Hi All
I am curious to know, doesn't the AP comes with interactive type maps or extracted maps ?
I've never seen an interactive map from paizo.
Fantasy grounds scenarios come with maps I think
How to make a roll20 table has a section on how to put a map onto roll20. Basically any picture can be a map.
The new scenarios have gotten a lot better about making the maps consistent and or including a clean image as a seperate file or at the end of the scenario.
There is no separate download. I believe the statement "The new scenarios have gotten a lot better about making the maps consistent and or including a clean image as a seperate file or at the end of the scenario" refers to images included at the end of PDFs. As is often done in society scenarios, now. If they aren't in the PDF you have, they aren't there.
As for separate files of just maps, when you download an AP book, it is downloaded as an archive. Some newer APs include a separate file there. For example, if you download Fly Free Or Die Book 4: The White Glove Affair, right now, you would see a pdf for the book and a pdf labeled Interactive Maps both in that archive.
Unfortunately, when you just say "the AP" I don't know what you're asking about or if it does have a separate map file. Having suitable maps for VTT use hasn't always been as much of a concern as it is now, and older products don't have them.
Where do I find the seperate clean image in my downloads ?
Most of them are in the scenario themselves. Some of the newer scenarios have them as a separate file that shows up when you download the scenario.
You don't (or at least I don't know how to) upload a pdf file directly to the VTT from a PDF. You open the PDF, take a snap shot , put the snapshot on paint shop, save the paintshop file, move the paintshop file to the VTT. (button by button instructions given above)
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Where do I find the seperate clean image in my downloads ?
You don't. They need to be extracted from the Interactive Map PDF.
*Ahem*: You cannot just open a legal Paizo PDF in Photoshop. A Paizo PDF has security features which lock the file and prevent Adobe Acrobat or Photoshop from opening it without the password to do so. You might be able to do that with a pirated PDF, but not one you paid for and downloaded here.
Instead, you have to use brute force and rip the PDF open instead, using a software tool for image extraction.
There are a few tools to do this to extract the map image from the PDF.
I use PDF Image Extraction Wizard. It's available here: PDF Image Extraction Wizard.
There is a similar tool created to extract and reassemble PNG images for character and monster art as well as maps. It's a batch file which will tear apart an entire PDF if you tell it to. You can get that here Image Extractor.
If you just want to create portrait tokens and not maps, you can use Token Tool. (This is the easiest to use for beginners, but it not's for maps. I include it here for completeness).
After you extract that map art, that isn't the end of it. Ideally you want to one of two things:
1. [Standard] Crop off partial squares on the map edge so you are left with a perfect gridded off square or rectangle; OR
2. [Advanced] Create the missing map terrain in a partial square that is too important to crop. Typically, this is a process done in Photoshop using copy+paste and the Healing Brush and Patch Tool. It takes practice to learn how to do this, but it's not *that* hard.
To do these things, you can use GIMP (free), Photoshop (subscription) or a similar program, like Clip Studio Paint.
Then, when you have your base image, you need to count out the squares on your map. If your map is 22 squares wide by 30 high, say, you need to rescale the image to those dimensions using a pixel density per square that your VTT uses. In Roll 20, that's 70dpi. In a program like Foundry VTT - that is generally 100 dpi or 150 dpi. (Bigger means better map image quality)
So a 22 x 30 grid square image for Roll 20's 70 dpi should be scaled to:
1,540 x 2100
And the same image for Foundry VTT at 100 dpi:
2200 x 3000
Lastly, if you are upscaling your image in size, you want to use an advanced image scaler that creates pixels using AI to give you the best overall map image for use. Photoshop has this built in (Preserve Details 2.0 - you have to check the box to tell the program to use it though) or there are other AI scalers available online, some for free, but the better ones tend to cost $$.
For those with nVidia video cards, ESRGAN is a particularly excellent free open source tool to do this (it does not work with ATI or Intel integrated graphics though).
Steel wind
Is that the normal process for fantasy grounds?
Thanks for the reminder about AI scalers and the ESRGAN link Steelwind! There's an awful lot of kinda blurry maps in paizo PDFs, especially in ones where they're trying to jam too much onto a single page.
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Steel Wind
Is that the normal process for fantasy grounds?
Yes. Same for D20Pro for that matter.
When it comes to cropping, you can try to roll with partial map squares in some programs. Foundry supports, it, for example.
However, I find it just makes the entire process clumsy and uncertain. I prefer precision when dealing with maps and map resolution in a VTT -- or as close to it as I can get at least.
So I prefer to crop, or where the map looks like it's small enough already, I'll recreate the missing map geometry by kludging it.
For roll20 I just ignore the incomplete rows, align to grid twice, set the image to "is drawing" and adjust the image for a more exact fit. Then turn the roll20 gridlines invisible. You can line up on the first or second complete row of squares.
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For those with nVidia video cards, ESRGAN is a particularly excellent free open source tool to do this (it does not work with ATI or Intel integrated graphics though).
Free? nVidia? I like both of those things, let's give it a whirl!
*spends an hour trying to install python, miniconda, CUDA, pytorch, numpy, OpenCV, CMake, Visual Studio (???), and all of the other dependencies*
Fora, I have come back with grim tidings: do not try this unless you're already a python developer :D
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For those with nVidia video cards, ESRGAN is a particularly excellent free open source tool to do this (it does not work with ATI or Intel integrated graphics though).Free? nVidia? I like both of those things, let's give it a whirl!
*spends an hour trying to install python, miniconda, CUDA, pytorch, numpy, OpenCV, CMake, Visual Studio (???), and all of the other dependencies*
Fora, I have come back with grim tidings: do not try this unless you're already a python developer :D
There are some front ends for ESRGAN that make it easier, but yes, by default it's a python command line environment and as unfriendly as it gets. You can try Image Enhancing Utility of Cupscale as a UI for it. Installation on those is also a pythonesque event (though not of the Monty variety.)
The output from ESRGAN upscaler is pretty awesome though. If you can get it working, it is NOT a waste of time.
Over on the Starfinder channel on Foundry's discord server, @Nachtrose has got his install working and he is happy with it. You might ask him for some pointers on installing ESRGAN and the UI's for it: #Starfinder
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Fora, I have come back with grim tidings: do not try this unless you're already a python developer :D
I got it working with Cupscale 37.0. The install process is, indeed, most aggravating, but navigable for those who do not code. You just have to pay careful attention.
There is a video on Youtube that is of some moderate assistance. "Princess Potato" still needs her ass kicked for being an impatient and terrible tutorial recorder though. (It's like she's trying to be unhelpful while pretending to be helpful! If she worked for me that might have been her last day on the job.) Gatekeeping is all too real it seems.
Anyways? The good news is? It works very well!