Free mapping software assets anywhere?

[Gromek]

Hi, I was just starting to get into my new MapTool program and noticed how few assets that came with the download. I was hoping if anyone could post links to any free, quality, fantasy textures, objects, tokens, etc.? This is strictly for VTT gaming. I have PaintShop Pro, but would like to save that for speciality assets. Appreciated.

[Midgardsormr]

Sounds like you want the CSUAC: http://www.vintyri.org/CSUAC/

It's been a while since I last looked at it, but if I recall correctly, most of the assets are png format with an alpha channel, so you should be able to drop them right into MapTool with no problems.

[Neyjour]

There's also:

Dundjinni forums
RPGMapShare

Bogie's Mapping Elements (here at the CG)
My RPG Map Freebies (at deviantART)

And I've been collecting Battlemap freebies found at deviantART: Map Resources: Battlemaps

[wdmartin]

I find a useful tactic is to do an image search limited to the Dundjinni forums:

1. Go to Google Images
2. Type in a search keyword followed by site:dundjinni.com. For example "statue site:dundjinni.com" (no quotes).
3. Hit the search button.

This will show you a bunch of images that you can browse through. It's often useful to visit the page containing the image, because frequently people will post groups of related assets together.

You can do the same trick with the Cartographers Guild forums. Just substitute site:cartographersguild.com instead of site:dundjinni.com. Both forums have mapping objects, finished maps, and tutorials. I generally start with the Dundjinni forums for mapping objects, while the Cartographers Guild is better for finished maps.

[Gromek]

All of this is great advice - much appreciated. You guys have given me enough assets to last for years of great dungeon map making. I should probably spend some coin and get a commercial mapping program, I don't think that MapTool will handle texture fills. I may end up drawing maps by hand on my computer using Gimp or Inkscape - is there a free mapping program that does texture fills?

[wdmartin]

There is a way to do texture fills using MapTool's drawing tools. You need to select the texture as your "paint", then brush it in. That said, I've been using MapTool for a couple of years, but I quit using it for actual mapping almost immediately because the user interface for the drawing tools is so incredibly annoying. These days I make my maps in Photoshop, occasionally with some help from Inkscape for vector bits.

If you're looking for a free program with some serious capability, well, there's always Gimp. It's definitely capable, and there are a pretty fair number of tutorials for it in the Tutorials forum here at the guild. Oh, and speaking of textures, I don't think these were mentioned earlier:

• CGTextures
• TextureLib

Both very good sources for seamless textures in a wide variety of materials (stone, wood, dirt, grass and plants, etc), plus non-seamless photos that can sometimes be used to make assets. Like CGTextures had a great picture of a wood fence that made a very nice bridge in a sewer.

[Gromek]

Thanks - Even tho I see where assets are grabbable, I don't think that I'm going for anything quite that photo-realistic (those Japanese tiles were impressive) - I may end up using Gimp as a fully flexible tool, being able to drop assets anywhere with full tile shading. Appreciated.