Map Editors in Video Games

[Traphomet]

Hey everyone, I just joined up to The Guild, mainly because I'm interested in neat-looking maps for tabletop RPGs, and partially because I have a particular question to ask of the general populace here.

I tried my hand at generating a world map for my Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign that I'm running, using the Heroes of Might and Magic III map editor. While I found the miscellaneous terrain options and fluff to
be especially to my liking, I was quite displeased with the limits to the size and of the world. I feel quite at home making a rudimentary map in the Heroes III map editor because it's a game I've played extensively over the years.
I'm fairly uncomfortable with traditional pen-and-paper mapmaking , or similar techniques making use of a drawing pad and PhotoShop or GIMP, et cetera, due to some problems with manual dexterity and extreme pickiness.

That said, my actual question is this - Do any of you fine Cartographers have recommendations or suggestions on similar scenario or map editing software that is fairly simple to use, yet also robust and comprehensive?

Thanks for reading,
Traphomet

[Redrobes]

Sounds like you would be looking for "stamp" based map editing. Thats where you take existing icons or bitmaps of pre-made stuff and stamp them down on to the map. A lot like how top down / ISO games do their maps. They use a library of game assets which is just a collection of stamps / icons or whatever you (or the map software) calls them.

The advantage of this is that there is less work to do for the fiddly stuff like tables, chairs, maybe steps, floor tiles etc. The down side is that its not very free form. PS, Gimp and all the other bitmap or vector editors have exactly the reverse problems.

If you want a map that is huge then there are apps out there where you can put the stamps down but instead of putting them down onto a master base bitmap, it holds the types and positions in memory and redraws the map dynamically so there is no limit to the size. Thats also pretty true of exclusively vector based drawing tools too.

So have a look at those types, for instance (and not exclusively)... CC3, FM8, Dundjini, MapForge or look through the maps on this site that have been made using stamps and see what apps they were done with or look through the resources pages and look at the icons / stamps submitted to see what apps they were made for. There is also a sticky post for the software apps available for mapping and focus on the stamp, icon based ones.

[Propaganda Bot]

I'm not sure what the community thinks about Inkarnate, but it just might be the tool you're looking for. You can make pretty rudimentary maps, or, if you have the time and persistence, you can make rather detailed landscapes enough to satisfy yourself with. From a DM to another DM I can promise you one thing. If you put time into it and love your map then your players will love it 10x more.

Link: http://inkarnate.com/

It's in beta, so just be aware of that before going into it. Here's an example of what I managed to make. You could probably make something much better than I.

Oria.jpg

[zebeddesc]

What about this editor in 2021?

[Gamerprinter]

I prefer to use standard graphics applications that let me create anything I want, including maps, instead of map-making only programs. That means Photoshop, GIMP, Illustrator, Affinity, that kind of application, and of course those who know me, I use Xara Designer Pro, a vector program like Illustrator. I never use other people's art - whether doing hand-drawn work, purely vector with photo image fills, or fully 3D generated art, I create all my own symbols. So I'd never use something like Inkarnate, Campaign Cartographer, Wonderdraft, nor even MapTools. Nothing wrong with those programs, especially if you're not an experienced illustrator. We each work differently, have different preferences and different approaches on how we create maps. I won't create a map with somebody else's art. If it's not my art, it's not my map.

GP

[Tiana]

I won't create a map with somebody else's art. If it's not my art, it's not my map.

While stamps are a popular feature of map making programs, I think you're missing out on some seriously beneficial features by digging in your heels. I've been using Other World Mapper, and often, I don't use its symbols at all... but I do use its terrain drawing tool which automatically fractalizes the shape of the line and allows me to make more complex features faster, same with the river and lake drawing tool. These also come with the ability to assign textures to these shapes, make reusable themes of textures and colors that I've set up for lakes, rivers, land, sea... which makes it easy if someone comes along and wants a map that looks just like one of my old ones in style, since I can save a template of the style I just made.

I also use the ability to import an svg as a land shape and apply a land style to instantly, instead of doing 12 steps to get to that point in Photoshop it takes me 2 steps in OWM.

It's working smarter, not harder. While you might be opposed to stamps in favor of artistic integrity, every map-making program has several other cartographic features which are designed to speed up common aspects of the task. For example, image managers for large iconsets. You can enter your own assets and never use any built in ones.

You don't have to use any of Wonderdraft's premade symbols to take advantage of its built in name generator, which you can set up your own comma formatted list of name components to take advantage of, making a name generator based on your own lore's conlang.

It's kind of like... you CAN do vector in Photoshop... but it'll be easier to do in Illustrator or Affinity Designer, because that program is meant for the purpose.

I never use a map making program alone for a map. I usually make png sections that I can assemble in another program with blending modes and texture and styles.

When this post was originally made back in 2017 I think I might have dismissed map making programs myself, but now I use Other World Mapper for most of my projects, at least in part, and I use the name generator and frame AI auto resizer component of Wonderdraft.

I still find Inkarnate maps look a little 'Inkarnaty' but Wonderdraft has come quite a ways. It's still not an interface I love but it has some interesting cartographic tools for a rather low price. Considering the amount of time I save when someone asks me if I can can tweak this one river or this shoreline a little bit because I have the vector base for it set up in OWM, instead of having to redo the whole chain of effects on my base like I would in a Photoshop style map, I think it's worth it to play with a new program instead of being purely founded on a presumed sense of integrity.

If you were a traditional artist and someone came up with a new kind of paper or a new kind of pencil or a new hand stabilizer, someone would probably criticize it too. We are artists, but we are also composers. The composition is what makes it your art. The tools exist to help us make our art a little faster. At some point, a person has to accept outside help for a project of a certain size to be successful, or spend more time than they might really want on production.

If I can shave off significant hours of production time AND make my final product more easily editable to suit my client's vision if mine wasn't aligned, I think that's worth a loss of purity of creation. It saves me time. It saves my clients money. I am thus more efficient.

I'm honestly surprised you feel this strongly that you haven't even tried the programs and realized they're more than stamp sets... you're 100% a business cartographer, you publish tons of work, I would think efficiency and editability of your work would both be valuable things.

[Gamerprinter]

Of course, Tiana - even the software I use allows me to do things to the lines to make it into art instead of just a 4 point line. I can create art and call it a line and draw it with the line tool. I simply stated with my preference and belief. For somebody else it may be the best way to generate a map. I'm not saying it's wrong for everybody, rather it was wrong for me - I wouldn't do that under any circumstance.

Another big difference with me, these days, is I'm fairly certain my freelance cartography career is over - there are a few old clients that if they asked for a map, that I'd still comply for them, but for the greater market, I'm done as a freelancer. I'm finding that my own publications make a lot more money in the same amount of time I spend doing large commissions that preclude me from getting my own publishing work complete. Freelance is now in the way of me making better profits. So I really don't even need to concern myself with the needs of the person commissioning the art, since I'm the guy doing the commissioning, and the guy creating the art - and looking at my 3D thread in the General Forum, I create all the other art for my projects as well.

Again, I'm not criticizing anything, I'm simply pointing how I prefer to create map - which may be totally unique in the world. I'm not stating how anybody other than me should do anything. Do what works best for you. I think you misunderstand. I don't use just Xara Designer Pro, although a good 90% of my maps were created exclusively using Xara. Xara can do most everything I need, there's no need to look at other software, when everything I need is in Xara. Still I do hand-drawn work. I sometimes find the need to tweak color or blur in the terrain using Photoshop, but I rarely need that. I've been using 3D extensively even in vector based maps because some map objects are more difficult to depict in 2D and 3D can help. I've also created entirely 3D generated maps - no vector, image editing, eveything is 3D except the labeling. So I've always used more than one software application in many of my maps. Regarding Xara map, everything about it is efficient and editable - I find it the easiest graphics program to use and very powerful.

I am not opposed to looking at other software - I've used Campaign Cartographer, Affinity, Photoshop, Illustrator, GIMP, Dundjini, even played with Inkarnate. I've also used Painter, Maya, 3D Studio, Nichimen Mirai, Nichimen Nendo, Cinema 4D, ZBrush, Blender, etc. I've on occasion used 4 different programs working on the same map. However, I use Xara because it can do 3D, I can make the art look like it was created in Photoshop, as vector it has infinitely more control with lines and shapes than any image editor. It's fast, easy, powerful, and I can create a map with it alone, where I might need five other programs to do the same using any other software. I don't usually need more than what Xara provides. I'm not limiting myself at all.

[georgesnad]

If we talk about map editors in games, then Meyan immediately remembers cs go before his eyes... After all, developers update maps and servers very often. Thereby eliminating server problems and malfunctions. But some maps in CS go are so designed that sometimes you don't want to return from the virtual world to the real one. Has anyone ever had this when you're so involved in the game that you can't get distracted for a second? That's what I have all the time... And I like some maps so much that I even put myself on the computer lock cs go wallpapers.