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Exporting Battle Map for use in Fantasy Grounds VTT

CNYGamerCNYGamer Newcomer
in Mapping with ProFantasy's Software
Hi all.

I created a battle map using Annual 2, issue 21. I selected the New Drawing Wizard > Dungeons > Annual Battle Map DD3 > 165' x 115' (33 x 23 grid).

I made a map that I like, and tried exporting it as both a PNG and a JPEG to use inside Fantasy Grounds, but the resolution is really poor. Could anyone please give me any tips on exporting so I can get a map of good resolution. Basically what's going wrong now is when I size the map window inside Fantasy Grounds so it's easily visible, individual items are really granular and pixelated.

Thanks for any help.

CNYGamer
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Comments

  • robotrockrobotrock
    I am new to CC3+, so I might not be the best person to help, but I ran across a similar situation. When you "save as" and select the file type (bitmap JPEG or bitmap PNG) there is an "options" button. Click it. It shows the" true image dimensions" and the "maximum image dimensions" (as well as compression settings, etc.) I set the maximum image dimensions to the true image dimensions and got the image quality I needed. Maybe that will help.
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  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    You can set the dimensions in the options dialogue to anything you like - as long as it doesn't exceed 10,000 in the longest dimension. If you increase the smaller dimension proportionally (ie if your map is actually 500 x 400, and you increase the smaller dimension to 4/5 of the larger dimension) you will get a seriously high resolution image. It will of course take a rather long time to do one that is 10,000 x 8,000, but we are talking absolute maximums here.

    More often, given a map that is 500x400 a setting of about 2500 x 2000 gives a really good quality image, and you might have to go considerably lower than that if you want something you can upload to the forum in a 'show and tell' post.

    If you want more control over the particular area you want to render then it is worth having a go with the save as Rectangular Section PNG setting, which does exactly the same thing as you have already tried, but allows you to pick the area. At this point you can type in the coordinates if you wish, rather than clicking them with the crosshair.

    For example, if I have a map on the screen that is 500 x 400 (feet, metres or miles it doesn't matter) I would set the pixels proportionally to achieve the desired resolution (2500x2000, or 1000x800 etc) and then enter 0,0 and then 500,400 when asked to define the rectangle, giving me the perfect area without any white bits or cut offs. (keep your eye on the command line at the bottom of the screen to know what you need to enter next)

    If I have got this all wrong (I'm a relative newbie myself) I'm pretty sure I will stand corrected in due course... LOL! But that's what a forum is for.
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  • DkarrDkarr Traveler
    edited July 2016
    The thing about exporting the map for use within a virtual tabletop is going to be the pixels per grid increment of the software. I don't know what they are in Fantasy Grounds, but in another VTT I used the pixels for each grid increment was 50 pixels.

    So in your example where the size of your map is 33" x 23", if I was exporting to the other VTT software with the assumption that each inch is a grid interval, the size for your export would be 1650 x 1150 ((33*50) x (23*50)). You would export as a rectangular png and select the bottom left outer corner edge of your grid and the top right outer corner edge as the points to use for your export.

    The more pixels per inch you use the better the export resolution, but the larger the map file becomes. Also the longer it takes CC3 to export. At some point you'll reach a limitation on memory that will not allow you to export.

    I hope that makes sense.
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  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited July 2016
    Posted By: DkarrThe thing about exporting the map for use within a virtual tabletop is going to be the pixels per grid increment of the software. I don't know what they are in Fantasy Grounds but in another VTT I used the pixels for each grid increment was 50 pixels.
    This appears to be a pretty standard convention, 50 pixels per 5' on the map, or 10 pixels per foot.

    Two others I've seen are 30 or 35 pixels per 5'. From what I can tell, these are typically used to keep the map image sizes manageable.

    Cheers,
    ~Dogtag
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  • CNYGamerCNYGamer Newcomer
    Thanks for all of the great advice, everyone. It was really helpful and I was able to get a nice, usable map in Fantasy Grounds. I just love this community!

    CNYGamer
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  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    Excellent!

    Out of curiosity, what resolution did you use?
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  • CNYGamerCNYGamer Newcomer
    I created the maps at 165' x 115' (33 x 23 grid, at 5' per grid square). I exported the maps as PNG files at 1650 x 1150 pixels, so 10 pixels per foot. With the sheet effects on, they were a just a touch bigger than I would have liked (around 1.9 MB per map), but still quite manageable. The various items (doors, campfires, chests,etc.) are easily discernible at that resolution.

    CNYGamer
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  • seycyrusseycyrus Traveler
    CNY,

    That's way too big of a file size (1.9MB) for a map of those dimensions!

    Export it as a jpg and put the quality at 40% or so.
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  • CNYGamerCNYGamer Newcomer
    seycyrus,

    Thanks so much for that advice. I ran a test with one of the maps and the size came as 770KB, and there is no noticeable loss of on-screen quality in Fantasy Grounds.
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