knightwriter Posted November 11, 2010 Report Share Posted November 11, 2010 I need to draw up some dungeon maps and a world map and I am looking for any open source or free software, as I don't have the money perk. I am looking for something that is intuitive and basically lets me drag and drop, without having to deal with vectors and things that are over my head. Thanks for any suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djkester Posted November 11, 2010 Report Share Posted November 11, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software There are a variety of free OpenSource drawing tools. Unfortunately they all take a hand at using. Gimp being the most likely for just drawing. However, you should head over to Cartographersguild.com. Its a very open community for drawing maps and such. However, here is my recommendation for the easiest and best free drawing tools. Paper and Pencil. I like lightly shaded grid paper. So here is how I do it. Go to http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/plain/ Set the size of the grid to something you like for your purposes. Set the color to alight color that you can still see but wont distract from your map. Draw your map. Then scan it in. Once you have it scanned in you can get GIMP or other free drawing tools to clean it up, color it, etc... I hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted November 11, 2010 Report Share Posted November 11, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software http://www.dungeoncrafter3.com/download.php http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20061121t Those are both good for your Dungeons. Not sure about printing quality on Dungeoncrafter, but for Dungeon Tile Mapper, the printing quality would suck. Good for monitor display though. For world maps, I do not have an easy solution. I can only recommend downloading GIMP and paying a visit to http://www.cartographersguild.com . They have a lot of nice tutorials for many graphics programs in their forums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightwriter Posted November 11, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 11, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software Thanks Nolgroth. I will take a look at these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted November 11, 2010 Report Share Posted November 11, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software Good luck. Makes me wonder if I have time to start doing a " x Hour Map with GIMP" type thread with each post being roughly 1 hour of work. Something like a 5-7 hour map each month. I'll look into that concept. No promises though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legendsmiths Posted November 11, 2010 Report Share Posted November 11, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software If you want a few more options, you could download the Tile Mapper from Wizards and then use all of the tiles in MapTool. While that is more of an online mapping program, the drag and drop aspect of it, combined with the ability to both draw and export maps actually makes it a good way to use those tiles outside of the Tile Mapper interface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted November 11, 2010 Report Share Posted November 11, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software I actually converted the Tile Mapper tiles from 32px to 50px for just this purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted November 11, 2010 Report Share Posted November 11, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software There are several options for map-making software. The two heaviest hitters in the RPG map-making software industry (it's an industry?!?) are Campaign Cartographer 3 and Dundjinni. I own both, and they're very nice for what they do: CC3 is basically a stripped-down CAD program, while Dundjinni uses tiles, but they produce nice results and have a lot of support. Both cost $$$. There are several cartographers who post maps or map samples online (i.e., Paratime Design Cartography); some of these maps are produced with Dundjinni and CC3, and both have galleries where users post their own maps. I assume you'd like to actually make your own maps and can't afford to use the stuff above. As far as freeware goes, you have some options. Hexographer has a free version which lets you make simple hex-grid area maps for free. It's very nice -- I'm using it for my next One-Page Dungeon submission. The author of the blog A Character for Every Game has posted 17 sets of dungeon geomorphs for people to use to organically create dungeons with reusable tiles. I like the old-school look and you can't beat the price point. Print on cardstock for semi-professional-looking results. I've had good luck making my own maps on the fly in Microsoft Visio. It one of the programs you're likely to have on a work computer, raises no eyebrows, but is easily adapted to dungeon and campaign mapping. Many have made stencils for it (i.e., this Cave and Castle Stencil). One that hasn't seen much develpment but shows a lot of promise is AutoREALM. It's similar in style to CC3, but completely free. There's a couple of generators that can automatically produce maps for you of various things. Do you want those? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legendsmiths Posted November 11, 2010 Report Share Posted November 11, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software I actually converted the Tile Mapper tiles from 32px to 50px for just this purpose. Oooh, care to share? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraven Kor Posted November 11, 2010 Report Share Posted November 11, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software AutoREALM has been my favorite for some time. Fairly easy to use, once you get used to a few kinks ("snap-to-grid" and such) It was linked above or I'd link it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted November 11, 2010 Report Share Posted November 11, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software Oooh' date=' care to share?[/quote']http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?t=3693&highlight=dungeon+tiles Go there. Follow instructions. Enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yukonhorror Posted November 12, 2010 Report Share Posted November 12, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software If you want a few more options' date=' you could download the Tile Mapper from Wizards and then use all of the tiles in MapTool. While that is more of an online mapping program, the drag and drop aspect of it, combined with the ability to both draw and export maps actually makes it a good way to use those tiles outside of the Tile Mapper interface. You can convert maps in maptools to jpg images. I can't remember exactly how, but I think it is like edit render or something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordGhee Posted November 12, 2010 Report Share Posted November 12, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software here is a great link page of content and half a dozen map programs http://hiddenway.tripod.com/world/ got it from my drive thru RPG news letter. ton of great stuff Lord Ghee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordGhee Posted November 12, 2010 Report Share Posted November 12, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software Ahhhhgggggggg wrong smiley Lord Ghee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djkester Posted November 13, 2010 Report Share Posted November 13, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software I tried to reply earlier. I'm not sure if I'm breaking a policy in this post but I'll try again in case I just messed up posting it. I suggest heading over to the Cartographers Guild web-site. They have some awesome resources to get into map drawing. I use a combination of tools for map drawing. But one idea that I think works out great. Hand draw your map and scan it in. Then you can use photo editing tools to help clean it up. Basically this gives you a quick inexpensive way to get a lot of the map generated. Also, I think GIMP and Scribus are great for editing and laying out the map into something you can print from. These are both OpenSource products. You can find them with a quick google search. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted November 13, 2010 Report Share Posted November 13, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software I tried to reply earlier. I'm not sure if I'm breaking a policy in this post.....Not to my knowledge. Now if your post consisted of "Click this link and have Virtual Porn Stars Draw Map for You (while they load malware onto your PC)" then I think there might be a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djkester Posted November 13, 2010 Report Share Posted November 13, 2010 Re: Open Source or Free Map Making Software Not to my knowledge. Now if your post consisted of "Click this link and have Virtual Porn Stars Draw Map for You (while they load malware onto your PC)" then I think there might be a problem. LOL I'm sure now it was some sort of user error on my part. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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