Fitting the hex grid to my map scan

Hi all - first module. I’m hoping someone has some hints for me. I’m finding this difficult using Adobe Illustrator. I don’t have Photoshop.

Hi - Hold up. I have some feedback from some kindly posters over at my blog. I will try the advice they have offered. Muchos gracias, amigos!

Ok, I won’t paste the same stuff here then!

Let me know if you run into problems. Unless you have done a Real Bad Job ™ of the scan, you should be able to fit a standard hex grid to match the map well enough for general game play.

B.


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On Mar 10, 2009, at 8:05 PM, Nine Train wrote:

You could always try Gimp:
gimp.org/
gimp-win.sourceforge.net/ (Windows)
gimp.lisanet.de/Website/Download.html (Mac OS X)


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Finalment! Alignament! Thanks to the coaching from Brent I got things working on the FtG VASSAL mod map grid. I could not make it work, however, on my stitched map scans. Even though I spent a good 3 hours trying align and space the damn scans, they were just too crappy to work. Instead, I am leaning on the Cyberbox map as I re-create the game map in the theme of the 1982 original. Cue the Flock of Seagulls music…

I think the difficulty in scanning the map board is that it folds into six pieces and the folds are difficult to match for some reason. That’s my excuse anyway. Looking ahead, I will probably avoid scanning my own maps when possible.

Once I got the basic idea in my head it was easy. Like tuning a guitar, you push the grid size too far in the direction you want to go, and then pull it back in a tiny bit. Bada-boom.

Thank you for the link Tar, I shall check it out.

Question: Should I put a grid on the map in a graphics program or use the grid from the vassal module? I’m inclined to design a grid onto the map art because some grid edges need to be made thick to denote border effects.

Is there a good grid generator on the web somewhere?

Thus spake “Nine Train”:

I would make the grid part of the map art. Grid drawing is a part of VASSAL
which has some severe efficiency problems at present.

I would recommend mkhexgrid. This can be explained by the fact that I am
the author of mkhexgrid.

nomic.net/~uckelman/mkhexgrid


J.


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On Mar 16, 2009, at 8:05 PM, Nine Train wrote:

One solution to this is to use Vassal’s hex grid drawing code to draw
the grid for you. You would want to make the grid background
transparent, and then use that as a layer in your drawing program.
That way you end up with a grid that exactly aligns with where Vassal
thinks the grid should be.

You can then turn off the grid drawing in the Vassal program and use
your map art to show the grid.

To create such a grid, use the Vassal Editor.
Under “Main Map” > “[Map Boards]” create a new board of appropriate
size without setting a background color.
Use the contextual menu (right click) to add a Hex Grid
Configure the hex grid as you require, add numbering (another right
click) if you want it.

Then start up the game and take a picture of the empty grid. Use that
in your graphics program.


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Thus spake Thomas Russ:

That won’t work, at least not in 3.1.0 or 3.1.1, due to Bug 2659577:

sourceforge.net/tracker2/?func= … tid=594231


J.


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On Mar 17, 2009, at 4:01 PM, Joel Uckelman wrote:

Grrrr. ;-)

I suppose a work-around would be to choose some color for the
background and then use the graphics program to make that particular
color transparent and re-save the grid snapshot.


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Thank you for your responses, guys.

Joel, I believe this will be a nifty program, but I am currently stuck. When I point my command line propmpt to run the mkhexgrid spec.txt file, it says "cannot read spec file ‘spec.txt’

When I run the app, it tells me “unable to determine hexside from given values”

In this case, I am simply running the tut1.png data in your walk thru.

If you could, please point out the error of my ways, I would be very very grateful!

Tar, I have dl’d gimp, but haven’t tried it yet. I may give your method of putting a grid on the map a go if I find gimp capable (and myself capable).

Best regards,
Dan

Thus spake “Nine Train”:

Show me what exactly you’re typing on the command line, and from what
directory you’re doing it.


J.


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Hi Joel,

Thanks for taking a closer look. Here is the text in the file:

columns = 10
rows = 10
hex-side = 30
grid-grain = v
output = png
outfile = tut1.png

And here are the relevant screen grabs. The above text is inside file mkhexgrid spect.txt

Kind regards,

Dan

Thus spake “Nine Train”:

Your problem is that you’ve named the spec file ‘mkhexgrid spec.txt’, while
you’re trying to run mkhexgrid with a file called ‘spec.txt’.

Typing ‘mkhexgrid spec.txt’ at the command line means “run mkhexgrid with
spec.txt as the input file”.


J.


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:blush: I never bothered to learn this stuff because I got started on computers after DOS was an actual OS.

Thanks for the tips! Works like a charm now.

It’s working, though I am having an issue with the coordinate tilt command, which is at the bottom of this list. I can get it to produce a 20-degree tilt, but can’t do 90-degree (or 89-degree). Attached is the error message I’m getting. (some of the coord-stuff below just slugged in for experimental purposes, i.e. coord-bearing).

columns = 42
rows = 36
hex-side = 30
grid-grain = h
outfile = tut2.png
antialias = true
grid-start = i
coord-origin =ll
bg-opacity=1
output=png
hex-height=113
hex-width=98
coord-bearing=20
coord-distance=12
coord-tilt=89

Anyway - nifty tool! I’m sorry to post mkhexgrid support questions here, let me know if you want me to take this discussion off-line.

Best,
Dan

I decided to not go with coordinates at all. It was bogging down my graphics program anyway.

I am experiencing a similar problem. Can’t access Nine Train’s blog, so can you post the advice you would have given, please.

I forgot what I said, but here

vassalengine.org/wiki/doku.p … d_mapsheet

is a link that describes how to do it manually back in the bad-old days before the wysiwig thingy, but the principle remains the same.

Work on the axis that aligns horizontally or vertically first, until the edges of the hexes line up, but are the wrong height. Then adjust the height.

B.


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Thank you. I gave that a try and it worked perfectly.