Just brought the Beta - I have Some Questions and perhaps Ideas.

Development feedback on user interface, features and general design.

Moderator: Kyete

Post Reply
user_bsf
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 10:31 am

Just brought the Beta - I have Some Questions and perhaps Ideas.

Post by user_bsf » Wed Jan 18, 2017 10:16 pm

Greetings

Just bought the beta as I spent about a month looking through various map making software and after everything was said and done this seemed the best fit for what i wanted to do (create maps for books i am writing from 20 year old maps.)

First up - Love the program - have tried cc3, hexographer(awesome old school style maps for rpg'ers), inkarnate pretty nifty if small scale rpg map maker)(spelling?), Adobe (need a fucking month to learn it) and every other program I could find or download for making a map. of all of them, yours has been the one I have been able to run with from the start without too steep a learning curve.

Now I am running the Beta 6 version - I have some questions from my playing around with the program (some features I ask about may be there but I have not figured them out yet)

Do you have an overlay or "Lay trace" ability similar to military military maps where you could overlay a clear "layer" on which you can draw military symbols to show army positioning and similar.

Following on from this do you have any intent to include standard nato symbols as part of your package (fairly sure they are not copyrighted as every country uses them) I would like to use these for showing fantasy army manoeuvres and the like.

Do you have plans to include more symbols like the old school standard rpg or D and D type map symbols similar to the programs listed above - The ones you have provided thus far are all awesome but I would still like a simple marker that looks like a city (eg solid black and so on for fort, camp monster den, nest etc (also need to be able to differentiate between "fort" symbols and "city" symbol, disregarding adobe I know the other two programs listed carry all the generic symbols for fantasy style maps (unsure on what the copyright deal is here id you need to make your own variation or not)

Are there any plans for an eraser feature (without have to cntrl z or edit undo where it removes everything to the base layer?

Lastly Im having probably a self inflicted idiot problem - I am using a hand drawn map for a background so I can trace it - however - after following the instruction on http://www.otherworldmapper.com/forum/v ... t=144#p760 I end up with the image i want on the map - but it is stuck to the top left corner and wont let me resize it onto the canvas to fit - is there something obvious (im guessing yes) I am missing to get it to cover the entire background?

That is about it - thanks for the awesome program so far and any tips on how to fix the background image thing appreciated.

Cheers

BF

User avatar
Kanchou
Site Admin
Posts: 1021
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 2:23 pm

Re: Just brought the Beta - I have Some Questions and perhaps Ideas.

Post by Kanchou » Thu Jan 19, 2017 9:24 am

user_bsf wrote:Greetings

Just bought the beta as I spent about a month looking through various map making software and after everything was said and done this seemed the best fit for what i wanted to do (create maps for books i am writing from 20 year old maps.)

First up - Love the program - have tried cc3, hexographer(awesome old school style maps for rpg'ers), inkarnate pretty nifty if small scale rpg map maker)(spelling?), Adobe (need a fucking month to learn it) and every other program I could find or download for making a map. of all of them, yours has been the one I have been able to run with from the start without too steep a learning curve.
Very happy to hear that! Ease of use was our primary objective when we started Other World Mapper so that's definitely good feedback! :)
user_bsf wrote: Do you have an overlay or "Lay trace" ability similar to military military maps where you could overlay a clear "layer" on which you can draw military symbols to show army positioning and similar.
Not yet, but that's a good point. Would you want something that is above everything? For instance a layer that is on top of the "Canvas"? We are working on something of the sort as part of the "DM" tools that will get added down the road.
user_bsf wrote: Following on from this do you have any intent to include standard nato symbols as part of your package (fairly sure they are not copyrighted as every country uses them) I would like to use these for showing fantasy army manoeuvres and the like.
Other World Mapper is open so you can import new symbols using the "Art Manager" (under tools), or by creating the folder structure manually in the program's folder. Our idea is that our users could create their own art sets and use them, share them, sell them, etc.
Still, if you have a link to a good source we'll consider adding them or creating a free art set - we are planning on adding standard/modern cartography symbols already.
user_bsf wrote: Do you have plans to include more symbols like the old school standard rpg or D and D type map symbols similar to the programs listed above - The ones you have provided thus far are all awesome but I would still like a simple marker that looks like a city (eg solid black and so on for fort, camp monster den, nest etc (also need to be able to differentiate between "fort" symbols and "city" symbol, disregarding adobe I know the other two programs listed carry all the generic symbols for fantasy style maps (unsure on what the copyright deal is here id you need to make your own variation or not)
Can you link to a map/image using them to make sure we are looking at the right thing? We'll be adding free or DLC art sets eventually so we can look into those. Also note that if you do have some of the programs you mentioned you can actually use the symbols within OWM. I know with CC3 you are free to use them to make maps outside CC3 - and the guys from Pro-Fantasy have let us know that it's fine if we want to parse the artwork from CC3 into Other World Mapper (haven't added that functionality yet).
user_bsf wrote: Are there any plans for an eraser feature (without have to cntrl z or edit undo where it removes everything to the base layer?
Right now you can rubber band select items and delete them - do you mean a tool that with a click will delete everything under it?
user_bsf wrote: Lastly Im having probably a self inflicted idiot problem - I am using a hand drawn map for a background so I can trace it - however - after following the instruction on http://www.otherworldmapper.com/forum/v ... t=144#p760 I end up with the image i want on the map - but it is stuck to the top left corner and wont let me resize it onto the canvas to fit - is there something obvious (im guessing yes) I am missing to get it to cover the entire background?
No problem! We need more tutorials to cover use cases - so it's on us.
The image by default goes to the top left corner. You have use the scale property and X/Y offset so place it where you want and for it to cover the map.
From your question we are considering adding a checkbox to auto-fit so that it will do this automatically - it's a bit convoluted having to manually do this.

Thank you for all the feedback! Just post if you have any questions, suggestions or come across bugs/issues.

- Alejandro
Alejandro S. Canosa
Three Minds Software

user_bsf
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 10:31 am

Re: Just brought the Beta - I have Some Questions and perhaps Ideas.

Post by user_bsf » Thu Jan 19, 2017 7:06 pm

Thanks for the reply
Would you want something that is above everything? For instance a layer that is on top of the "Canvas"? We are working on something of the sort as part of the "DM" tools that will get added down the road.
Yes so it would sit over the top of everything else - I'm guessing it would have to be a separate entity that drops down and let users draw lines and add symbols etc but does not have interaction with any of the rest of the map - it would be an invisible canvas on top of everything else. The DM tool sounds like the same sort of tool though I will have to wait for it :)
Still, if you have a link to a good source we'll consider adding them or creating a free art set - we are planning on adding standard/modern cartography symbols already.
Im not sure how to do the add artwork yet - this - http://www.mapsymbs.com/app-6a.html#download - rather old site has free links for downloads that adds Nato symbols to windows as fonts or I grab them from wikipedia or the available staff officer handbooks etc that are downloadable from the net.
I also have a ppt with all the symbols on it that could be used to copy them across if needed. Not sure if this is a good source for you or not.
Can you link to a map/image using them to make sure we are looking at the right thing?

I seem to be having trouble adding an attachment at the moment - Once I figure it out I will attach an image (All I have done is make a small map and blanket dumped images onto it)
do you mean a tool that with a click will delete everything under it?
Yes - but only under it - so it would create a hole in the middle of multiple layers in a way. - (Small note here - If I click something I have just put down using the adjust feature tool and hit delete it works instantly - If i do the Cntrl Z it takes a good few seconds to process and the edit undo function takes more time - not sure if an issue or not - one seems to have to "think" a lot more than the rest)
You have use the scale property and X/Y offset so place it where you want and for it to cover the map.
Ok - I used the scale got it centred - however my map size at this point is the largest allowable (1693.33 mm by 1693.33mm) - the scale up max is 300% - this put my base image still only covering about half of the map in the center - is there a plan to allow greater scaling up? (Checkbox idea is awesome - save me fiddling around)

Cheers

BF

User avatar
Kanchou
Site Admin
Posts: 1021
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 2:23 pm

Re: Just brought the Beta - I have Some Questions and perhaps Ideas.

Post by Kanchou » Mon Jan 23, 2017 12:59 pm

Hello!

Regarding a couple of your points (still need to get back to you on the others).
user_bsf wrote: Small note here - If I click something I have just put down using the adjust feature tool and hit delete it works instantly - If i do the Cntrl Z it takes a good few seconds to process and the edit undo function takes more time - not sure if an issue or not - one seems to have to "think" a lot more than the rest
You are correct. That's a known issue. The undo/redo re-draws more than it needs to, it's one of the performance issues we are working on.
user_bsf wrote: Ok - I used the scale got it centred - however my map size at this point is the largest allowable (1693.33 mm by 1693.33mm) - the scale up max is 300% - this put my base image still only covering about half of the map in the center - is there a plan to allow greater scaling up? (Checkbox idea is awesome - save me fiddling around)
We added the feature request for the auto-fit. And we are opening up the scale range for the next release, 300% is not enough (and there isn't really a reason to limit to 300%). For now, you could enlarge the image with another program, save it, and use the enlarged image for background on OWM.
user_bsf wrote: Im not sure how to do the add artwork yet - this - http://www.mapsymbs.com/app-6a.html#download - rather old site has free links for downloads that adds Nato symbols to windows as fonts or I grab them from wikipedia or the available staff officer handbooks etc that are downloadable from the net.
I also have a ppt with all the symbols on it that could be used to copy them across if needed. Not sure if this is a good source for you or not.
We are behind on doing tutorial videos....so hopefully a few short steps here will point you in the right direction for now.

1) I think these are the symbols you are looking for:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/NATO ... ap_Symbols
If not, the steps below still work for when you find them as images

2) You want to save each icon you want into a folder. For instance, click on the icon for "Friendly Air or Space Unit" and wikipedia will let you save either the SVG or the PNG versions.

3) Once you saved several symbols, open Other World Mapper and create a new map. Go to Tools->Art Manager

Section 19. of the help document has some more details. But the idea is that you want to create a new "Set" under "Features" and under that "Set" Create folders.
So, for instance. You can create a new set called "NATO Symbols" and under that set create new categories like "Infantry" "Naval" etc. Once you do that, you can click on that folder and then go to "Import" to select a new icon for that category.

Hopefully we can get to more tutorials soon. I also need to get back to you on the other items from your feedback.

Thank you!

- Alejandro
Alejandro S. Canosa
Three Minds Software

user_bsf
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 10:31 am

Re: Just brought the Beta - I have Some Questions and perhaps Ideas.

Post by user_bsf » Tue Jan 24, 2017 3:33 am

Awesome,

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. I will wait out for next beta for some of my questions queries as it is not of an urgent nature - I am using it for fun and RPG projects and writing etc. I will try and put a package of Nato symbols together maybe this weekend as per directions - if it works out I will try and upload for people to use.

Cheers :)

BF

Post Reply