Tools for module developers

Documentation
1

Below are various tools that can be useful when doing module developments.

Platforms
linux Available for Linux
macosx Available for MacOSX
windows Available for Windows
other Platform independent

Please feel free to add additional tools. Please try to place the tools in an appropriate category and give information about supported platforms, pricing, licensing, and a short description. It is OK to have multiple tools with the same purpose - gives users a choice. See also <!-- comments --> in the code of this post.

Graphics tools

  • Gimp

    • Platforms: linux macosx windows
    • Price: Free
    • Licensing: GNU GPL-3
    • A very powerful image manipulation application, mainly suitable for bit images.

  • Inkscape

    • Platforms: linux macosx windows
    • Price: Free
    • Licensing: GNU GPL-2
    • A very powerful vector graphics application.

  • Imagemagick

    • Platforms: linux macosx windows
    • Price: Free
    • Licensing: Open Source
    • Command line tool to do all sorts of image manipulations

Custom Elements (Java classes)

  • OpenJDK

    • Platforms: linux macosx windows
    • Price: Free
    • Licensing: GNU GPL-2
    • Java Development Kit. Command line tools for (byte-)compiling Java code. You do not need a full IDE - like IntelliJ/IDEA to make custom classes - only the Java compiler javac, and to be comfortable with the command line.

  • BlueJ

    • Platforms: linux macosx windows
    • Price: Free
    • Licensing: GNU GPL-2
    • A beginners and educational Java IDE.

  • Eclipse

    • Platforms: linux macosx windows
    • Price: Free
    • Licensing: EPL-2.0
    • A fully fleshed IDE, for Java and other programming languages.

  • IntelliJ/IDEA

    • Platforms: linux macosx windows
    • Price: Community edition is free, single user license from circa $/€200 first year
    • Licensing: Apache 2.0 for community edition, others depend on exact product.
    • A fully fleshed Java IDE, which is often used for core VASSAL developments (see also here).

Specialised tools

  • optipng

    • Platforms: linux macosx windows
    • Price: Free
    • Licensing: Open Source
    • A command line tool to optimise the size of PNG and other image files.

  • piece_manip.sh

    • Platforms: other
    • Price: Free
    • Licensing: GNU GPL-3
    • A command line script to do common manipulations of piece images, including crop from counter sheet, borders, rounded corners, drop shadows, and size reduction. See also here. Uses Imagemagick

  • vassal-python

    • Platforms: other
    • Price: Free
    • Licensing: GNU LGPL-2.1
    • A Python module to manipulate modules (.vmod). See also this thread. Requires Python, JRE (comes with VASSAL on macosx windows and pre-required on linux) and VASSAL to be installed.

  • pywargame

    • Platforms: other
    • Price: Free
    • Licensing: CC-BY-SA 4.0
    • A Python module to create and manipulate modules (.vmod).
      See also this post. Includes tool to export a CyberBoard scenario or gamebox to VASSAL. Note, this manipulates the ZIP and XML files directly and need not link with the VASSAL binary code. Requires Python to be installed.

  • wargame

    • Platforms: other
    • Price: Free
    • Licensing: CC-BY-SA 4.0
    • A LATEX package to create counters and maps - mainly for Wargames. Can also make a draft module (.vmod) from the LATEX sources, and uses pywargame for advanced patching. Requires LATEX and Python to be installed.
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