINE or Virtualbox)

Base Cost (USD): $30 ($25-$27 during the current Kickstarter campaign)

Cost with recommended Add-Ons: Varies widely depending on genre and specific needs, but approx.$50-$90

Description: Locally-installed application intended for creating great-looking maps quickly and easily, either from scratch, with the help of a random generator, and/or using professional content Add-Ons. 2D top-down raster image. Focuses primarily on tactical-scale battlemaps, but could also be used to create town/village maps and some area maps.

Pros: Support for layers, textures, and bitmap filter effects (e.g. drop-shadows, glows, blur, color/contrast/brightness adjustments, and bevel effects); Nine free content Add-Ons provide a great “Starter Kit”, usable without a license; huge selection of additional professional content Add-Ons for sale, some of which can be used for published or commercial map projects; supports print resolution as well as VTT resolution; artistic talent and technical skills not required.

Cons: May require as much as 4GBs of RAM for very large maps with many layers; not 64-bit; not intended for city maps or large-scale (e.g. continent) maps.

Examples: Dungeon, Tropical Island, more coming soon

Notes: <Not sure what information you would want in this column, but feel free to move content here if the other columns have too much text.>

[heruca]

Also, if you scroll down a little bit on my website's Links page, there is a decent list of other map-making software that you might wish to add to your chart.

[swest]

I have seen that there is map content in the Fantasy Grounds store that is represented as being, essentially, DLC for FG. When you make a purchase, it shows up as an Update the next time you launch FG. Then, within FG, it is available as a Module loaded with tile images.

Is there a facility within Fantasy Grounds for assembling those tiles into usable maps? If not, then why is that content available, within FG, as a module?

Just curious.

Thanks.

- s.west

[Moon Wizard]

The maps that are sold as DLC within the FG store are complete maps, not tile sets to build maps.

Regards,
JPG

[swest]

Well, for instance, I just purchased AAW Games, Sewer Map Pack (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store...id=AAWFGANYSMP).

It consists of 49 tiles, and a full-size map assembled, ostensibly, from those tiles. It also has an image that provides convenient links (in the form of push-pins) to each of the 49 individual tiles...

It just appears like it is set up to allow for the easy assembly of a map from those tiles.

- s.west

[Andraax]

It's an overview map with links to the detailed maps.

[ddavison]

It's an overview map with links to the detailed maps.

Fantasy Grounds does not support tiles. AAW Games presented these products to us and we explained that to them. They believed that there was value in the large scale maps and the individual tiles were useful for smaller combat maps. We offer a full 30-day money-back guarantee if you are unsatisfied with a purchase for any reason. These packs might have more interest to you once we release FGU, but you can always refund and then re-evaluate at a later date.

[Ken L]

Dungeon Fog's Alpha should be open this Monday for those who're in that alpha. Should be an interesting disruptor in the map maker space.

[Andraax]

Can't wait to see how well their sound effects matched to the map work.

[swest]

Fantasy Grounds does not support tiles. AAW Games presented these products to us and we explained that to them. They believed that there was value in the large scale maps and the individual tiles were useful for smaller combat maps. We offer a full 30-day money-back guarantee if you are unsatisfied with a purchase for any reason. These packs might have more interest to you once we release FGU, but you can always refund and then re-evaluate at a later date.

Well, actually, I suppose I could still use the individual tiles to construct (with gimp or paint.net) a larger map, but I don't know how to get the images out of Fantasy Grounds... AAWFGANYSMP.dat is a zip archive, but it's passworded, and I don't have the password (as far as I know). So, at present, even though the 'collage' map, that is part of the collection, would be usable, the rest of the tiles would not be...

I suppose I could display them, individually, from within FG, and use the 'snip' program to capture them to another file, but that's more work than I want to go through (for 49 separate files)...

So, anyway, I guess unless someone has some better ideas I'll get a refund... ??

Thanks,

- s.west