Bryan Blumklotz is filling in for Mike Bridges tonight with Anna Meyer. Come join us for a discussion about Ahlissa and other Oerth topics...
The next version of the Flanaess map is ready, the 11x17 inch 598 CY atlas. You can get it here: http://bit.ly/GH-FlanaessAtlas-598CY-2019
It comes in both JPG and PDF format. The JPG version comes in 77 images including covers and symbols, this version also include 0.25 inch overprint.
PDF's comes in both individual pages and as a complete set of 77 pages. The individual pages doesn't include the overprint to make them print better on normal printers.
The complete set PDF comes in two versions, a full quality version with overprint that is 2.63GB for maximum quality printing on all types of printers, and a reduced quality version for tablet use that is 52MB in size.
I've been using Realm Works by Lone Wolf Development to manage my games for the past four years, and since my maps are a big part of my gaming my maps need to go into Realm Works as well.
Up until recently it was a bit of a hassle due to RW's limitations being 32-bit software, but thankfully now RW is brought into the modern age (at least on the bit level) with a 64-bit version. So now it can handle reasonably large maps up to 30MB, and 6000px or so in size. The 30MB is a hardcoded limit but the pixel size more of a practical limit that I have figured out the hard way to keep performance reasonably.
After some testing I decided to go for 200 dpi for detailed maps and 150 dpi for larger maps, like oceans. Keeping the images within 6000px means that the 200 pdi maps can cover a maximum of 30x30 inches of the Flanaess map ( the pink square on the image below), and the 150 pdi images can cover 40x40 inches (yellow square).
Maps using a 200 dpi export image are not perfect but good enough for referencing things during the game. Below is an example using the Player Map of Ket
and here is the same area with the DM overlay:
The 150 pdi maps are less pretty but still usable, and will mostly be used for really large areas like the Sea of Dust or oceans. Below is an example of the Icy Sea map:
and below with DM's overlay:
A little tricky to read the fine print, but the main purpose for me is to have a map inside Realm Works that you can put Map Pins on, and that way create a reference in a quick and efficient way.
Pretty maps in Realm Works is great and all, but a key questions are: How easy is it to get them there, and how easy is it to update the maps themselves? In order for this to be useful long term an efficient workflow is needed, and after some fiddling around I think I have a working solution.
Each map used in Realm Works needs to have a set definition that can be used over and over again, so you can update the map inside RW and keep the Map Pins in place. This can either be done by using artboards in Illustrator and then export them as separate images. The sheer number of maps a Flanaess campaign might need (especially mine) will soon overwhelm the artbort limits of 100 in Illustrator, and will not make things easier.
Photoshop to the rescue! Export the whole map at 200 dpi and then use Photoshop to copy as many pieces you like out of the big map. By using the Photoshop vector functions and selections each map cout out can be defined, named and reused for future map upades, creating a matching new version.
This way you can have an almost unlimited amount of large and small special maps for things like forests, mountains, lakes and rivers as well as the more standard countries. When the Illustrator map is updated only two versions (Player and DM) needs to be exported.
Not a perfect workflow but it will do the job of creating a new set of maps for Realm Works much easier, and it also opens up for some other cool ideas that I'm going to test out when I come back from Paizo Con.
This is not a promoted post - but a disclaimer is in order - I volunteer for Lone Wolf Development helping out at conventions, and as a compensation they pay my badge and hotel room.
A full set of maps for Realm Works, that you can of course use outside of Realm Works as well will come as soon as I'm done with the Atlas.
Atlas work is progressing and pages 1 to 47 is done and available to all Patreon Members. Work on this continues on a daily basis and I hope to have the rest done in a week or so.
This weekend I will figure out what balance between size and quality for the Player and DM Maps for use in Realm Works, and other campaign management tools like World Anvil. When I have found a usable sweet spot, I will set up a large number of areas to be exported. This will ty into my Campaign Map as well, so I can re export the same maps every time I update things and get an exact match. An update on this will come next week.
The Campaign Map will also be available for all Patreon Members later this Summer and on my website for all later this fall. This also include new heraldry and other extras.
I'll do another Twitch Stream tonight. I'll be working on the Atlas Pages and my Campaign Map and hopefully also a bit of Oerth continent layout.
My intention is to make this be a bit less of a technical Live Stream and a bit more about the content of my Greyhawk maps. Where we end up will of course largely be up to questions and things you guys and the Twitch viewers want me to talk about.
Adventurer and Cartographer Tier Patreon members will be notified on how to get on the live stream using Zoom, here on my Patreon Page and in Discord.
A new Zoom session for Cartographer Tier Patreons will be on Thursday at 6pm PDT.
See you tonight!
First of all a big thank you to all of who support me, and there are over 600 hundred of you here on my patreon, thank you all so much, it means the world to me. Especially the last month or so. A fantastic double convention and then a severe case of "con crud" which kept me in bed for over a week. The world Machine 4 started crashing on both my machines, lots going on....
Having your support made it possible for me to be at the convention and also to recover an trying to fix the issues with one of my primary tool.
World Machine 4 Crashes
Lets start with World Machine 4 acting up all of a sudden. WM 4 is one of my main tools used to render large area terrain in high detail. After the last Windows update it started to crash almost every time I tried to use it. After my initial getting upset phase, I tried to switch to a more analytical approach. I filed a report, tested it on my three different machines that has different hardware, reinstalled etc.
After a coupe of days of mucking around by me and the WM's developer the extent of the problem was starting to reigned in and a set of hopefully usable crash dumps where sent. Now there is a good chance that the issue can be found and a solution fixed. It took some vital time but if it can WM4 usable again for me that will be worth it. I still want to use World Machine and see improved versions of it in the future. The market is heating up but WM it is still the best terrain creation tool available, and can stay in top position with updated versions.
GIS
The GIS conversion of my existing Greyhawk map just passed a milestone, all the settlements are added and the roads are nearly done as well. It means the project is still on schedule for a full initial release later this year. It is a huge undertaking but now its on the home stretch with lots of label placing and other more fun bits. An symbol revision will be in the making as well, the village symbols needs a bit of a new touch but the rest are good enough.
An important part of GIS (and most forms of cartography) is to have some soft of referencing system. The Darlene map had the 30 mile hexes with its clunky way of finding its numbers along the edges of the map. I created a 12 mile hex grid with a numbering scheme that covered the Flanaess, but was not really up to covering the whole Oerth so I ditched it for the lates expanded map. Now its time to start looking for how to reference future GIS based maps, using GPS coordinates, simple lat long degrees, custom made hex grid, or something more esoteric like what3words. Lots of options and thanks to the nature of GIS several standards can be used.
Sources Project
I will present a template for my sources project soon, I want to make sure we use some cooperative thinking on what information to gather and how to organize that information before the work starts. With a plan of how to do it, it will be ready to start later this year when the initial data placement is done and we have a first map to work from.
Shield Lands
I've put my Shield Lands Campaign on a hiatus so I can concentrate on catching up on my map making. This will give me a chance to solidify my work flow and create a system of maps to set my standard for how to map things from big to small and properly document it. My goal is to have a comprehensive set of map to both support my gaming in the area and as an platform for my future Greyhawk work.
As a part of this I'm testing out new tools like VTT's and dungeon map makers. so far after testing a dozen or so new (and not so new) promising tools I was just suggested to test "Dragon Map Maker" (https://www.dragonmapmaker.com) and of all the tools I've seen this one seems the most promising, and I will get it, spend a couple of hours testing it and see if it is worth trying to incorporate into my toolbox. It has some really cool features and looks great, the big question for me - is it flexible enough, and is it easy enough to work with..
House Rules
This secret pet project of my has taking shape beyond my humble initial ambitions of tweaking 5E a little more to my liking. During the process I've gotten more and more certain of what I want to do, where I want complexity and where I instead crave simplicity. My needs are for a simple set of rules that somehow carries a lot of fantasy flavor, and keep some compatibility with D&D (spells, monster stats and items).
This was short update on what is going on and more on each of these topics and more is in the works. Next mapping stream is this Friday at 6pm PDT as usual on my Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/anna_b_meyer
Thank you again for all joining me in this journey!! 🙂
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