View Poll Results: Design a 24 x 36 map intended to be printed

Voters
46. You may not vote on this poll
  • yes

    41 89.13%
  • no

    5 10.87%
Page 2 of 4 FirstFirst 1234 LastLast
Results 11 to 20 of 33

Thread: Design a map for print

  1. #11

    Post Same hardware, but no problem

    Quote Originally Posted by jfrazierjr View Post
    That was my first thought as well. I know when I did my Sept Challenge at only 3000x3000 (150 ppi I think) towards the end, I was having 2 GB spikes and had to close out GIMP every hour or so or it would just stop responding. Even then, doing most filter actions took 30-60 seconds to completed, and this is a a Core 2Duo with 4 GB Ram(I really need to look into getting 2 8GB sticks). I can just imagine my compute going up in smoke trying to an image large enough to make for a nice printed battle map.

    Not saying it's a bad idea.. but I expect the number of entries to be smallish due to the machine requirements.
    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

  2. #12
    Guild Journeyer
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Cairo
    Posts
    181

    Default

    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

  3. #13

    Post

    Quote Originally Posted by Gamerprinter View Post
    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.
    It is not that they are memory hogs, that is just one heck of a lot of raster data!

    That is 18.6 million pixels. In 8 bit RGBA, that is ~71MB per layer, so no matter what you will be into a lot of memory paging!

    -Rob A>

  4. #14
    Community Leader RPMiller's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Watching you from in here
    Posts
    3,226

    Post

    Quote Originally Posted by jfrazierjr View Post
    (I really need to look into getting 2 8GB sticks).
    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.
    Bill Stickers is innocent! It isn't Bill's fault that he was hanging out in the wrong place.

    Please make an effort to tag all threads. This will greatly enhance the usability of the forums.



  5. #15
    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Apex, NC USA
    Posts
    3,057

    Post

    Quote Originally Posted by RPMiller View Post
    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
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

  6. #16

    Post

    Quote Originally Posted by jfrazierjr View Post
    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.
    Assuming the laptop has firewire, I have heard good reports on using an external firewire drive as a photoshop swap partition...

    -Rob A>

  7. #17
    Administrator Redrobes's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    England
    Posts
    7,244
    Blog Entries
    8

    Post

    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 !!!

  8. #18
    Community Leader RPMiller's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Watching you from in here
    Posts
    3,226

    Default

    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.
    Bill Stickers is innocent! It isn't Bill's fault that he was hanging out in the wrong place.

    Please make an effort to tag all threads. This will greatly enhance the usability of the forums.



  9. #19
    Administrator Redrobes's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    England
    Posts
    7,244
    Blog Entries
    8

    Post

    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.

  10. #20
    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Apex, NC USA
    Posts
    3,057

    Post

    Quote Originally Posted by RPMiller View Post
    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.
    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??)

    Quote Originally Posted by RPMiller View Post
    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.
    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.

Page 2 of 4 FirstFirst 1234 LastLast

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •