With you hand drawing most maps and touching up electronically I don't imagine you have the sheer number of layers some of us do on maps, I think its that that really eats through memory
yes
no
Strange, but I have pretty much the same hardware... 2 GB RAM, 600 GB harddrive... almost all of my maps are in the 18 x 24 if not 24 x 36 dimension. In Xara all the work quantified at 96 ppi at creation, it only becomes 300 dpi when I export the final.
I guess since Xara is a vector app, far less memory is chewed up in the making of the map. Final map then is exported to finally create a huge file.
Making a 36 x 48 map at 300 dpi is easy for me.
I knew that PS was a memory hog, I didn't realize GIMP was as well.
GP
Gamer Printshop Publishing, Starfinder RPG modules and supplements, Map Products, Map Symbol Sets and Map Making Tutorial Guide
DrivethruRPG store
Artstation Gallery - Maps and 3D illustrations
With you hand drawing most maps and touching up electronically I don't imagine you have the sheer number of layers some of us do on maps, I think its that that really eats through memory
My tutorials: Using GIMP to Create an Artistic Regional Map ~ All My Tutorials
My GIMP Scripts: Rotating Brush ~ Gradient from Image ~ Mosaic Tile Helper ~ Random Density Map ~ Subterranean Map Prettier ~ Tapered Stroke Path ~ Random Rotate Floating Layer ~ Batch Image to Pattern ~ Better Seamless Tiles ~ Tile Shuffle ~ Scale Pattern ~ Grid of Guides ~ Fractalize path ~ Label Points
My Maps: Finished Maps ~ Challenge Entries ~ My Portfolio: www.cartocopia.com
Just wanted to give you this link before you go and buy those.
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system...AE/PAEmem.mspx
Assuming you are running XP or 32 bit Vista and not Windows Server.
Nope.. I just got this machine and it's Vista 64... Frankly, I made it a priority to get a 64 bit machine just for the reasons of RAM support. If this was not a laptop, I would slam another physical hard drive in and move my swap partition over there to give myself a bit of a performance boost, but alas, this is not an option.
I had also thought about using my second partition (which is clean) and putting some version of linux on it. While I have used linux in the past in playing, I am not sure I want to deal with the headache, especially getting wireless to work, along with tablet set up, etc. And frankly, I hate having to compile crap(and the pursuant configuration headaches to get it to compile) to get an application working...
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
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Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
My tutorials: Using GIMP to Create an Artistic Regional Map ~ All My Tutorials
My GIMP Scripts: Rotating Brush ~ Gradient from Image ~ Mosaic Tile Helper ~ Random Density Map ~ Subterranean Map Prettier ~ Tapered Stroke Path ~ Random Rotate Floating Layer ~ Batch Image to Pattern ~ Better Seamless Tiles ~ Tile Shuffle ~ Scale Pattern ~ Grid of Guides ~ Fractalize path ~ Label Points
My Maps: Finished Maps ~ Challenge Entries ~ My Portfolio: www.cartocopia.com
I think its a very generous offer and would create some excellent large maps. For those people who have older machines then they could map it in inkscape and post the inkscape file over or create a PDF from it and send that.
You could make up the map in bits and stitch them together too. Although the image parts in Gimp might be large the final single layer ought to be of the fraction of 70 odd Mb kind of size - small enough that a stitching program ought not to barf.
I agree that it would limit the field of entries tho but it would make for an interesting challenge.
Just to add to the Ram stick thing. If you have a 32 bit machine then your pretty much limited to about 3.5Gb of physical Ram. Go 64bit, you know it makes sense !!!
Just be careful regarding 64 bit. I have been reading a lot of reports lately that a lot of software is failing compatibility testing with 64 bit Vista. Even Microsoft Office 2007 fails. Make sure to verify that your favorite software is compatible and will function correctly before making the leap. Also, do some research even if it seems to work. There have been a few reports that 32 bit apps running under 64 bit Windows are producing recursive registry entries and bloating the registry to gigabytes in size with well over millions of new entries of redundant data. I've verified only a couple of them so far, but it seems to behaving the way the reports say.
As a related side note to this derailment, Windows 7 is slated for release early next year or early 2010. LOL I love the M$ advertising machine.
Given I am running 64 bit, do you have some links to the list or can show what I might have to look out for. I have been running 64 bit for about 2 years now and I have to say its been excellent though I don't stoop so low as to use MS Office. In the beginning it was sometimes difficult to get drivers for some stuff and that is still true for old/out of date hardware but all new stuff seems fine.
Well... I got 64 bit specifically to be able to deal with larger image sizes in GIMP. I use my laptop at the gaming table and in Maptool, so as long as it works for that, I will be fine. I also play a few games here and there.. but it something does not work, I can always play on my older desktop (just 2 years old physically, but with first generation Athlon x2 chip (perhaps 3 years old??)
Unlike Apple? I would have gotten a Mac, but it still ****es me off that they are so damn far behind on java AND you have to upgrade OS's to get the latest java version to work. AND have to pay extra money on top of all that for near equal hardware...
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
----------------------------------------------------------
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.