Design a map for print

[mmmmmpig]

A challenge with a prize... Sounds cool.

Very Generous GP, if I could rep you again at the moment, I would

[torstan]

Great idea, but I have to admit that my laptop with its puny 2Gb of RAM will die if I try to generate a 7200 by 10800 pixel map! Maybe this is just the world's way of telling me to accept the inevitable and get a better computer...

[Sigurd]

Great Idea! And very supportive Game Printer.

I'm in Guelph Ontario - near Toronto. I'm curious about postage to my place - not like I'm planning to win or anything . More like I'd like to support your business.

Assuming something comes of this, anything we should do about size for the upload\download of these things? How bout a smaller view and a larger link (perhaps off site)? People could post WIP views but save site space for their final work?


Sigurd

[Gamerprinter]

Great Idea! And very supportive Game Printer.

I'm in Guelph Ontario - near Toronto. I'm curious about postage to my place - not like I'm planning to win or anything . More like I'd like to support your business.

Assuming something comes of this, anything we should do about size for the upload\download of these things? How bout a smaller view and a larger link (perhaps off site)? People could post WIP views but save site space for their final work?


Sigurd

I've shipped maps to Canada via US Mail and UPS, both relatively inexpensive, in the $10 USD range. I ship maps in a mailing tube. I've got regular clients in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnepeg.

Just so you know, I charge $2.99 per square foot for color printing, thus a 24 x 36 map is priced at $17.94 per map. ($4.50 more for lamination.)

Regarding uploading files, I can create a temporary FTP directory allowing you to FTP upload, give you a temp password. Or you can find any of several sites dedicated to temporary upload and storage of files for online access. Both ways work fine.

For the challenge, if there is one using this, I'd say upload a lower res version for posting and voting, or an extremely compact JPG version at 300 dpi. Be sure to have the ability to export at the preferred resolution and dimensions for the map, if you win.

GP

[Gamerprinter]

Whichever challenge idea gets to be for this month - as in BryGuy's suggested Space Map - is it still possible to create a map for print, as in this suggestion?

GP

[jfrazierjr]

Great idea, but I have to admit that my laptop with its puny 2Gb of RAM will die if I try to generate a 7200 by 10800 pixel map! Maybe this is just the world's way of telling me to accept the inevitable and get a better computer...

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.

[Gamerprinter]

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

[RobA]

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>

[RPMiller]

(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.

[jfrazierjr]

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...