Wonderdraft: Fantasy map creation tool

[auxbuss]

I recently bought Wonderdraft: a map creation mostly targeted at the Dungeons & Dragons crowd, but flexible and extensible enough to draw modern maps too. Thought folk here might be interested.

https://www.wonderdraft.net/

You can find a lot of examples on their reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/wonderdraft/

A particularly useful feature (especially for drawing inexperts, like myself) is the ability to import an image as an overlay, or guide; it's a bit like using tracing paper – do kids still do that? I've been using this feature in combination with images taken fromThe Writers' Map to train my map-making skills.

And, of course, it's a great displacement activity when you should be writing.

[JimRac]

Thank you! I’ve been looking for something like this, will check it out.

Best,
Jim

[rdale]

Wow, that looks amazing. I tried randomly generating continents and islands using a photoshop technique, adapted to Pixelmator (which is a very nice tool, btw), but I ended up generating something that was just kind of "meh".

It looks pretty easy (relative to from-scratch PS/Pixelmator techniques). What do you think about it relative to more general-purpose drawing/touch-up tools?

[auxbuss]

It looks pretty easy (relative to from-scratch PS/Pixelmator techniques). What do you think about it relative to more general-purpose drawing/touch-up tools?

Given that my map-making and graphic tools kills are terrible, I'm probably not the best qualified to provide a useful answer. I did find I could make passable maps in a few hours, though – passable to me, that is For the skills I don't have – mainly shading and creating appropriate colours – there are plenty of examples to learn from. That said, for publishing or as a writing guide, black and white should be sufficient, and there are themes and plenty of uncoloured (or colourable) assets to do that.

For me, this has made map-making fun and, frankly, achievable. I don't have the skills, nor motivation, to make them the proper way.

[Silverdragon]

Um... The website says it needs an Nvidia GPU. If that's real, then l can't run it on my humble Macbook Air 11

[StarDog2]

Um... The website says it needs an Nvidia GPU. If that's real, then l can't run it on my humble Macbook Air 11

Lot's of PCs doing without Nvidia GPUs too! Does anyone know of an open source fantasy mapping tool?

[auxbuss]

Um... The website says it needs an Nvidia GPU. If that's real, then l can't run it on my humble Macbook Air 11

It runs okay on my newgen MBA, which it pretty low spec in the graphics department (integrated Intel UHD Graphics 617).

I would expect older hardware to struggle with it, though.

[rdale]

Well, it says it needs (bare minimum) an Intel HD Graphics 5000. The NVIDIA is recommended though.

But now that I look at my old MB Air (2013 model), I've got a IHD Graphics 4000, so it might not run on mine either. I'm not in the market for a new computer (though I actually do want the latest model air). Without a trial version to test on my machine, I guess it'll have to wait a couple more years before I can buy with the confidence that it will run properly on whatever computer I end up with.

[auxbuss]

though I actually do want the latest model air

I bought mine mostly for writing. I was considering an iPad+keyboard combo, but the MBA is perfect – just the 8/128 base model (which I got for 1,000 + change). I sync everything via iCloud (which iOS Scriv doesn't [yet] do) including Scriv's preferences. So, I move between macOS machines, and everything just works.

Go on! Treat yourself

[rdale]

though I actually do want the latest model air

I bought mine mostly for writing. I was considering an iPad+keyboard combo, but the MBA is perfect – just the 8/128 base model (which I got for 1,000 + change). I sync everything via iCloud (which iOS Scriv doesn't [yet] do) including Scriv's preferences. So, I move between macOS machines, and everything just works.

Go on! Treat yourself

You're not the boss of me!

* Visits https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/ *

You can't tempt me to break my budget.

* clicks shiny blue Buy button *

I'm going to remain strong, get my finances in order...

* selects options, clicks Add to Bag *

... save up, and only then am I going to upgrade.

* stares at total, ignores bank balance *