Incline Grid Cartographer - Best Tool for Drawing Classic RPG Maps

[Watser]

The floor list on the left should react to scrolling

Something like ctrl+scrolling could work. The default hotkey is page up/down but can be changed under key mappings.

Adding walls is really fiddly

Are you holding down shift when placing walls? It helps enormously with walls flying off to the side

Ability to link Teleport In and Teleport Out, so that linked teleporters are easy to identify

Maybe something like a marker? An "out" teleport could be marked 1' while all the "in" are 1 for a specific teleport pair. The way I have overcome this obstacle is by giving each teleport pair its own colour.

I often find myself in need for more markers on the same square. Bard's Tale 2 for instance often have both a trap, spinner and "out" teleport on the same square.

 

[Hirato]

Ability to link Teleport In and Teleport Out, so that linked teleporters are easy to identify

Maybe something like a marker? An "out" teleport could be marked 1' while all the "in" are 1 for a specific teleport pair. The way I have overcome this obstacle is by giving each teleport pair its own colour.

I don't think it's quite enough to make it distinct. particularly for maps like this.
http://etrian.wikia.com/wiki/Map:EOU/B29F
which has 24 teleport destinations.

Markers would be a good way to show it, and is how I did it on the console until I hit the icon limit of the game.




Here's my rendition of EOU2's F18 (minus doors), and F19.

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

Some new / refurbished icons coming in v404. Also, Linux and macOS performance are both improved.

I guess this update has an appropriate version number given the time its taken. However it's really honestly not too far off now - the remaining tasks are:

* Add fog-of-war support to image exporter. This is the main task.
* Dust off mac and fix build (+ shout a bit at xcode probably needing a huge update first)
* Add a manual chapter for the console window + finish off the last bit of the scripting docs

Gonna try and not feature-creep any more stuff in and actually release the damn thing asap, however since Hirato was such a big help today making sure the Linux improvements weren't just a dream I had, adding new markers seemed like a good way to say thanks.

edit: macOS performance is also improved. Yay linux clone o/s

 

[Grauken]

If anybody wants to play some W7 with GC support, all of the north of Guardia is now supported with tracking. Either copy the xml file from my the W7 zip in my signature into the base0.zip in your GC folder, or wait until HA releases the next version of GC in short time, as that will include the beta profile from the get go.

Next time will probably the full release, though that can take a few weeks, but until then this should be sufficient.

 

[Grauken]

Okay, Wizardry 7 tracking profile is now fully supported with Grid Cartographer. Supported for both English and German version from GOG (the English is the same as the Ultimate Wizardry Archives version, so that is supported as well).
If you want to play a Cosmic Forge modified version, I can add checksums for these too, just ask.

Also for those who want to use a ready-made map, you can either use a heavy spoilerific one, or one where I pretty much deleted all spoilers and only left the level architecture.

 

[t]

Is this tool still free in any way?

 

[Daemongar]

Also, very important: is it compatible with Grimoire?

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

Is this tool still free in any way?

Not since version 4 launched, no.

Also, very important: is it compatible with Grimoire?

No more or less than any other (non-DOS) game. When it launches we'll have to see what extra markers you might need.

 

[t]

Grimoire allegedly has automapping.

Well, sad to see the program going the commercial route. I guess I'll just use the complete maps for Wiz6 that are on the internet since forever.

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

Grid Cartographer v4.0.4 is now available

Download: http://gridcartographer.com

Quite a big one, highlights are:

• Fog-of-War
  • Draw opaque hidden / fog tiles in several built-in styles.
  • Export images with/without fog for players and Dungeon Master respectively.
  • Works on both square and hex grid types.
• Game Link
  • New auto-tracking profiles for Wizardry IV and Wizardry VII.
  • Notification that a game is detected for clearer operation.
  • Option to quickly switch to split screen view and setup a new map.
• Scripting (Preview)
  • First giant step towards scripting support, powered by a customised version of Squirrel.
  • Scripted data export. Built-in example provide exports tile maps to .CSV.
  • Console window with a simple command line interface inspired by CP/M and DOS.
  • 100+ pages of scripting documentation in PDF format.
  • More scripting features will be added in future updates!
  • Check out the new scripting forum for more scripts and help writing your own.
• Enhanced Mesh Export
  • Native support for Unity and Unreal Engine 4 via the .obj mesh format.
  • Auto-scale to Unreal units.
  • Material/sub-mesh splitting controls for more control.
  • Meshes now include explicit Vertex Normals.
• Streamlined theme selection
  • Theme selection now has its own Setup menu page.
  • Option to apply map theme (and fog) changes to all regions with one click.
  • Automatically use the last selected theme and fog-style for new maps.
• Grid Cartographer 4 now requires a 64-bit operating system.
  • 32-bit operating systems are no longer supported.
  • This applies to both the Gamer and Pro editions.
• Many bug fixes
  • Greatly reduced CPU usage on Linux and macOS systems.
  • Linux version now has partial support for HiDPI displays.
  • Restored the clipboard preservation behaviour of older versions.
  • Allow some keyboard shortcuts to work in the file menu (such as load and
    save).

 

[Grauken]

any updates on when you'll be on steam?

 

[luj1]

Hello,

is it possible to prototype non-horizontal environments with this tool? Such as angled/sloped hallways.

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

any updates on when you'll be on steam?

That's my next job, there's a fair bit of admin though so it maybe a little while yet. I'll be glad when it's up there but it feels a bit daunting.

is it possible to prototype non-horizontal environments with this tool? Such as angled/sloped hallways.

You can definitely do 45 degree angled walls as shown at the bottom of http://gridcartographer.com/ You can also export hexagons for some weird shapes.

If you mean sloped floors, that's something I want to look into - recreating Ultimate Underworld and System Shock maps isn't far off once variable floor heights are in.

There isn't a general polygon tool at the moment so you would struggle to make a Doom map in it.

 

[luj1]

is it possible to prototype non-horizontal environments with this tool? Such as angled/sloped hallways.

You can definitely do 45 degree angled walls as shown at the bottom of http://gridcartographer.com/ You can also export hexagons for some weird shapes.

If you mean sloped floors, that's something I want to look into - recreating Ultimate Underworld and System Shock maps isn't far off once variable floor heights are in.

Hey,

yes I meant inclined floors. I can wait. Will it ever be possible?

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

Will it ever be possible?

Yes ... eventually.

Now v404 has been released and Steam is going ahead, I'm thinking "What's next for Grid Cartographer?" I'm definitely not short of answers to that question but while I'm going through my task lists looking for suitable next steps, I've got one eye looking for things that clump together into bigger goals. Not only for gamedev, but for tabletop and 'cRPG assistant' things too.

One of the more concrete of these is to add enough features to recreate the first floor of Ultima Underworld. This feels like a nice target to aim for since it'll show off something iconic - which is good for marketing, and it'll require adding things that spill over into other use cases (e.g. we'll need a way to snip a floor tile to one side of a wall running through a grid square) - which is good for everyone.

v4.0.4 took too long, I want to get back to a shorter schedule so my plan going forward is to work on smaller updates, pepper in a bit more work/life balance and try to get back to one update per month (approx.). Each of these bigger goals will eventually find their way into GC, a piece at a time - just not all in v4.0.5.

 

[FUDU]

Sounds like a good plan.

 

[Palikka]

Hidden Asbestos needs a developer tag, and a better avatar

Also, yeah, teleporters can get really messy, don't really know how to do them pretty:

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

I've updated the download page http://gridcartographer.com/download/ to add Grauken's Wizardry 7 map and his improved map for Wiz6. Edit: I should add that if you have a full map for another game (even one already featured, or one not currently supported by Game Link, I'd be happy to host it)

Also, yeah, teleporters can get really messy, don't really know how to do them pretty:

Linking tiles together has been requested a few times and will definitely be useful for teleporters. I'll think about how to add this in.

 

[Watser]

Host my BT1 map already then!
It's buried in an email somewhere. I soon have BT2 ready for you as well.

Zug zug

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

Host my BT1 map already then!
It's buried in an email somewhere. I soon have BT2 ready for you as well.

Zug zug

A thousand pardons for forgetting to add this!

 

[Grauken]

Because the SNES Wizardry's look just nicer than the DOS ports

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

Genius!

Right now I'm wracking my brains to improve support for these 'double emulated' games as currently it's just detecting ZSNES, and not looking deeper - so detecting / differentiating between multiple games won't work. Also note the current DOSBox on my site is not compatible due to a bug (which I've fixed) - I hope to release an update shortly.

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

On Saturday it'll be 4 years since Grid Cartographer v1.00 launched. To celebrate I'm running a sale. 25% off new copies.

http://gridcartographer.com/buy/

Thanks to everyone who has supported this project over the past four years!

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

For everyone else, here's v4.0.5: http://gridcartographer.com/download/

This is mostly bug fixes as I want to stick to a one-month release cycle. The bulk of the work has been behind the scenes making the file selectors handle multiple file formats, not very exciting at the moment but it opens the door for future work.

 

[Reapa]

so i can download skse for skyrim for free and use it to mod skyrim with thousands of mods from the nexus and hundreds from loverslab but if i want an automap mod for wizardry 6 i have to go through the whole process of payment + the money.
good job promoting good old games! keep at it. you're doing god's work.
good thing new games come with automap. seriously, you could have asked for financial support from gog instead of making people pay for your "mod". since gog sells old games that don't have an automap feature it would be in their interest to include this feature so more people will buy them.