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I am running a Jade Regent campaign in D20 Pro which lets me import images as maps and align the grid. Yet I can't seem to align the grid to the maps in Jade Regent.
First, the squares aren't perfect squares. Their height and width don't seem to match exactly. On one map it seems to be one pixel wider.
Second, the squares aren't perfectly uniform. Some squares are slightly a different size from the others.
Was this intentional?
I can remake the maps as soon as I get my campaign cartographer up but I won't have that until Christmas and am starting soon. Might have to use things off center until I can get this corrected.
I'm also having this problem. The images don't seem to be the best of quality either in d20 pro.
It's a shame because we use D20Pro, a projector and a mirror to throw the map right onto the game table. No more need for drawing maps on grid paper! (...its pretty amazing...)
It's a shame because we use D20Pro, a projector and a mirror to throw the map right onto the game table. No more need for drawing maps on grid paper! (...its pretty amazing...)
*drools* So jealous... Don't suppose you're in the DC area? ;-)
Some maps can be "repaired" using an image editor (f.e. GIMP).
I crop the borders of the maps to match up with the squares, count the squares and scale the map to f.e. 100 pixels X number of squares.
This works for most maps, but not for all.
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I also use d20pro and a projector and I started preparing to run Jade Regent.
1) Use Adobe reader and copy the image from the PDF. You will get the best quality that way. If you can, use the map PDF subscribers get. You can hide secrets and room numbers. Starting wit JR-2 you can even remove the grid. If you use that you may have to use a screen shut of the scaled up map instead of copying do. You can export another image with secrets and such.
2) Paste or open the image in an image editing app such as Photoshop. Do any cleanup you may have to do. Remove Rome numbers and secrets if you don't have access to the map PDF. Put secrets and such on another layer.
3) Make a grid on a layer with a regular width such as 50 pixels then try scaling you image layer to get as close to it as possible. You may have to do non square scaling such as 102% by 107%.
4) Save your image as a PNG or JPG with or without your grid layer depending on what look better. I personally remove the grid completely. I use d20pro grid instead.
5) Load your map in d20pro and scale it to a grid fitting your grid layer you did before. Adjust the positioning to fit your map.
6) Create fake creatures with images of your secret rooms (just crop the main image export with secrets cropped around the right part of the map.) and place them on the map with the invisible flag.
7) Place fog of war squares every ware the Party can't see.
Voila !
I also prepare all enemies in Hero Lab and import them then place then on th map at their location. It makes it really easy to check for adds to encounter if the party in to noisy or someone do something stupid ;)
The problem with the adventure path maps is that the squares are not square. The vertical and horizontal dimensions need to scaled by different factors. Then, to make matters worse, the multi-level maps like the Brinewall castle have the squares from the different levels not line up, for example the courtyard squares don't line up with the squares of the tops of the towers and castle walls.
Whoever the artist is, needs to draw their artwork on top of a proper square grid, i.e. graph paper, instead of patching in mismatched grids after the fact.
To the eye it looks OK, but when applying a true grid to the maps, they won't line up well. It took a long time to transform the AP maps so they fit a grid, square to square.
for example the courtyard squares don't line up with the squares of the tops of the towers and castle walls.
I don't know what this is, but this is pretty common in maps that have 2nd to 1st floor accessibility. I guess if you run along the top of a wall you will move more distance than someone running along the bottom of the wall at the same speed? It's either that or it's trying to give it 3D-ness by making it bigger in relation to the player's top-down perspective of it.
I'm unsure whether you're using the images out of the AP or the Interactive Maps, but we did include a grid toggle in the maps to help people out with this. :)
I'm unsure whether you're using the images out of the AP or the Interactive Maps, but we did include a grid toggle in the maps to help people out with this. :)
The rooms, corridors, and doors are drawn to match the grid, so if you turn off the grid, the applied grid from d20pro will not lie in an elegant way, unless you get the scales just right. For example, you make a corridor on one part of the map line up just right with the d20pro grid, yet elsewhere on the map, a corridor one square wide would have 1/3 square on top, and a 2/3 square on the bottom.
For one map I converted, the x axis scaled 1.03 differently than the y axis. While 3% doesn't seem like much, after 20 squares, instead of the grid being aligned, it is off by 0.6 squares. Once I realized I had to scale the x and y dimensions differently, things worked out well enough. I just wasted a lot of time before realizing that. It also makes scaling the maps take twice as long, as you need to do it twice, once for each dimension.
On a side note, I bought the Paizo pdf of the Monastery battlemat and it scales perfectly and was quick to transfer to d20Pro.
Another aside, if you want a good (and free) photo editing program, I recommend Gimp.
