What is the best software for making maps?
>>97545234Well, which software is that?Only ones I know about are like... Dungeon Scrawl, DungeonFog and Azgaar
>>97545234wonderdraft
>>97545234I like Inkarnate.
>>97545557Something changed in my layers w/ updates. Dunno why a quarter of that is under a shadow. I'll fix it later.
>>97545557That actually looks pretty great. How many hours did that take you to do?I have been drawing towns by hand and then scanning them into photoshop and using brushes to plonk down houses/towers/walls/etc. I am looking for something quicker with a small learning curve.
>>97545632>How many hours did that take you to do?Like 2. Inkarnate is all layers and stamps.
>>97545632>>97545644It also does battlemaps, btw.
>>97545644Good to know that it has layers. That's a must in my opinion. Never used the program so forgive stupid questions but does it pre-generate you something to edit like Azgaar. Or do you have a blank map and then you start filling out water and coastlines and elevation and vegetation?
>>97545675It's a blank page--nothing generated.
>>97545681It has drawing tools for terrain though, btw. Like there's a line tool for cliffs. Layers and brushes w/ opacity and brightness for terrain and elevation changes. Stamp brushes to put down trees. Stuff like that.
>>97545681>>97545689Perfect. This sounds fantastic. I'm going to get going after work on a town my players are taking over from a rebellious baron.
>>97545703Yeah it'll work for that. This is the town my players need to slip into w/ covert agents at night and grab the bridges, a temple and the city council as well as direct some kidnappings. To wage a bloodless coup-ish, in a single night.
>>97545429Canvas of Kings. More about 'intelligently' generating features, like populating a city with buildings or painting in a row of trees.These are all cool, too:https://watabou.itch.io/I can't stress enough how much I hated Campaign Cartographer and Dundjinni. (I can forgive AutoREALM because it's open-source.)
>>97545967This is cool. I would love it if I had a digital table. How would you get this to be map-sized (aka useable for standard minis).
>>97546417Export the image and do printer posting, maybe? Either professionally or by sticking your A4/Letter size documents from your home printer together.These guys do battlemaps and have a guide:https://2minutetabletop.com/faq/printing-guide/That Dyson Logos guy sometimes shows off prints of his maps. Definitely not at battlemap/1-inch-squares scale, but that's not really the point. But they show off how beautiful monochrome maps can be.And now I'm wondering: you know those printable T-shirt transfers? Could you use those to iron a map onto a piece of plywood, or even foam board?
>>97546506Definitely not foam board, its an iron! I havent experimented with that stuff enough to know how it would do on wood, but if you had your map in a large enough size id bet you could get it lasered into plywood
>>97545234I just use pencil and graph paper.
>>97546543I've never gotten the bloody things to work on a T-shirt, ever, but presumably the dye would adhere to paper? Maybe the paper side of mount board (which HOPEFULLY wouldn't just burn under an iron...how much heat do you actually need?)Or hell, just put all your maps on cotton. Cloth maps! Whether it's battle maps or world maps. Sweaty neckbeards: recycle your old XXL white T-shirts. those yellow stains are actually aged parchment :^)
I've started using Dungeondraft recently, figured I might aswell ask here. Does anyone have any of the additional dungeondraft assets, such as forgotten adventures? I checked the archive and all the links seem to be dead.
>>97545234>Mapping software"And what you gonna do, Mr. Oleś, if they will turn off the power?"
>>97549183jokes on you I have a generator
>>97549183Use my little handrawn one that's on a spiral of 3x5" notecards.
Did someone make something that is good at making modern/cyberpunk maps?
>>97549440Dungeondraft + 2minutetabletop free cyberpunk assets>https://2minutetabletop.com/product/modern-street-tiles/
>>97549464Woops I linked the wrong thinghttps://2minutetabletop.com/product/cyberpunk-street-assets/
>>97545234I make battlemaps in doom builder
>>97545234and sometimes larger maps in Photoshop or just drawn on the table
>>97549183nothing beats the versatility of a blank paper. 90% of the time you don't need more and if you do you can probably just find a map online or the rulebook that's close enough
>>97549719It's not about "beating" anything. This isn't a competitive sport. It's a hobby that we do for our own pleasure. Some people prefer drawing maps. Some people prefer using mapping software. It's your hobby. It's about doing it the way that you enjoy and find satisfying. Do what makes you happy because that's literally the one and only goal of playing these games: your own joy.
>>97549743If it isn't about quantifiable superiority, why did OP ask for "the best"?
>>97549750Because he isn't sure exactly what he wants and "what other people think is the best for themselves" is a pretty fuckin' good place to start.
>>97549719Oh here comes the retards that hate map threads coming here to tell people how they're ok a few lines on a paper so you should tooa) if you want to do anything beyond shitscribbles, you need way more effort than a simple program.b) paper is, in fact, finite. If I want to extend the map a bit more, grabbing a new page and sticking them together is way worse than just using an infinite canvas in any programc) I've found that if you've playing something more complex than D&D, a lot of the time you do need more than just some shitscribbles.d) you're a faggot
> WonderdraftBest for ‘normal people’ creating world, continent, country, and regional maps.Cons = you need to acquire assets & most good ones are paid.> Canvas of KingsBest for normal people creating city maps. Can add custom assets the same as wonderdraft. Fast, easy, intuitive.Cons = The max canvas size is a bit small & base assets are a bit limited imo. At a pinch could do regional or country maps.> Dungeondraft Decently good for ‘normal people’ creating city, dungeon, cave, and interior maps.Cons = bad for overland, regional maps. Don’t even try countries or continents.> Campaign Cartographer 3+Best if you are literally autistic, a CAD engineer, and possibly a paid professional with thousands of hours spare. By far the most powerful thing readily available at consumer level prices.Cons = terrible UI, buggy, old, awfully unintuitive, super expensive to get all features.> InkarnateTrash & subscription service > Other World MapperProbably the best for intermediate enthusiasts. Or if you want to do world maps & interiors in one software. Good if you want something in between CC3+ and Wonderdraft in terms of features & complexity. Good if you prefer working with paths, vectors & fractals instead of brushes. Can import assets in PNG or SVG formats, meaning use assets for Wonderdraft, dungeondraft, etcCons = somewhat more complex (but much less than CC3), a bit more expensive, An elite tier option is to get your choice of either Other World Mapper or Wonderdraft + Canvas of Kings. Budget a bit of money for some good asset packs. And if you want to invest more later get all the assets for Campaign Cartographer but not the software itself.Note: This is my opinion having purchased & used all of these tools.
>>97549183probably not play since all my players are in different states/continents.
With AI the detested ms paint mapfags can now turn their scribbles into something fancy looking.Though I forgot which slop site is actually good for that.
I grabbed a pirate copy of dungeondraft + wonderdraft from a repository in a sharethread on /tg/ and found them good enough I paid for themI think I did then go hunting for pirate copies of resource packs for both of them, but the core software was worth the money. I ended up using D-draft extensively for a 4e campaign over tabletop simulator during peak coof lockdown and it was excellent for that.
>>97545234GRASS GIS :^)Unironically though, I just use Inkscape because that's what I'm most familiar with. You can slowly build a bank of templates and stamps that should in theory allow you to create perfectly serviceable, if plain, maps. Do some additional processing in Photoshop or something to pretty it up and give it some texture of you so wish.
>>97548830i have an old version of the forgotten adventures tileset i can upload if this thread is still up tomorrow.
>>97549797>a) if you want to do anything beyond shitscribbles, you need way more effort than a simple program.Sounds like you don't know how to draw.
>>97559491Yes, that is correct, learning to draw is a lot of effort, that is the point being made, congrats for knowing how to read.
>>97559490NTA but I'm interested.
>>97549719>90% of the time you dont need more>10% of the time "effort"fags bitch out shamelessly to the 101 Dungeons to Crawl manual of 5ft hallways and empty featureless roomsAnd these are the high effort posters telling you to learn to draw holy shit haha I almost farted and let a little out from laughing too hard. Either accept you're a bitch for using premades or get used to the fact that your "drawing ability" isn't quite as good as you thought. I print 100% of the maps I make digitally if Im not playing VTT like any sane human and I will never be caught dead spending my hard earned money on someone elses "tight dungeon hallway with 3 doors leading to 10x10 rooms" ever. Not ever
>>97545234I use talespire to easily lego together scenes in 3D and take screenshots from that. The look is very unique and has this charming minitiature style and due to how easy editing and taking off layers is, you can prep battlemaps of any slice.Wonderdraft doesn't even compare and I tried both. The only issue is really the lack of a native top-down map export as well as the extremely jewish and slow development.
I personally use(d) a mix of the following: hand-drawn, photoshop, hexographer, hexkit and dungeondraft.For an hexcrawl I like to use hexographer to generate a region in order to remaking it in hexkit, which I find better looking. For the dungeons I used to draw them by hand and then scan the page (with a bit of post-processing on Photoshop) but with roll20 the end result never satisfied me so I started to use dungeondraft which in my hands look a bit basic but gets the job done. I've seen in various map threads that there was an anon who was very good with it and he even dropped a small guide but like the idiot that I am I never screencapped it so it's lost to the sands of time
>>97545967Whoa, that looks nice
>>97549387CUTE!
>>97559768this is circa mid 2024, not sure how much has been added/changed since then but it should have all the essentialshttps://mega.nz/folder/b9YyFQAC#MAF3as7Vg3uhPsUSpcKerw
>>97546506I've seen this video on using laser printer to transferhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7FKdW5ndLw
recently tried Nortantis and it suites my needsdont know if its the best but i like it
>>97545234putting ur map at a 45 degree angle doesnt make it not a big rectangle
>>97560456What is the name of this software again? I remember trying it out years ago but became incredibly frustrated with trying to get the coastlines to line up with another hex. I also hated the abrupt color change from terrain type to terrain type. I guess this would be good for a massive continental hexcrawl.
I think ascii is a cool mapper
>>97562044thanks bro
