Huhlig's Creations

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huhlig
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Huhlig's Creations

Post by huhlig »

Just for Kicks I figured I would upload here the stuff I am crafting for my eberron campaign.
Here is Friday Nights Map. Fortunitly none of my players watch these forums.

Just curious as to everyones opinions. As I stated in another thread it looks like a bad set of blueprints. I really need walls.

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huhlig
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Post by huhlig »

Actually a question, Anyone know why this wont load and grid correctly in MapTool? It was made square in Openoffice yet it does not seem to grid correctly

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Post by dorpond »

I'll try to help.

Creating a map from scratch to perfectly line up with the grid take practice. For example, I am starting to make maps with a grid overlay (in photoshop) just so things line up better. This isn't a Maptool thing but rather the way we are making the maps.

This can also happen if you resized the map in any way after it was made or if you scanned in a paper map to make it electronic. That happens a lot also.

There is a way to try and fix this and hopefully it will help you:
http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?t=697

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trevor
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Post by trevor »

Actually huhlig, I think the layout is great.

I'm not an expert by any stretch, so bag of salt required: I think if you muted the floor textures a little bit (less distinct, less patterned), then got a good texture for the walls, it would be a great map.

For the floors, you might try using more than one tile, for variety.
Dreaming of a 1.3 release

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Post by dorpond »

Oh, I agree, the map is really cool!

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huhlig
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Post by huhlig »

Hmm... I created it in openoffice. It should be "exact" as each line was placed well. Is there a good Photoshop or something tutorial that will allow vector style drawings of the same type. I prefer the snap to grid functionality for creating maps that openoffice provides. but this is anoying.

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Post by dorpond »

Can you upload a couple of the tiles that you are using here? I am guessing that you are making these maps by dropping down tile images? I would like to measure the tiles that you are using.

Let's start by explaining how you make your maps.

Keep a couple things in mind: If you are stamping down 40 pixel X 40 Pixel tiles to create your map, everything will line up perfectly. but let's say one tile of yours overlapped another tile by one pixel - now you have thrown the whole thing off because now they will not match the grid.

I have never used OpenOffice to make maps - that is why it is important to understand how you approach making maps.

If you are stamping perfect square tiles to make your map, then I would highly suggest turning on snap if OpenOffice has that feature. It will force that your tiles snap perfectly together and will prevent overlapping. I know Photoshop has this function.

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Post by Phergus »

Your grids aren't an integer number of pixels but somewhere between 47 & 48. There is also some layout problems where tiles where slightly overlapping.

Where you using the default grid setup or a custom setup (in OpenOffice Draw)?

When you exported it what format did you use?

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huhlig
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Post by huhlig »

I was using snap to grid in openoffice set to one inch square. Exported in PNG. I can upload the openoffice draw map if anyone wants it

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Post by Phergus »

Well my guess is that you were pasting in the bitmap tiles which had a DPI that wasn't an even multiple of your displays DPI (which OO uses to figure out how many pixels to use to represent 1") and so you end up with some rounding errors when you plop them down.

I didn't see a way in OO Draw to tell it to use an absolute pixels per grid value so I don't know that there is any way to guarantee the output will line up. If you used tiles that were prescaled to your displays DPI setting and you used a 1" grid, then it might work.

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Sir Flak
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Post by Sir Flak »

Your map is 43x43 cells at 40px resolution it should be 1720x1720 pixels. I resized your map on my machine to 1720x1720 and everything lines up fairly well. It does seem like you have some over lapping tiles in some areas though. That is drawing software problem though not a grid alignment problem.

Nice map I like it.

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huhlig
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Post by huhlig »

Is there a better program that works similerly. I liked dungeoncraft but it is dead, OO works nice but has issues Ive noticed. Dunjini is just plain funky. Dungeonforge is broken in its current version(no images show up). Im contemplating purchasing a copy of CC3 but im not sure if its going to be a waste of money 150 is alot.

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trevor
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Post by trevor »

Hopefully in the not too distant future you'll be able to use MapTool to build pretty decent maps. But I don't know about the interum.

What are the features that you find most useful to you when building a map ?
Dreaming of a 1.3 release

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huhlig
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Post by huhlig »

Woah, that is a loaded question. I will try to make this short.

* Snap to grid.
* Ability to quickly lay flooring (Drag to Size: Rectangles, Circles)
* Ability to auto generate walls(and add or remove from each square border as desired[tie this into autofow])
* Ability to add moveable doors(open and close at GM will[also effect fow])
* Multiple layer Support, so its poossible to have an outdoor scene and then turn off the roof layer to see inside the house you just walked into. Or allow for various layers of things to be placed.
* Visible Grid overlay (on and off)
* Ability to sort and quick select various objects to make appear and disapear.
* Ability to add GM notes to various locations that do not appear on players screens.
* Ability to hide segments of map(secret rooms, monsters) visible on GM screen but never on players unless GM reveals. So that when GM is removing FOW manually he can quickly make broad strokes and not worry about acidentally revealing the secret room. Players tend to be wary when GM takes 5 strokes to remove FOW.

Addendum:
* One additional feature from my days of developing 3d maps for clients (in quake oddly enough) is the program I used allowed you to cookiecutter groupings, such as build a room, store it as a room file and then reuse it later, or create a room template and then apply a theme to it. so you could change the flooring, wall type and decorations quickly and simply load the room up. Made for quick additions. Most often a servents bedroom in a castle is almost like every other bedroom in a castle.

Wow, a not so short list. umm, I think that covers it
Last edited by huhlig on Fri Nov 10, 2006 1:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by Steel Rat »

huhlig wrote:Is there a better program that works similerly. I liked dungeoncraft but it is dead, OO works nice but has issues Ive noticed. Dunjini is just plain funky. Dungeonforge is broken in its current version(no images show up). Im contemplating purchasing a copy of CC3 but im not sure if its going to be a waste of money 150 is alot.
Just get The Gimp. You can do just about anything mapping wise you need to. It's got many of the capabilities of Photoshop, but is free.

you can load up an existing map and add to it, change it, whatever, and then pull up your creation in MapTool.
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