WIP- Vhode Icelands

[jfrazierjr]

It's done in 72 ppi
Then again I'm not that concerned because this is really more for testing the methods, because now in the future with the techniques that I've learned... We make it better than it was before.
Better.
Stronger.
Faster.
er...

If you try something like this again and have the horse power on your machine, try to go for something like 200 -300 DPI so people can zoom way in. Others can really help you dial this in better for VTT's other than I. I REALLY think this would be a nice map to use in a game session.

anyways, Yea, I refined the details alot. I smudged any remaining hard-lined mountainside, I erased most of the 'splatter' rock formations that weren't a mountain shape. (those were not intentional, it's part of the random creation of the mountains.)

Yep, some of the places getting blown out by the whites now have just the hint of texture on them so it looks like they have small nooks and crannies.

Looks good. I am REALLY getting very fond of the smudge tool. How well do you think it works in this application?

But yea,, I'd like to try to make a map for VTT.
err...by the way....
what is VTT?

heh.. Virtual Table Top. Software upon which maps are show to players who are represented as tokens that can be moved on the map. In some cases, each player has their own computer and has direct control of their character(s), while in others there is an external monitor and the GM moves the tokens based on the players prompting. Redrobes has one he made named ViewingDale and I know of at least 15+ people here on the boards that have used Maptool. Most of these programs have chat tools and some functionality to roll an arbitrary "dice" and spit out the results to the chat window. If you are following D&D 4E, their Gametable product is an example of a VTT (if it ever becomes real software)


Joe

[Midgardsormr]

For what it's worth, you can safely ignore "dpi" if you're not designing for print. All that matters to a VTT is the number of pixels--horizontal and vertical measurements--not how large the image will be on paper, which is the only place that dpi matters.

So for the purposes of this discussion, a more useful question would be "What is your working resolution?"

For some guidelines on mapping for VTTs, it may be useful to look over the dormouse's assessment of the various entries for the May mapping challenge: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...?t=2107&page=6

Those comments relate specifically to making battlemat-scale maps.

[GlassSphere]

Unless sombody requests a print of me, I doubt I'll be printing anything soon. On top of it, I don't have a photoshop 'creativity lisence' thing, as they call it, so it'd be illegal for me to ever sell a print (not that anyone would know but I'd be haunted by it).

What should the measurements / resolution be for a VTT map? Is there a max? Is player scale adjustable in the program? Is the image scale adjustable?
This seems alot more like a region map than a battle scale map, but are region maps also usable in VTT?

I really enjoyed the DnD ruleset and sortof understand it through and through, because of a PC game- Neverwinter Nights. I played on a RP server/world for quite a while. It actually was kinda boring unless a DM/admin was online, then it became fun... that is, if he wasn't giving some epic quest to the other super-high level people. I wonder how/where/when I could play a game or something so I could get somewhat familiar how it works in VTT, I'm certain that would let me know how to create maps alot better designed for game purposes.

[jfrazierjr]

Unless sombody requests a print of me, I doubt I'll be printing anything soon. On top of it, I don't have a photoshop 'creativity lisence' thing, as they call it, so it'd be illegal for me to ever sell a print (not that anyone would know but I'd be haunted by it).

What should the measurements / resolution be for a VTT map? Is there a max? Is player scale adjustable in the program? Is the image scale adjustable?
This seems alot more like a region map than a battle scale map, but are region maps also usable in VTT?

I really enjoyed the DnD ruleset and sortof understand it through and through, because of a PC game- Neverwinter Nights. I played on a RP server/world for quite a while. It actually was kinda boring unless a DM/admin was online, then it became fun... that is, if he wasn't giving some epic quest to the other super-high level people. I wonder how/where/when I could play a game or something so I could get somewhat familiar how it works in VTT, I'm certain that would let me know how to create maps alot better designed for game purposes.

If you are more intersted in VTT and would like to learn a bit more about D&D at the same time, check out the forums on rptools.net. People frequently post requests for players and some GM's may accept a drop in person who is interested but may not be able to commit to a full time schedule at the time.

Joe

[torstan]

For maptool, around 2000x2000 px is a good size for a map, but it can go larger as long as the file-size is kept under control. Also, it can hold many maps, so larger areas can be broken up a little.