Mapping Software

spidieman

spidieman

Can anyone recommend some good mapping software.

Some of the really good maps I've seen out there were done with people using photoshop and i just don't have the time or the skills.

i found some good dungeon only software in the past (Dungeon Crafter 3)

So
1) Software for Dungeons
2) Software for Cities
3) Software for Worlds/Landscapes

Thanks

redstar

A really great site for any cartographer needs is "http://www.cartographersguild.com":http://www.cartographersguild.com/ Take a look at the forums. It's a dragon's horde of information for stuff!

According to most the people there, it's a combination of Dundjinni, Photoshop, Illustrator and 3d Modeling software.

spidieman

Incase anyone else is wondering AutoREALM is a free program, its pretty decent, hard to learn by yourself, but if you check the web you can find a good few tutorials.

Forceknight

Anyone interested in ramndom city maps would like http://www.drachenzahn.de/city_map_generator/index.html

spidieman

thanks Forceknight, that is pretty sweet. Great way to populate my world with little effort.

Snargash_Moonclaw

The Cartographers' Guild is *the* place to go. Some of the guys there are getting commissions by game developers based on the material they're posting there. When I posted some queries looking for mapping programs which would do certain things with/from polar projections, while there doesn't appear to be a program doing what I was looking for (editing within a spherical projection), a couple of guys took my two polar projections, (currently the banner on my campaign here,) turned them into a single flat world map and pointed me to a couple of programs which would display that in various (including spherical) projections. They also showed me how to turn that into a GoogleEarth overlay - as long as you have a complete world (planetary) map you can display your setting in GoogleEarth and manipulate it just like the GoogleEarth image itself (rotate, pan, zoom, etc.) and embed graphic objects made in GoogleSketchup. I was having trouble grasping how some of this was accomplished (using GIMP) and one of the guys even went so far as making a quick (5 minute) video tutorial of the process and posting it on YouTube for me! I've gone on about the Campaign Builders Guild elsewhere but I can't recommend the Fantasium Alliance (this would include Plotstorming.com) sites highly enough. All three display nothing but helpful and constructive interaction and input. Quite a few members can be found on all 3 sites. (I show up as Snargash Moonclaw). These days I have CBG open in 2 tabs constantly when online: one for the site and another for the wiki - plus a second wiki iteration when editing to cut and paste between pages - it's my principal web hangout. (I'm doing the same here now as well to work on my Player's Guide wiki and flipping between the two sites since I'm porting stuff from there to here with a Yuntaa tab open between the 2 sets for files. . .)

redstar

I totally agree with Sillyfaerie (as per the previous post). :)

And the map for my campaign on a "Cartographers Choice" award a few weeks ago! I

Flatscan

That map looks great redstar! Congrats!!! I take it food is imported into the city though as it doesn't look like there's any agriculture or areas for livestock on the island. Nice grim setting. >:-)

redstar

Thanks :) Yeah, food is... difficult to come by. The island has been known for bouts of cannibalism during difficult times, and in the bottom right though, there are well guarded granaries. Got to protect what they do have!