Incline Grid Cartographer - Best Tool for Drawing Classic RPG Maps

[Sceptic]

Looks great. I would only suggest also adding purple as a field pair (red+blue - I'm assuming that the user has to choose the pair from the toolbar of course), and maybe making the single-field blue a tiny bit brighter. The others loook great and each field colour (as well as the pairs) looks very distinct from each other and from the dark version. I don't think player-assigned meaning is a downside - the toolbar is currently quite good as is, this just gives more options to the "poweruser", and everybody else can just ignore the colours and use the already-existing presets.

(dark with three simultaneous effects - is there an 80's game so cruel?)

Bard's Tale 2 has dark with FOUR simultaneous effects: dark, antimagic, anti-bard song, spinner and trap all on the same tile. It's a cruel game
I think the triplet still works fine though - shaded darker, and add the spinner icon, and all 5 effects are represented.

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

Ah, that's an oversight on my example. If I'd had painted Red + Blue fields together you'd see Magenta.

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

Started adding doors (you can see the half-wall and half-door here in WIP positions) but got slightly side tracked by unifying the concept of a 'wall' and a 'door' into a more generic 'edge'. Wall drawing still has a high priority status but drawing block doors is a lot clearer and requires fewer clicks now. It's one of those "why did I do this the previous way again?" moments where there isn't a good reason why it was like that before other than the evolutionary process.

Slightly longer blog post about it here:
http://www.davidwaltersdevelopment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1346&start=30#p1752

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

I've coded up a new tool for v3.0.1 tonight inspired by the magic wand in Photoshop. The new Terrain Wand is a bit different but can be used for similar tasks.

This GIF gives a quick example of how it can be used to speed up tasks such as changing all the blocks in this Eye of the Beholder map to a different colour :

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

So, after a busy couple of weeks the massive, free v3.0.1 update is now ready. It adds a LOT of new stuff, here's a summary of the key points:

* 24 New floor markers
* Wall mounted buttons
* Half wall and half-door frames
* Terrain Wand tool for fast selection of contiguous terrain
* 'Dungeon Master Tools' to create party-facing image exports with all the treasure and traps hidden from view.
* Keyboard Remapping
* Streamlined wall and door modes
* Several new fixes, tweaks and shortcuts

Download from the usual place.

 

[Abelian]

Hidden Asbestos , any chance of you allowing the row and column labels to repeat for each major grid? It would help with mapping outdoor areas that span multiple grids.

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

Hidden Asbestos , any chance of you allowing the row and column labels to repeat for each major grid? It would help with mapping outdoor areas that span multiple grids.

You mean draw the axis values next to every major grid, not just the one at the origin? - sure that's on my list. It didn't make it into 301 unfortunately but I'll try and add it in soon.
(If you just mean have it go 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 along the X and Y axes then you can do this already. But, I figure you probably saw that )

 

[Abelian]

Hidden Asbestos , any chance of you allowing the row and column labels to repeat for each major grid? It would help with mapping outdoor areas that span multiple grids.

You mean draw the axis values next to every major grid, not just the one at the origin? - sure that's on my list. It didn't make it into 301 unfortunately but I'll try and add it in soon.

Awesome, that's exactly what I meant.

 

[Hirato]

I've been waiting for those standalone arrows.
Just sent you a request to upgrade.

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

I've been waiting for those standalone arrows.
Just sent you a request to upgrade.

Thanks and :darnation finger snap:, I went to bed at 1am and just missed you! The next step e-mail should be with you now.

I hope you like the arrows, adding new markers is relatively easy (and as a side benefit I really enjoy drawing them!) If you have any further requests along these more abstract lines then let me know.

BTW. I plan to add little + / - 'rollup' buttons on the categories next version as the number of tiles + categories grows it's gonna get a bit cumbersome to scroll through.

Also, just to confirm - more edge styles are planned. I just made a call to ship what I'd done with v3.0.1 and get it out there instead of postponing things further. Top of my list is a wall grating.

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

Grid Cartographer v3 is now available for Android as a beta at the usual link. If you had no problems with v2 you should be fine, but on newer devices you might get problems. I hope to fix those eventually but it didn't seem fair to say "hey, here it is, should work fine!" so I've called it a beta to help make the narrow testing clear.

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

Hidden Asbestos , any chance of you allowing the row and column labels to repeat for each major grid? It would help with mapping outdoor areas that span multiple grids.

I worked on this and it's now an option (for square grids only) in the upcoming v3.0.2 release. Part of the grid setup screen.

Additionally the top-right edges are now always labelled if you limit the grid size - so you can get the all-around labelling used here: http://www.tk421.net/wizardry/maps/map1-01.gif

Here's a demo showing both of these changes:

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

Hey everyone, the free update v3.0.2 is now available to download.

Here's the two main new features: the 'Avatar Marker' and 3D view.

Full list of changes here:
http://www.davidwaltersdevelopment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1360

Enjoy!

 

[Grauken]

I love wiz 6, one of the best intro hubs

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

I love wiz 6, one of the best intro hubs

Well spotted

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

Quick update to say version 3.0.3 is underway and I've added a couple more markers.
For puzzle based dungeon crawlers like Eye of the Beholder you might like the new "stone" and "pressure plate + stone" tiles:

 

[Hirato]

I've noticed a bug with the 3D view.
If Collision is enabled, your avatar won't walk within the 'Block' ground type and it just prints 'ouch'

EDIT:
Could you also do a bi directional arrow, or simply allow there to be any combination thereof?
I'd like at least left/right and up/down

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

I've noticed a bug with the 3D view.
If Collision is enabled, your avatar won't walk within the 'Block' ground type and it just prints 'ouch'

That's working as intended, a block is supposed to be a solid stone wall.

(Don't forget you can turn off collisions with the right-most button on the 3D tab)

Since the auto-walls are useful for corridors, think I'll add a similar tile to the block which would be just walls with no fill (and it'd be non-solid).

EDIT:
Could you also do a bi directional arrow, or simply allow there to be any combination thereof?
I'd like at least left/right and up/down

I can add l/r and u/d arrows, sure.

 

[Hirato]

That's working as intended, a block is supposed to be a solid stone wall.

Oh, so that's how that was meant to be used.
I thought it was just a quick method of of sketching out the floor, with ground, walls and everything included.

EDIT: The reason for my confusion is the 'Simple Block' type doesn't trigger collisions, and the 'Block' type seemed the same, but automatically set surrounding walls.

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

That's working as intended, a block is supposed to be a solid stone wall.

Oh, so that's how that was meant to be used.
I thought it was just a quick method of of sketching out the floor, with ground, walls and everything included.

EDIT: The reason for my confusion is the 'Simple Block' type doesn't trigger collisions, and the 'Block' type seemed the same, but automatically set surrounding walls.

Hmm, that's a good point - I'm being inconsistent there aren't I !

I also don't think you're alone in using the block like that - it is kind of ambiguous and since it's been there since like v1 it feels a little late to be telling everyone they're "wrong" (in air-quotes)

So, I think I'll make the block non-solid, since its auto-walls will provide the collision.

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

I've improved the water texture. This one's more dank looking, works better as a background to marker icons, plus it's animated.

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

I've just released a Windows-only beta of some new things added as part of v3.0.3.

Here's the full announcement:
http://www.davidwaltersdevelopment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1346&start=40#p1774

Highlights:
* Export map floors as Wavefront .OBJ meshes for game development / visualisation.
* New markers: 'Stone', 'Pressure Plate + Stone', 'Boulder'
* New terrain: 'Metal', 'Trees'
* Fixed Hirato's reported problems with Block terrain collision in 3D view
* Improved water (+animated) and vegetation textures.
* New 'corridor' ground type - like block tool but just walls.

Might be a few bugs I guess, but mostly it just feels like its been a while since I released an update. Enjoy!

(Sorry Hirato - no new arrows yet.)

 

[mindx2]

Hidden Asbestos Finally getting around to upgrading to v3. Sent you the request and just waiting to hear back from you... hope you process these during weekends.

 

[Hidden Asbestos]

Hidden Asbestos Finally getting around to upgrading to v3. Sent you the request and just waiting to hear back from you... hope you process these during weekends.

Yup I check for upgrades several times each day including weekends. There's sometimes a little bit more of a delay sat/sun but your upgrade should be with you now, thanks for the patience / support !

 

[mindx2]

Hidden Asbestos Finally getting around to upgrading to v3. Sent you the request and just waiting to hear back from you... hope you process these during weekends.

Yup I check for upgrades several times each day including weekends. There's sometimes a little bit more of a delay sat/sun but your upgrade should be with you now, thanks for the patience / support !

Will you be sending a PayPal request for my payment?