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With the country needing to isolate due to the pandemic, my group started using Roll20 so we could continue playing. Since I started using Roll20, I have been struggling with entering the maps and getting them lined up with the Roll20 grid. I finally realized that I could make a guide layout grid in Photoshop, so I thought I would do that with one of the maps to see how off the map grid was. I was shocked to discover how much the map grid was off.
I took the map directly from the PDF into Photoshop and lined up the upper left corner of the top left square on the map grid with the Photoshop guide layout. Looking across the map, I found the map grid did not consistently line up with the Photoshop guide layout. The map grid would be off by as little as approximately .027 inches to as much as .107 inches. I tried making the same number of Photoshop guide layout columns that the map had, and I tried making the guide layout columns a consistent width, and it didn't matter. If I measured each box of one row on the map grid, the boxes would not be a uniform size.
How do you make a map on a grid when the grid is not consistent? I have always been impressed with the quality of material that Paizo puts out, but discovering the inconsistencies on map grids is very disappointing.
It is quite frustrating. It means that when you use the maps you end up spending more time than you should tweaking the sizing and positioning just to make the tokens snap in a "reasonable manner".
Very frustrating. I looked at the possibility of purchasing a packet from Fantasy Grounds, but they want $19 for one book. The maps aren't worth that considering what we already paid for the AP books and or the PDFs. I am also considering remaking the maps, but I already put in a lot of prep time for the sessions. Why should I spend more time making maps because Paizo can't ensure the map grids are uniform?
There is a thread discussing trying to get Paizo to make the maps Roll20 friendly and made available to us. When I looked for it to post here, I couldn't find it, but I found another thread discussing the issue at https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2q0pm?Maps-and-VTT. Sadly, the first post was August 3, 2013.
This has been an ongoing issue for a very long time. I don't know if the map quality has improved since then, but I'm not running any of the current APs. I'm sure I'm not the only one running older APs. The storylines are great and worth going back to play again or for the first time. Why not drag out the original map files, I know those kinds of files would never be deleted, and make the files VTT friendly? I would be willing to pay some money for VTT friendly maps of old APs. We, the GMs and customers, also need to request this loudly. Money talks.
Paizo, VTT is here to stay. Don't ignore technical advances like TSR has done in the past. You have great products; please make the maps useable for VTT.
What I tend to do is crop the maps slightly down to definite grid lines on the map, then let roll20's resizing take care of the rest. Once you move the map down to the maps layer the grid overtop usually lines up well enough at that point.
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Roll 20 places grids lines every 70 pixels by default. Simply make your maps at that scale, then set their dimensions to the same size you drew hem, and everything lines up perfectly. No fuss, no hassle. Really simple in Photoshop to just turn on your grid and set the increments to 70px.
Even using someone else's maps not made at the perfect scale still doesn't have to be as hard as most people make it. Don't ever try to get your map to fit by scaling with the GUI. Right click the image and chose set dimensions. Then go to your roll20 page settings and set the grid size there. Using precise numbers saves a lot of headache.
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Detailed instructions to make using Paizo AP maps easier in roll20:
First: Paizo maps have this annoying tendency to start with half a square, which makes lining them up a pain. Use photoshop or whatever you have to crop the map image down to full squares.
Second: Note the dimension of your map in both pixels and in squares. Divide your pixel width by your squares width to calculate how many pixels are in each square.
Third: Go to roll20 and make a new page for your map, open up the page settings. Under page size, set the px width and heigth to the exact pixel dimensions that you wrote down for your map.
(where is says Width: [ignore this box]x70 px= [write your pixel width here]px*)
Then down at the bottom of the page settings it says cell width:[1]x70px = [70]px*. Change the 70 to whatever you calculated as your pixels per square. Just copy paste it from your calculator. Hit ok on the page settings.
Fourth: Upload your map and drop it onto the page. It will come in as a little 1x1 square token. Right click on it>advanced>set dimensions. Type in the exact pixel dimensions of your map and click set. Finally, snap the map into position. Since the map is the same size as the page and the page grid is the same proportion as the drawn grid, it will all be lined up perfectly.
Even if the drawn map has squares that vary in size slightly, you counted the entire width of the page so you are getting the average pixels per square. This method should still give you decent results.
Detailed instructions to make using Paizo AP maps easier in roll20:
[snip]
gnoams should the image resolution be set to 70 pixels/inch?
dot
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The above was great, but led me to accidentally find a tool that takes away the need to do math at all:
--Drop your map onto the map layer
--Zoom in on a 3x3 square area of your map so you can be precise in the next steps
--Right click on your map.
--Click on 'advanced'.
--Click on 'align to grid'.
--A text box will open up. Leave this text box open for now.
--Follow the instructions to highlight the 3x3 square of your map.
--A dialogue box will pop up with info re your square size. Probably worth making sure that your squares' dimensions are equal (eq X by X, not X by Y), assuming your map is reasonably well drawn.
--Click on "align to grid!" Your map squares should now be the same size as the Roll20 grid.
--Alt click and drag your map to line it up on the grid, as necessary.
Voila!
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You can set your dpi to anything. 72 pixels per inch was the standard resolution for monitors... 30+ years ago. Nowadays screen resolutions vary all over (mostly in the 200-500 ppi range if I recall) and everything is dynamically scaled. Anyway that's probably tmi, image resolution is irrelevant for digital viewing, it only matters for print.
I've noticed that align to grid tool too, but haven't used it much. My problem with it is you're only sampling a 3x3 area. On a large map, the amount of error from averaging 3 squares can compound enough to be noticeably off. It works fine for most maps, but I personally prefer to be precise, work with the actual numbers, and average the entire map.
That align tool is definitely useful for those annoying maps where they only draw the grid over a small part in the middle, like they do with cave maps sometimes.
Anyway, hope some of that is useful to people.
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Thanks, gnoams, I agree that different methods can work better for different cases. Some folks are math challenged, so that auto tool comes in handy for them. Saved a DM buddy of mine last night :) I was doing the math for him when I noticed the auto tool. Both gave good results, although the map I was doing for him was one of those annoying cave maps that didn’t have the grid across the whole map sheet. Thanks for all your advice!
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I was helping a friend with some roll20 maps and realized I was making things too complicated. So I thought I'd add to this post a similar explanation, where you aren't worrying about the image size and just letting roll20 resize your picture to fit its 70x70px default squares:
Count the dimensions of your map in squares. (If your map has partial squares on the edges, then first crop the image down to full squares)
Drop your map onto the page and right click on it>advanced>set dimensions. In the set dimensions window change the dropdown from pixels to units. Type in the dimensions you just counted and click set.
Snap your map into alignment and the drawn squares should match up perfectly with the roll20 squares. If you want your map to fit perfectly onto the page, just edit your page settings and input the same dimensions into the page size.