My First Map Effort- Questions and Suggestions for OWM

General discussion on mapping.

Moderator: Kyete

Post Reply
Tgerritsen
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Nov 15, 2014 12:14 pm
Location: Madison, WI

My First Map Effort- Questions and Suggestions for OWM

Post by Tgerritsen » Wed Apr 06, 2016 12:39 pm

Here's my first map. I think I'm going to like this tool. This map took me roughly 90 minutes to create including learning the tool interface, coming up with the names and doing the font work. I also did the font work in Photoshop as I found that the font tools and edging were easier for me to do, though I'll keep looking at how fonts work in the tool.

Feedback is most welcome.

I do have a few questions-

1. This is a region map, so I wanted some features to run to the edge, however, I found that problematic. Somehow I got the ocean to bleed off ok in the lower right corner, but when I tried to do the same for the deserts I kept getting a problem where the points would try to create fractal edges rather than just letting me run straight edges along the side or make points off map. This forced me to run the deserts close to the edge, but still not fully off the edge. Is there a simple way to do this?

2. How can I create islands in the center of the map and give them wave edges like the normal shoreline? I couldn't figure this out.

3. How do I move an object? It seems that it's possible, but I couldn't figure it out. I had to delete and replace items rather than move them.

As for suggestions, this is supposed to be a desert map, so I wish there were palm tree and oasis icons as well as desert city icons in the mix. I suppose I can import them from elsewhere, but it would be a nice thing to have in the basic set.
Small size version of the bigger map file...
Small size version of the bigger map file...
HazarAfsan1.jpg (150.18 KiB) Viewed 12350 times
That's it for now. I'm very pleased with how this turned out for an first effort.

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

Re: My First Map Effort- Questions and Suggestions for OWM

Post by Kanchou » Wed Apr 06, 2016 7:40 pm

Tgerritsen wrote:Here's my first map. I think I'm going to like this tool. This map took me roughly 90 minutes to create including learning the tool interface, coming up with the names and doing the font work.
Great to hear that!
Tgerritsen wrote: I also did the font work in Photoshop as I found that the font tools and edging were easier for me to do, though I'll keep looking at how fonts work in the tool.
Though we don't expect to get as powerful as Photoshop, options for the label tool will grow over time.
Tgerritsen wrote: 1. This is a region map, so I wanted some features to run to the edge, however, I found that problematic. Somehow I got the ocean to bleed off ok in the lower right corner, but when I tried to do the same for the deserts I kept getting a problem where the points would try to create fractal edges rather than just letting me run straight edges along the side or make points off map. This forced me to run the deserts close to the edge, but still not fully off the edge. Is there a simple way to do this?

2. How can I create islands in the center of the map and give them wave edges like the normal shoreline? I couldn't figure this out.

3. How do I move an object? It seems that it's possible, but I couldn't figure it out. I had to delete and replace items rather than move them.
1. If I'm understanding correctly, you can change the pen to "line" pen so that it doesn't do fractal segments. We're also planning on having an option in the future to have landmasses "snap" to the border of the map for LOTR style maps.

2. You could create a hole in the lake by drawing a new lake on top, selecting both and doing a merge->difference (or change the tool mode to subtract on the toolbar so that the new lake you draw subtracts from the original one).

3. Use the transform tool (third on the tool dlg). The select tool is only for selecting and changing properties. We have a 50-50 split between users that like having the split tools and those that like just one tool to select and transform - still trying to figure out which way we'll go for the final version :)
Tgerritsen wrote: As for suggestions, this is supposed to be a desert map, so I wish there were palm tree and oasis icons as well as desert city icons in the mix. I suppose I can import them from elsewhere, but it would be a nice thing to have in the basic set.
Other World Mapper was always intended to be open for any artwork you want to bring into it, hence we didn't make the artwork a big point of the campaign. Still, we are providing a lot more artwork that promised with the campaign - of which only 50% is included in the Beta 3 release (though I'll note most of the extra artwork coming is for the "expansion" version).

If there is interest, there are a couple of artists plus our own team that would love to make additional artpacks as downloadable content.
Tgerritsen wrote: That's it for now. I'm very pleased with how this turned out for an first effort.
It looks really good!

- Alejandro
Alejandro S. Canosa
Three Minds Software

Tgerritsen
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Nov 15, 2014 12:14 pm
Location: Madison, WI

Re: My First Map Effort- Questions and Suggestions for OWM

Post by Tgerritsen » Wed Apr 06, 2016 8:09 pm

Thanks for the feedback and tips! I'll give em a try!

I understand on the art side- and I can always import stuff, as you note.

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

Re: My First Map Effort- Questions and Suggestions for OWM

Post by Kanchou » Wed Apr 06, 2016 8:19 pm

Tgerritsen wrote:Thanks for the feedback and tips! I'll give em a try!

I understand on the art side- and I can always import stuff, as you note.
Yep. Please let us know how it goes and any other feedback/comments!

The artist that created the basic fantasy set that you used for your map suggested doing a jungle/desert artpack as the first DLC try to see if there's interest, so we'll probably go that route once we fulfill a bit more of our campaign goals.

Thank you again!

- Alejandro
Alejandro S. Canosa
Three Minds Software

IronConrad
Posts: 34
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 6:13 pm

Re: My First Map Effort- Questions and Suggestions for OWM

Post by IronConrad » Sat Mar 16, 2019 11:23 pm

Question to OWM --- how do you think you are doing on Fonts at this point?

That seems a bit of a challenge at this time. I'm less worried about bending around things as it seems that the fonts are not rendering correctly? Do you have a preference for fonts and sizes that seems to work well? Perhaps I'm having a scaling issue?

I don't prefer the idea of pulling it out of OWM and doing the font work there.

Just wondering how others are faring here.

Thanks!!!

(Love the product)

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

Re: My First Map Effort- Questions and Suggestions for OWM

Post by Kanchou » Sun Mar 17, 2019 1:11 am

IronConrad wrote:Question to OWM --- how do you think you are doing on Fonts at this point?

That seems a bit of a challenge at this time. I'm less worried about bending around things as it seems that the fonts are not rendering correctly? Do you have a preference for fonts and sizes that seems to work well? Perhaps I'm having a scaling issue?

I don't prefer the idea of pulling it out of OWM and doing the font work there.

Just wondering how others are faring here.

Thanks!!!

(Love the product)
Can you email us a export with the rendering problems? (info@threemindssoftware.com).

Fonts are fully anti-aliased and it's one of the first things we got worked right, so it maybe a scaling issue. Are you exporting the map at 100% or are you down/up scaling the export?

Thank you!

- Alejandro
Alejandro S. Canosa
Three Minds Software

IronConrad
Posts: 34
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 6:13 pm

Re: My First Map Effort- Questions and Suggestions for OWM

Post by IronConrad » Sun Mar 17, 2019 3:18 am

I think I made the mistake of setting the resolution too high at start.

I'm thinking the correct resolution is no more than 300 dpi at the expected document size? Say 300 x 20 inches by 300 x 20 inches? Perhaps smaller for VTT.

It's probably just a better design decision at the start. (The image I get is very large. Great scaling but large.)

I'll experiment and let you know. It seems the options are there but the outlines seemed like they grew in rather than out of the font.

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

Re: My First Map Effort- Questions and Suggestions for OWM

Post by Kanchou » Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:49 am

IronConrad wrote:I think I made the mistake of setting the resolution too high at start.

I'm thinking the correct resolution is no more than 300 dpi at the expected document size? Say 300 x 20 inches by 300 x 20 inches? Perhaps smaller for VTT.

It's probably just a better design decision at the start. (The image I get is very large. Great scaling but large.)

I'll experiment and let you know. It seems the options are there but the outlines seemed like they grew in rather than out of the font.
Yes, I think that is the problem. Normally you can't print higher than 300 DPI for large documents and that's definitely enough for a computer image.

If you are doing a map for keeping on your computer I would only pay attention to the pixel size. If it's a map you want to print, then I would pick the size in inches when creating the map and set the DPI at 300 or less.

Keep in mind a large map like 24x18 inches at 300 DPI will give you a very large pixel size, which may run a little slow.

And, finally, since OWM is vector based for everything other than artwork, you could make the map smaller to begin with as long as the correct ratio and then upscale export it.

For instance, you could create the map to be 12x9 inches and then export it at 200%.

Please let us know if you have any questions :)

- Alejandro
Alejandro S. Canosa
Three Minds Software

Post Reply