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!
Back home from a hectic and great time at Gary Con, seeing friends and lots of fellow gamers is always a treat. An unusual nasty case of some sort of Con Crud kept me occupied for a while but now I’m up and running again, both literary and with my mapping.
After several years trying to figure out the best way to map Greyhawk at a high resolution in full 3D I did a series of Shield Lands maps for my campaign with the resolution of 5ft per pixel. They look great and work fantastic for everything from large overview to battle maps, the problem was that the workflow relied on using tiling to cover large areas. With a few tweaks I managed to overcome the flaws it introduced. Then came the dreaded problems of memory issues and crashes reimporting the tiles, and I had to rethink how to do things. After two years of trying all sorts of ways around the problem I’m now fairly certain of how to best proceed forward.
To avoid tiling and rendering limits I have switched to using a resolution of 100 feet per pixel, and a 16K render area, covering a bit over 150 x 150 miles. This gives me enough detail to work with for local more detailed maps, avoid using tiles. This also gives me enough room to create those large area elevation changes that are devilishly difficult to capture well using small areas. It also gives me a decent control of drainage (lakes and rivers) on a continental scale.
I’m relying on my trusted tool World Machine 3, which despite its age still reigns supreme among terrain creation tools. It has real world measurements, the best previews, and the most stable. I will use WM4 for texturing and corrections and be ready to move even the terrain creation to WM4 when (or if) it becomes good enough.
I will work on this tonight on my Twitch livestream at 6pm PDT at: https://www.twitch.tv/anna_b_meyer
I’ll make a long post about this soon, explaining both the workflow and my terrain choice.
My sources project has just reached a first milestone, all the country names are entered with references, 119 of them. Next up are provinces and local names concluding the political labels, which I hope to have done in a week or so. Two big groups of labels left, geographic ones (oceans, lakes, river, highlands and more), and all the settlements. This will take some time, but my goal is to have it all done by summer.
You can find it here: https://annabmeyer.notion.site/19e0da32cbe6806a922ee8a3e80dd169?v=19e0da32cbe6803b824c000cc8429cc1
When all the labels from my public map are entered it is time to overhaul my website, notion site and online presence in general. It is a bit of a mess now, especially the way my content is organized. Things need to be a lot easier to find and download. I have ideas and plans which will be tested leading up to the overhaul this summer.
I will be playing in an ACLU fundraiser game with the awesome Guild Superior members, tomorrow 6-9pm CDT. Donation link: https://tilt.fyi/C67PUhClUe
Please join us and support a VERY urgent cause and have fun doing it!
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