Over the past month in my "spare" time I've been working on a program that allows a user to create hex maps like those in "The Voyage of the Princess Ark" Dragon magazine article series.

I had previously created hex map brushes for GIMP based on those maps, but the core architecture of this hex map tool came to me and I wanted to do it for a number of reasons. I know there is another tool called "Hex Mapper" but I felt this new software that I'm tentatively calling "Hexographer" has a different approach and I have some other ideas to expand it.

I already/still have a few small things I want to add to this version before adding new, larger features later. The issue I'd like to improve most is to make the map icons look nicer when zoomed in.

I'd love to get your initial reactions, what you would like to see added and if you encounter some bugs.

The software is web-based at: Hexographer

Here's a sample map snippet so you can easily see what it does:

VERY nice.

Where were you when I was trying to run my own fantasy setting 15 years ago?

I like.  Options for either a blank map to start, or a randomly laid out - but still editable - map.

Mostly just been fiddling with it so far...I love how the Undo Line function just reverses the line from where you left off and doesn't, say, erase everything since the last time you clicked on the map...so if you happen to squiggle a bit wrong, it's no big to fix it.

This is awsome!  Thank you so much for sharing it!

I love this, even though I don't have much use for it, albeit I'd like to have a "solid continents" rule which reduces the water, but not as much as the option for Few Oceans.

WOW. This is like... really, really awesome.
Thanks for sharing this!

There have been a few updates since I last posted, including a fairly major update today.

The user can now specify in pixels the height and width of hexes. This allows you to flatten the hex slightly so it looks nicer on the screen. Also, all of the graphics have been vastly improved so they look nice even if the hexes are large.

Thanks again, and if you encounter any issues or have ideas for other features (large or small) please post.

Nicely done!  I have something similar that I created in 2000 that is a vb6 program but mine is a little more complicated.  There might be some opportunity for collaboration if you're interested, in which case you can send me an email.  vbwyrde at yahoo dot com.  In the meantime just one quicky suggestion:  you might want to add a 'Wide Brush' option for painting larger swaths than one hex at a time.  Three hex and six hex options would be nice for when you have a blank map, but you want large areas of a specific terrain.  Radio button option on the painter would do the trick.  Anyway, very nice!  It works great!

I got a few updates in.

Added "Delete" buttons to the "Lines" and "Text" tab panels to make that functionality more obvious. (Instead of only having the button below the map.)

Added a bunch of new terrain: light evergreen, heavy evergreen, evergreen hills and mountains, as well as jungle hills.

Added a whole new set of terrain for star maps. See the "Cosmic" tab. It includes a basic star hex as well as a star hex with a purplish tint to serve as a nebula hex. Then there are icons for asteroids, suns, planets, ringed planets, jump gates and space stations. If someone is into starship combat games and wants to make some suggestions about these, please post.

Improved the color chooser so it has defaults that match the background color of each terrain.

(VBWyrde and I have exchanged messages and I owe a reply, in case anyone was wondering.)

Pretty awesome!  Making stuff like rivers and whatnot is a bit of a pain, but its pretty cool!

I'd like to see more terrain types, plus a printable map legend.

Just another thumbs up. I can see myself using this a lot.

The inclusion of Trollhalla script moved this up from fantastic to genius

One feature I'd like to see is the ability to paint solid colours with a brush rather than just lines.

Also, more symbols would be great. And support for doing large-scale plans for dungeons etc., rather than just overland maps. But that's a whole different kettle of fish I know.

Thanks for the compliments everyone! That really helps.

Quote from: Captain Rufus;297072Pretty awesome!  Making stuff like rivers and whatnot is a bit of a pain, but its pretty cool!

I'd like to see more terrain types, plus a printable map legend.

If you have a specific suggestion, please let me know.  I did alter the coastline stuff a bit recently.   Based on the sample maps I was creating, that got tedious.  So now the "Freehand Coastline" line button creates a wider light blue line.  The idea is to use that to cover up portions of the land terrain so you can carve out irregular coastlines.  But in some cases when there was a hex that was <20% land, you would have to draw several more coastline lines to fill in the rest of the hex.  So I added an even larger light blue line called "Sea Fill" that should fill in the rest of the hex in just one or two additional passes.  (There are a few technical constraints that prevent me from doing a true "flood fill" like many image editing programs have.)

Quote from: The_Shadow;298166The inclusion of Trollhalla script moved this up from fantastic to genius

One feature I'd like to see is the ability to paint solid colours with a brush rather than just lines.

Also, more symbols would be great. And support for doing large-scale plans for dungeons etc., rather than just overland maps. But that's a whole different kettle of fish I know.

The fonts offered are read from your computer, so I didn't have anything directly to do with Trollhalla.  (I think when you say "Trollhalla script" you're referring to a font name...  if I'm wrong let me know.)

As for solid colors... we may already be there now and if not we'll be there soon.  Right now you can turn off the terrain icons by choosing the matching menu option from the "options" menu. If you don't like the existing colors, soon I'll be adding an editor that will let you change the background colors of each terrain type. Not bad, right?

More symbols are coming.  Dungeon support is way off, if at all.  I see some other tools out there for that already that seem pretty good and free-ish, but I haven't tried them.

Quote from: SowelBlack;298464The fonts offered are read from your computer, so I didn't have anything directly to do with Trollhalla.  (I think when you say "Trollhalla script" you're referring to a font name...  if I'm wrong let me know.)

Um yep, it's a font I have installed on my PC. I should have realised that!

The Sea Fill tool is already saving me hours of work as I am doing a monster map with loads of coastline.

Couple of other minor things: the bar at the bottom with the hex size settings, radio buttons etc takes up a bit of screen space. Any way of resizing this? Also, a "hand" button so you can move around a large map without using the scroll bars would be nice.

Keep up the great work! This is gold.

Quote from: The_Shadow;298584Couple of other minor things: the bar at the bottom with the hex size settings, radio buttons etc takes up a bit of screen space. Any way of resizing this? Also, a "hand" button so you can move around a large map without using the scroll bars would be nice.

I've added those ideas to my to-do list, thanks!

Last night I put out an update:
-The user can change the color of the cosmic icons (planets, asteroids, etc.) as they are placed. (So for example not all the planets have to be white. They can vary in color to differentiate them.) This change was also applied to the settlement icons (capital, town, fort, castle, etc.) and other symbol icons (battle, whaling, mines, etc.)
-If the user is tracing an imported map, he can now turn off the background map he is tracing. Related to that change is all the options that show/hide something (like grid lines, hex numbers, political features, etc.) were moved out of the "Options" menu and to a new "Show/Hide" menu. The options menu only has two menu items now, but one of the next new features will add at least a third.

I've updated the Hexographer software with a feature to orient the map in a "true columns" way (so the hexes form columns--the way it was before) or as "true rows." (If you have a better idea for how to name these two map orientations please let me know.)

There's an option on the initial Hexographer program window (the one that runs in the browser) to switch between these two map orientations. When maps are saved, this property is recorded so when you reload the map it will be set appropriately. You can also switch this property when you are viewing a map by going to the "Options" menu and choosing one of the "Hex Orientation" options. (But I wouldn't recommend it for maps that already have lines drawn. The change will cause those lines to not match up with your terrain.)

Another new feature a "pan" button in the bottom left corner that allows a user to easily drag the map to move it and replaced a few of the text buttons with icons.

Also, previously I added a feature so hexes can be customized. The icon in a hex can be resized relative to the hex's size or the icon can even be turned off and the background color can be changed. Go to the "Options" menu and choose "Customize Hexes."

Here's the link since the old one is a couple of pages back: Hexographer