Map Crafter
Community Forums/Showcase/Map Crafter
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Map crafter is a tool that lets you paint a terrain and stamp icon objects onto it. Then you have the choice of saving top down images or 2d and 3d versions of that map. You can also walk around it in 3d, or Spit out an exported model. It is being designed for pen and paper RPG group, but could have many uses.  |
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| I can see a very very cool worms/schorched eath like 'My island is bigger than your island' being made with that. Or even mega-lo-mania 2! Good <bleep> |
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| Reminds me of Ultima 7. |
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| looks awsome |
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| Looks brilliant! Ryan |
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| You're developing this? |
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| this looks awesome! |
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| yeah im developing it. My only issue at this point is exporting to a popular format.. .X although ive got it wokring in my low poly editors.. doesnt seem to like the map exports as they can range in at the 80k area, and even though im splitting verts between surfaces its not working yet. still messig with it.. I have b3d export in however. |
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| Very nice job, please go on and keep us informed ! Sergio. |
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| What are dots on ground ? |
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"dots on ground" you might be referring to the textures? The program is being designed for viewing that is not very close so the tiny texture maps I used i just dithered them.. The terrain texture maps are compacted onto a .PNG and so can be edited if the user wishes.. If its a big enoughissue ill add a smooth option on export wich would soften the main terrain texture. anywho. here are some more shots. Ill hotlink one, the rest are clickable http://www.economicsoftsol.com/mcnews1.jpg? http://www.economicsoftsol.com/mcnews2.jpg? http://www.economicsoftsol.com/mcnews3.jpg? http://www.economicsoftsol.com/mcnews4.jpg? http://www.economicsoftsol.com/mcnews5.jpg? http://www.economicsoftsol.com/mcnews6.jpg? after mapcrafters release there will be more drop model paks available including Orc village, undead city, elven structures , and a few more landscape and foilage items. |
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| I'm confused to what this is going to be used for. The distant shots look great, no question, the close up shots however display different scles of textures that doesn't really look very nice. |
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| I'm confused to what this is going to be used for. From 1st post: :) It is being designed for pen and paper RPG group |
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| Note to self: Read all the posts. |
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| It's actually a fairly nice idea. I've seen a lot of pen and paper rpg map making programs which produce maps like this: http://www.silverdragonpress.com/rpg/images/voyreem_c2164.png But this program takes it into the third dimension. Not as detailed for sure. Half-way between the two is this program: http://www.celtic-webs.com/theunspokenword/images/furthestfinished3.jpg It's 3D *and* highly detailed, but its not Blitz. :) +BlackD |
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| promising project. |
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| Thanks for the positive feedback. its very motivating. Here is a shot of a playable game peice im working on. Now im not a very good modeller, and im even worse at texturemapping. I plan on giving this to TogaMario/Tyler who is my modeller on this project to give him an idea of what im lookong for the game peices. Its my plan to have about 20 playable peices , and many more NPC peices. The way they will be textured is the bottom rectangle is a chunk of wood or base , and the peice will be colorful like it was painted with modelling paint. Hopefully have enough detail in the texture to know its a game peice, and also know that the game peice is a warrior, or a paladin.. ect. just from looking at it.  |
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| I play a lot of rpgs... starting a warhammer frp campaign tomorrow actually... I can tell you right now that if your price for this is as reasonable as your other software I will purchase it immediately upon release. |
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| Thank you, we are considering $20.00 USD. for the software and starter model pack. There is an SDK to make your own paks as well. |
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| sold. :) |
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| Interesting, very interesting. What are the map size/dimension limitations? Can maps be generated or just 'painted'? |
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| Map size can be up to 2048x2048. that means the main terrain texture is 2048x2048 and the exported model is 2048x2048 blitz units in size. Random map generation is not in yet The program allows for easy model pak additions, saves exported data each export goes in its own directory under the exported folder, normal saves go in the saves folder.. When exporting the model, and all required textures are copied to that exports folder. for easy sorting. |
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| Have you integrated FTE and FLE into the program?? |
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| Im really impressed. Looks useful! |
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| its unrelated to FTE and FLE. mapcrafter is ready for release and will be up on my website very soon. Im going to add the ability to import external Heightmap and Texturemap files for anyone who might like to get down and dirty in photoshop and make their own. You can also adjust the programs sensativity to heightmap data, light position, and smoothing value before you export the map. Ill post again when its up on the site. |
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| still waitin... |
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| argh... paypal is down anyway from what I'm seeing. :/ |
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| and now it's back... and I've finagled a payment to you for map crafter but I'm holding off pushing the checkout button til I see a final on the price. I put 20 bux in. :) |
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| (and you can see how impatient for something I am... can you just imagine what I'm going through waiting for blitzmax?????) :) |
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| lol.. the program is done.. im just tweaking some of the models , and completing the help file .. Kanati, you may email me Gamemaker04@... and well get you hooked up. It may not be on the site for awhile as my web guy is nowhere to be found. |
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| Its up now. |
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| Purchased. Now if I didn't have to run and get set up to play warhammer tonight I'd bug you to send it to me. :) Kanati |
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| Does it have an option to show distances? |
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| RifRaf: The .X model format can only have upto 65356 ie 2^16, vertices since it uses shorts as its Indices data, you can have 32bit indices in DirectX but not all cards support it. What you might want to do is try storing more then one mesh in the .X file. Laters Drago |
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| @Drago. Thanks.. since im struggling with X im going to learn a few more formats. Map crafter for now will only export .B3D ill be releasing B3D converters specifically for Map crafter exports. and these will of coarse be free to all. They might not work with any model, but will be tested with Mapcrafter B3D models @Kanati , youll ahve in in about 10 mins. @Perturbatio, explain what you mean by showing distances. if you would like any features added .. tell me and i will add them if i can. Im asumming by distance you mean some sort of visible ruler ? |
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| Thank you to all that have ordered!! I was having issues with nvidia cards because i was using texture flag 256, and copyrect to a texture. The fix for nvidia cards slows the drwaing process slightly, but its reported to be a decent speed still. (i dont have nvidia so havent seen for myself) So the Zip has 2 EXEs one generic, and one for trouble NVIDIA cards. please report any Nvidia card issues. ive got it to work on 3 nvidia test machines just fine. |
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| never mind... I complain before I click. :) Kanati (would like to see a higher res on the editor if possible tho) |
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| kanati, had an issue with server .. The first file had issues.. I just reuploaded it. Sorry for the trouble but you may have to redownload. editor is window mode you can maximize it, and you can zoom in and out on map area as you see fit to |
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| Thanks again for all the support from everyone.. not sure if it all came from blitz community, but thanks anyway. We are going to ad a snap to grid option while placing objects, and and create a dungeon snap together pak. |
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| RifRaf - I noticed FLE and FTE aren't free anymore. :( Yet they keep their titles. |
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| @digital fortress. Your wrong. FLE is on my site as a free download. and the Full version of FTE was never given out for free only a demo. Thats a little off topic to this thread , my email is posted on my profile if you want to discuss off topic. |
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tweaking some lightmapping features.  |
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| uber cool! This looks very profesional |
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| Thank you Aves_Fox. Map Crafter has got its first update, we have improved the workflow for making maps a bit, and tweaked the lightmapping abilities some. |
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| What image export formats are there? |
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| You can take a snapshot in editor, or you can take snapshots while flying around the map in 3d, they are saved as screenshotx.bmp. Does there need to be more image formats? Im certain it would not be hard to add a few if users need it. |
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| no, no need your right. image conversions the #1 use of MSpaint (other than retro remakes ) |
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| looks good :) |
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| @Perturbatio, explain what you mean by showing distances. if you would like any features added .. tell me and i will add them if i can. Im asumming by distance you mean some sort of visible ruler ? Yes, essentially a ruler so that the GM can know how far it is to a particular place. But perhaps also a sort of spline ruler (to mark out a journey along a winding road for instance), since the shortest distance isn't always the easiest (or fastest) way to go. |
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| Perhaps a few grids to choose from to overlay across the map itself? square and hexagon. Then you could asign distances to each grid space? Well I could do both easily Ill whip up some overlay images .. left, right, top, bottom, and square ruler, also a few grids. Right clicking on colormap will allow you to choose a colormap as usual but overlay onto the existing colormap instead of replacing it. Let me know if this will work for you. |
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I am putting together a few more free model packs for mapcrafter. some shots of what ive got so far. http://www.economicsoftsol.com/temp/newmcshot2.jpg? http://www.economicsoftsol.com/temp/newmcshot3.jpg? http://www.economicsoftsol.com/temp/newmcshot4.jpg? The new pack so far has : A bridge, a new tower, a new house, church, grain ben, rock quary, lumber yard, worhship totem. Im goign to add a few more to it also. |
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| Hmm, I immediately thought this program is perfect for pre-visualizing mini-maps to eventually create full size 3D maps for a game. One thing I always have trouble with is placement of things in large scale maps in relation to geography and such. This program seems like it would fill that slot nicely. And, that you can actually save the shots as 2D top-down views.. hey.. even better! Perfect for using for in-game maps. I've purchased this, in fact and am going to use it for just that. very cool looking! Also, as an aside the newer shots of FLE I've seen are looking very nice! |
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| has it got occlusion? |
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| Thanks for reviving a 2-month old thread... |
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| Any chance you guys will set up ordering options for those of us who do not have PayPal? I would really like to get Map Crafter. It looks very useful :c) |
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