Mapping programs?

Narl · Post by **Narl** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:38 am

I've saw some dungeon mapping software in the game store yesterday. Can anyone recommend something that does dungeon and wilderness maps? Something simple will do....

Thanks,

Narl

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 1:16 pm

AutoREALM does simple.

Gribble · Post by **Gribble** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:43 pm

I'm using NBOS Fractal Mapper at the moment, but have become partial to Dundjinni maps recently.

Inkpot · Post by **Inkpot** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:47 pm

serleran wrote:
AutoREALM does simple.

Seconded.

Ink
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 7:04 pm

Thirded. Plus I think it is still free.

Jackal · Post by **Jackal** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 11:15 am

I'm using NBOS Fractal Mapper for my campaign document and it's great. It is, however, not free and does require a little playing with unless you're already familiar with mapping programs (but I guess they all do).

Catweazle · Post by **Catweazle** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 11:42 pm

Dungeon Crafter has become a little elusive tot rack down lately, but it can still be found, and is very easy to use, with pleasing results.

Autorealm, as has been said, is also a decent pfree package.

If you've got some money and a bit of time, Campaign Cartographer is great to use, but it takes some learning to make it work well. It does reward the effort, though.

I haven't tried Dundjinni, but I hear good things about it.
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moriarty777 · Post by **moriarty777** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 3:53 am

I've started to use Dundjinni which I rather enjoy. I've tried Autorealm and the fact that it is OpenSource is great but I found it a bit 'obtuse' and slightly counter intuitive when I tried to use it but I haven't given up on it quite yet.

I would love to track down a copy of Dungeon Crafter but I haven't been successful yet.

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Emryys · Post by **Emryys** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 7:35 am

moriarty777 wrote:
I would love to track down a copy of Dungeon Crafter but I haven't been successful yet.

1.41 DC is available at the DungeonForge website
I would also suggest checking out DF and the prog Mapx, both available there...
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moriarty777 · Post by **moriarty777** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 4:04 am

Emryys wrote:
1.41 DC is available at the DungeonForge website
I would also suggest checking out DF and the prog Mapx, both available there...

Really? I tried Dungeon Forge which seemed to have a lot of potential but I liked the ease of Dundjinni better. Dungeon Crafter has been something I've been looking for a while but haven't had incredible luck finding. Did Dungeon Crafter end up being a pre-cursor to Dungeon Forge? As for Mapx... that's another one I'll have to check. Thanks for the heads up.

Moriarty the Red
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Jackal · Post by **Jackal** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 5:15 pm

Dungeon Crafter 1.41 can be found here:
http://www.dungeon.gr/archivesh.php?cid=9

At least I assume this is what everyone is talking about as I've never used it. If someone in the know could check the file and confirm it that would be great...thanks much.

Tadhg · Post by **Tadhg** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 7:24 pm

Jackal wrote:
Dungeon Crafter 1.41 can be found here:
http://www.dungeon.gr/archivesh.php?cid=9

At least I assume this is what everyone is talking about as I've never used it. If someone in the know could check the file and confirm it that would be great...thanks much.

Yep, that's it. Although the program startup has some weirdness - it looks for a file, but I just cancel and then the program starts. Hmm, I've seen this with some other map programs - hexmapper for instance. Might just be older programs.

Anywho, DC seems pretty good, it reminds me of Dungeonforge.
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Witterquick · Post by **Witterquick** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 8:58 pm

I'm a dunjinni fan, in fact I posted a map I used in a recent game on these forums:
http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/viewtopic ... llordgames

What followed was a bit of discussion regarding the product, which could be helpful.
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Tadhg · Post by **Tadhg** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:13 pm

Witterquick wrote:
I'm a dunjinni fan, in fact I posted a map I used in a recent game on these forums:
http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/viewtopic ... llordgames

What followed was a bit of discussion regarding the product, which could be helpful.

Is the dunjinni program a freebee? And do you by any chance have a link?

Thanks.
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Emryys · Post by **Emryys** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 4:03 am

Rhuvein wrote:
Is the dunjinni program a freebee? And do you by any chance have a link?

Commercial at $39.95... very nice though
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moriarty777 · Post by **moriarty777** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 4:18 am

Thanks you very much for the Dungeon Crafter links -- I've grabbed it and started playing with it. Great stuff... simple and quick.

As far as Dundjinni is concerned, I'm afraid to say that it is not free. It is however, quite nice.
http://www.dundjinni.com/

You can DL the demo to check it out but you can't save anything with the demo. Enough is there to get a good feel. There are a couple of shortcomings with the program though. One is the restricting EULA but if mean to use it strictly for personal use, you won't have a problem with it. The other is that the program seems to be Java-based which means it's probably a bit of a system hog.

On the upside, the maps you design can also be printed out as reference maps or battlemaps for minis which is very cool. There is also a bunch of SRD stuff bundles (such as creatures and stuff) which is less useful for us C&C players but still interesting. Ease of use and how your creations can end up looking very professional is also nice. You can port in other images to use or other user-based art making the program a bit flexible.

Bottom line is how much you'll use it and can you justify the cost... the base program is $39.95 which includes a dungeon and wilderness art pack. If you add the user packs (free), you have a pretty extensive collection. However, there a couple other art packs equally nice which will add to the cost of the program.

If you are looking for just a VERY basic program... from what I've seen of Dungeon Crafter it fits the bill and is very easy to use. To be honest, what I've tried of Dungeon Forge (which is closer to Dundjinni), I didn't like it as much as Dungeon Crafter (thus far) or Dundjinni. But that's my opinion for what it's worth.

Thanks again for the DC link... I'm having some fun with it!

Moriarty the Red
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Tadhg · Post by **Tadhg** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 5:46 pm

Emryys wrote:
Commercial at $39.95... very nice though

Thanks and yes very reasonable price.
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"Enjoy a 'world' where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!" ~ Gary Gygax

"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes:" - Macbeth

Tadhg · Post by **Tadhg** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 5:48 pm

moriarty777 wrote:
You can DL the demo to check it out but you can't save anything with the demo. Enough is there to get a good feel. There are a couple of shortcomings with the program though.

Thanks for your comments, Moriarty. I'll check out the demo!
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"Enjoy a 'world' where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!" ~ Gary Gygax

"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes:" - Macbeth

naturaltwenty · Post by **naturaltwenty** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:53 am

Most of the maps I've been posting have been using Dunjinni. It's a great program but make sure you've got plenty of RAM...it's a pig when you start using more and more objects.

See my threads in the Modules section for some examples of it's use.

For overland maps I've been putzing with CC3 but I also have Fractal Mapper and still fallback on the Campaign Mapper from the AD&D Core Rules CD-Rom.

Later,
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kepli · Post by **kepli** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:50 am

Ah cool ... a discussion about mapping programs
I am a Dundjinni user myself (duh, I am one of the webmasters there ). A lot of maps for online gaming are created with either Dundjinni, or the user-art made by the great DJ community is used a lot in programs like DungeonForge, Dungeon Crafter and even DD3 ( Dungeon Designer from ProFantasy).

Though DJ is pretty powerful in creating very detailed and colourful maps, DJ2 will be even better and will contain a lot new awesome features. The design for it has been finished and the development has been started. Keep an eye out for it
If you have any question about Dundjinni, you can PM me, send me an email or go to the Dunjinni forums.

Look at the demos, communities, reviews, art used, samples, etc. of the different mapping programs to see what fits your needs. There are a lot of criteria you can use to make a choice and they will most likely be different than the next person's.

3rd Eye · Post by **3rd Eye** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 11:37 am

I highly recommend Campaign Cartographer 3. It's easy to use, it produces great-looking maps, and it has a huge number of expansions and add-ons.

Its only drawback is its price: $44.95 (US) for the core program, and each of the add-ons and expansions has another price tag to boot.

You get what you pay for, though. There are cheaper programs (and even some that are free), but none of them impress me half as much as CC3.

moriarty777 · Post by **moriarty777** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 11:38 am

kepli wrote:
Ah cool ... a discussion about mapping programs
I am a Dundjinni user myself (duh, I am one of the webmasters there ). A lot of maps for online gaming are created with either Dundjinni, or the user-art made by the great DJ community is used a lot in programs like DungeonForge, Dungeon Crafter and even DD3 ( Dungeon Designer from ProFantasy).

Though DJ is pretty powerful in creating very detailed and colourful maps, DJ2 will be even better and will contain a lot new awesome features. The design for it has been finished and the development has been started. Keep an eye out for it
If you have any question about Dundjinni, you can PM me, send me an email or go to the Dunjinni forums.

Look at the demos, communities, reviews, art used, samples, etc. of the different mapping programs to see what fits your needs. There are a lot of criteria you can use to make a choice and they will most likely be different than the next person's.

Cool ... I haven't been on the (Dundjinni) site in a while but the latest I remember reading was 'relaxing' aspects of the EULA. At any rate, I'm looking forward to the new version.

Moriarty the Red
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3rd Eye · Post by **3rd Eye** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 11:46 am

I retract my earlier remark about "none of them" impressing me half as much as CC3 because I just visited the Dundjinni site and took a look at their Gallery. That's some mighty impressive output. Maybe even better than CC3.

kepli · Post by **kepli** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 12:32 pm

3rd Eye wrote:
I retract my earlier remark about "none of them" impressing me half as much as CC3 because I just visited the Dundjinni site and took a look at their Gallery. That's some mighty impressive output. Maybe even better than CC3.

The gallery contains some older maps ... to get a better idea of what DJ can do, you should visit the Contest subforum and look at the maps people post for the Map contests. I even put up a sticky thread with the winners of the Map contests sofar
CC3 is a CAD based program and as such hard to learn when you don't have that kind of experience ... but, I have personally seen what CC3 can do if you do know it well enough and it's quite impressive (but don't tell Simon or Ralph I said that )