Introducing Hexographer: Hex maps made easy

[Ascension]

Good ideas there diceman.

[slapzilla]

Looks great! How does the Custom map numbers grid work?

[SowelBlack]

Thanks a lot for all the compliments!

Neat... both the software and the site in general... any problem with spreading some of the articles?

And repped.

You're welcome to post the other article anywhere, but I'm asking that no one else post about the Hexographer until it is beta (hopefully next week) although it is getting posted elsewhere by people who don't seee my request. That's ok, because it isn't happening much.

This looks really great. When the downloadable version with custom imports is ready I could see me using this a lot for maps on the fly, or roughing out an area to map in detail later.

A request to expand its client-base whilst you're developing:

There are a lot of sci-fi gamers too. A blank black sheet as well as a blank white would be useful, especially if it looked black on the screen but printed white to save my ink. The custom imports will allow for the creation of symbols for planets, bases, fleets, ships and vehicles.

Dunno if that's possible, just a suggestion.

You'll probably see that very soon... let me know what you think when I post that has been added.

Looks great! How does the Custom map numbers grid work?

I'm not sure i understand the question... can you rephrase it? I am working on a new feature that will let you change the hex numbering from xx.yy to yy.xx. You will also be able to choose a different separator character, what number to start numbering the rows and what number for the columns, whether the hex number iis on the top or bottom of the hex, and the hex numbers' font/style/size/color. Is that what you were wondering?

[SowelBlack]

A new version is up.

It has the new hex numbering options (available in the "Settings" window.)

And I did revise the way the base terrain hexes work. I greatly simplified them behind the scenes so it will be easier for me to support an "add custom terrain" feature in the future.

If anyone has suggestions for other icons or better icons or wants to make them and doesn't mind giving them away, please let me know. I'll give you the details. Or link me to a picture that's close to what you want.

Next up: some new terrain hexes (evergreen forests and outer space hexes), some more refactoring of how terrain works (but those will be minor compared to the prior terrain changes) and bug fixes.

Let me know what you think!

[icosahedron]

If anyone has suggestions for other icons or better icons or wants to make them and doesn't mind giving them away, please let me know. I'll give you the details. Or link me to a picture that's close to what you want.

According to the website:

The custom icon graphics will probably expect simple pngs. You’ll be able to use any size you want as the software will scale them to fit within the hexes.

The style of your symbols is not photorealistic. Roughly how many pixels across are your hex symbols, so we can get an idea of how much detail to include?

My to do list includes making some webding style symbols for modern/scifi units for my own use. I might make them Creative Commons and, if so, Hexographer users might be interested - though with my current schedule someone else will almost certainly beat me to it.

I've seen some on the net, but I've found no decent free ones yet. If anyone knows of some it will save me some time and may help Hexographer users.

[SowelBlack]

For the feature icons (citys, towers, mines, shipwrecks, etc.) and terrain graphics (the icons used for the mountains, hills, forests, etc. but not the background color), I'm using transparent pngs that are 250x250 pixels. I stay away from the far corners. These are scaled to 82% of the size of the smaller dimension of each hex then centered. So a hex that is 40x36 will have its icons scaled down to 29 or 30 pixels high (depending on rounding) and wide. Because the very top and bottom of the 40 pixel wide hex will only be 20 pixels, you'll want to avoid the extreme corners of your png. I also plan to allow users to customize the background colors of terrain and the scale percentage of terrain icons and feature icons.

Does that make sense?

Also, can you clarify what you mean by "not photorealistic"? Do you simply prefer a different style for all the icons and terrain graphics? If there is some constructive criticism, I'd like to understand it so I can make the software better.

[icosahedron]

Also, can you clarify what you mean by "not photorealistic"? Do you simply prefer a different style for all the icons and terrain graphics? If there is some constructive criticism, I'd like to understand it so I can make the software better.

No criticism of your software intended, it's brilliant just as it is.

If you look around this site you'll see a wide range of mapping and element styles varying from very symbolistic/cartoony styles to photorealistic/satellite image styles. There's no right or wrong, they're just different ways of representing things.

(I'm just learning all this stuff myself).

Your software has a symbolistic style representative of traditional RPG games - which is great - so if someone were to draw a realistic looking armoured car 'symbol' a couple of thousand pixels across, with shadows and reflections etc, it would look out of place with the rest of the map. OTOH, If a noob like me makes a 'space invaders' symbol ten pixels across with no detail, that might not match your maps either.

So I just wondered what you use. The info you provided will help this beginner to get it right, thanks.