FIXED: New FM8 Tutorial

[MarkOliva]

At the Cartographers' Guild, Silverleaf has posted a new FM8 PDF Tutorial detailing how to make the old D&D blue-and-white style dungeon maps. For more information:

http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?16557-Fractal-Mapper-8-Classic-Blue-TSR-style-maps-made-easy

[SushiDave]

As I am an old school gamer/GM, I was very excited about this tutorial &c. But is anyone else having the following problem? I have installed the graphics packages & they will post correctly to the working map. But? I see the graphics are bumps and I am not sure if that is causing my problems. I literally can't 'see' the graphic shape in the selection window. All I can see is a white box for all symbols. Is it the particular shade of blue being used? Is it that they are bumps & not .PNG's? Rather frustrating when you can't see what you are doing & have to work by trial & error.

This might also be a post for a wish list for FM9? It would be rather nice if a mouse-over the symbol would pop up a windowed 'description' or even file name. Not only would it be useful in this situation, but I am also thinking of things like the wonderful buildings In Mark Oliva's groups like 'farm buildings' or such. If I am not making myself clear, I am thinking on the lines of mousing over an icon & getting a pop up like 'blacksmith', 'foundry' 'bakery' or 'tavern, 25 tables' and so forth.

[MarkOliva]

I think I've managed to fix the problem. I repackaged the graphic files from Dragonfoot that Silverleaf recommended and added default.xml files to scale them correctly. As a result, a few things need to be done differently than in the tutorial. First of all, I'd suggest this background and line color rather than the color recommended by Silverleaf:

blueclassic00.jpg (81.42 KiB) Viewed 844 times

Then, instead of downloading the symbols as recommended, download this version:

http://www.vintyri.org/downloads/blueclassic.zip

These are the same symbols as on the Dragonfoot site but packaged for FM8. I posted them on our website rather than on the NBOS site because the usage restrictions prohibit redistribution on commercial websites. The usage restrictions are in the download in the file license.txt.

After you've downloaded the zip file, unzip it into the FM8 folder MapArt (only there will it work right). With a default installation of FM8, the path starts in C:\Program Files or - if you're using Windows 7 or Vista 64-Bit - in C:\Program Files (x86). Here's the rest of the path:

blueclassic01.jpg (32.36 KiB) Viewed 844 times

The will create the folder Classic Blue Tiles and the subfolders Cavern Rooms and Dungeon Tiles, as shown above.

If you close and reopen FM8, you'll find the symbol set Classic Blue Tiles added with two categories. The first is called Cavern Rooms:

blueclassic03.jpg (69.32 KiB) Viewed 846 times

The second is called Dungeon Tiles:

blueclassic04.jpg (67.14 KiB) Viewed 848 times

Now ... when you work with Silverleaf's tutorial, follow his instructions until you reach Step 9, where he tells you to export your map. There's no longer any need to export. Simply stamp the symbols that you want on top of your map at the desired positions. The Dragonfoot graphics noiw work as normal FM8 raster symbols. One square in a symbol will scale to 10 by 10 feet, as recommended by Silverleaf.

[Silverleaf]

Hiya guys,

I received a PM from Mark over at Cartographer's Guild about this issue.

First off my thanks to Mark for helping correct the issue that existed with the tiles from the archive at DragonsFoot. I never considered opening them in FM 8, simply because I tended to export the map as a png then alter the classic symbols as I needed in Paint Shop Pro. Truth be told, the XML gives me shivers. lol

I'm glad the symbols have been repackaged for FM 8 - so what I can do in the next couple weeks is go through and change the tutorial to include this updated info. I'll finish college classes for this fall semester then have 3 weeks off.

Thanks,

Silverleaf

[SushiDave]

Thanks so much everybody on all your hard work - 1st, to go through all the work of doing this in the first place - and 2nd, for fixing this little niggling detail.

Respectfully yours,
Dave Tait

[Ed_NBOS]

Ah, now that brings back memories!

[esmale]

Hi guys,

Great tutorial Silverleaf, and thanks to Mark for repackaging the tiles. Whether for nostalgia or clarity, this map style will always be one of my favourites!

Cheers,