I am using Maptool for a game that doesn't really use a map. The game's called In A Wicked Age and the 5 "maps" are really character sheet, NPC sheets, session sheet, etc. They're all just note sheets.
We use the simple note function (pencil, then the A) to drop notes on these.
I needed 6 character sheets, 16 NPC sheets, 1 campaign sheet, and 20 Particular strength sheets, so I made them up by screencapturing from adobe pdfs and then arranging htem 3x2, 4x4, 1, 5x4. with some black borders between them in paint, then I exported as .png files.
I know there's probably a better way because when I look down I see OMG, I'm up to 200Megs of memory already?!
What should I do to lower how much memory Maptool requires for my simple-donkey game?
Reducing memory load?
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Michael Silverbane
- Cave Troll
- Posts: 44
- Joined: Fri Feb 02, 2007 1:40 am
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The easiest way, I would say, would be to use tokens to store your character information in. Instead of 'texting' the character information onto the 'character sheet', you'd type it into the notes section of the token, or paybe fill in the properties section with the pertinent info.
If you are using one of the 1.3 builds, there's all sorts of cool stuff that you can do with the tokens vis-a-vis campaign properties, protraits, and so on.
Using 1.2 (the release version), using the tokens won't be nearly so pretty as using the scanned pdf... But it will keep your memory usage WAY down.
Your token storage area might look something like...
And you, or any of the players, could then just double-click on any of the tokens to see its game information.
Later
silver
If you are using one of the 1.3 builds, there's all sorts of cool stuff that you can do with the tokens vis-a-vis campaign properties, protraits, and so on.
Using 1.2 (the release version), using the tokens won't be nearly so pretty as using the scanned pdf... But it will keep your memory usage WAY down.
Your token storage area might look something like...
And you, or any of the players, could then just double-click on any of the tokens to see its game information.
Later
silver
It's a big world out there. Go tear it up.
Re: Reducing memory load?
Were each of these PDFs a full sheet? As in 8.5x11 printed?Ryan Stoughton wrote:I needed 6 character sheets, 16 NPC sheets, 1 campaign sheet, and 20 Particular strength sheets, so I made them up by screencapturing from adobe pdfs and then arranging htem 3x2, 4x4, 1, 5x4. with some black borders between them in paint, then I exported as .png files.
I know there's probably a better way because when I look down I see OMG, I'm up to 200Megs of memory already?!
I'll assume 8x10 usable area and that you had them displayed at 100% on a monitor that is 90 dpi give or take.
Each one as an individual image in MapTool would use up 8 * 10 * 90 * 90 * 4 which is close to 2.5MB. But there is also quite a bit of overhead that pushes it closer to 4MB each. 23 of them would be 92MB give or take.
But you put the 23 pages into a single image that if I read correctly is about 5 wide and 11 high. So the image is about 5 * 8 * 90 = 3600 pixels wide by 11 * 10 * 90 = 9900 pixels high.
That image would take 3600 * 9900 * 4 = ~136MB but with overhead in MT it is closer to 200MB.
To get to the point, big images take up a lot of memory. In this case you would be better off using individual images for the pages. Trim off any excess you don't need and use the lowest resolution that is still usable.
Michael's suggestions may also offer a better solution.
