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Rincewind

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Thanks for this, it's rad. Bug report though -

Started a new map, drew a bunch of cells, then ctrl + z'd (same thing happens if I hold down u) and held down till they all got undone, but once it hit the last cell that was created - and there was nothing left to undo, holding ctrl z past that point crashed it. Replicated 3 times just to make sure.
This is so embarrassing... :oops: I must have tested this when I implemented the basic undo feature, but must have broken it at some point somehow and never re-tested this edge case...

Thank you very much for raising it! I've been sitting on the proper multi-monitor support feature for a while, so I'll fix this and release both over the weekend.
 

Strange Fellow

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Just dipping my feet in this, and it seems very excellent. Has the potential to replace Grid Cartographer as my mapping utility of choice. Keyboard first should always be the standard. :obviously: Also loving the comprehensive manual.

One incredibly minor point: the full-screen and half-screen options default to the first monitor on a dual-monitor setup, instead of the monitor the program is on when you select it. I don't really care, but there it is. Maybe someone does. Mainly dropping by to say good job!
 

Rincewind

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Keyboard first should always be the standard. :obviously:
I think so too!
Also loving the comprehensive manual.
Glad someone appreciates it; I put a lot of effort (and love) in it!

One incredibly minor point: the full-screen and half-screen options default to the first monitor on a dual-monitor setup, instead of the monitor the program is on when you select it. I don't really care, but there it is. Maybe someone does. Mainly dropping by to say good job!
Yes, multi-monitor support is non-existent in the current version. It also doesn't remember which screen was the window on between restarts, etc.

I meant to finally release the fix for that and for the undo crash a week ago but I always get sidetracked by my DOSBox Staging work... Maybe this weekend!
 
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I can't seem to be able to build this with nim anymore on Linux. I have followed the build instructions, but I get `cannot open file: glfw`.

EDIT - I managed to build debug mode but:
/home/soda/repo/gridmonger/src/main.nim(9075) main
/home/soda/repo/gridmonger/src/main.nim(9003) main
/home/soda/repo/gridmonger/src/main.nim(8699) initGfx
/home/soda/repo/koi/koi.nim(7298) init
/home/soda/repo/nim-glfw/glfw.nim(183) errorCb
/usr/lib/nim/system/fatal.nim(54) sysFatal
Error: unhandled exception: value out of range: 65547 notin 0 .. 65546 [RangeDefect]

No luck with release mode due to:
/home/soda/repo/gridmonger/Config/pkgs/osdialog-0.1.2/osdialog/wrapper.nim(25, 12) Error: define osdialogGtk2, osdialogGtk3 or osdialogZenity (pass -d:... to compile)

As I said above, I did follow the instructions download the necessary deps (Linked to gridmonger/Configs).

Edit - I saw the post about osdialog, and I tried the different branches.
 
Last edited:

Rincewind

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I can't seem to be able to build this with nim anymore on Linux. I have followed the build instructions, but I get `cannot open file: glfw`.

EDIT - I managed to build debug mode but:
/home/soda/repo/gridmonger/src/main.nim(9075) main
/home/soda/repo/gridmonger/src/main.nim(9003) main
/home/soda/repo/gridmonger/src/main.nim(8699) initGfx
/home/soda/repo/koi/koi.nim(7298) init
/home/soda/repo/nim-glfw/glfw.nim(183) errorCb
/usr/lib/nim/system/fatal.nim(54) sysFatal
Error: unhandled exception: value out of range: 65547 notin 0 .. 65546 [RangeDefect]

No luck with release mode due to:
/home/soda/repo/gridmonger/Config/pkgs/osdialog-0.1.2/osdialog/wrapper.nim(25, 12) Error: define osdialogGtk2, osdialogGtk3 or osdialogZenity (pass -d:... to compile)

As I said above, I did follow the instructions download the necessary deps (Linked to gridmonger/Configs).

Edit - I saw the post about osdialog, and I tried the different branches.
I think you missed this part of the readme:
For koi and nim-glfw, clone their Git repositories, check out the gridmonger branch in nim-glfw, then install both with nimble develop for local development.
Edit: Right, so you might wanna try this (remove the space after the colon; I had to put a space there otherwise a smiley got auto-inserted there... eh...)

nim debug -d: osdialogGtk2

I got my Raspberry Pi 4B last week for Linux dev, so at some point I'll add proper support for Linux, plus a downloadable tar.xz distribution (statically compiled, I'm not a fan of these newfangled package managers).
 
Last edited:

Alex

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This looks nice, and it was high time there was at least one decent open source grid mapper.

But if you don't mind me asking, what is Nim? And why did you use it for this project?
 
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I can't seem to be able to build this with nim anymore on Linux. I have followed the build instructions, but I get `cannot open file: glfw`.

EDIT - I managed to build debug mode but:
/home/soda/repo/gridmonger/src/main.nim(9075) main
/home/soda/repo/gridmonger/src/main.nim(9003) main
/home/soda/repo/gridmonger/src/main.nim(8699) initGfx
/home/soda/repo/koi/koi.nim(7298) init
/home/soda/repo/nim-glfw/glfw.nim(183) errorCb
/usr/lib/nim/system/fatal.nim(54) sysFatal
Error: unhandled exception: value out of range: 65547 notin 0 .. 65546 [RangeDefect]

No luck with release mode due to:
/home/soda/repo/gridmonger/Config/pkgs/osdialog-0.1.2/osdialog/wrapper.nim(25, 12) Error: define osdialogGtk2, osdialogGtk3 or osdialogZenity (pass -d:... to compile)

As I said above, I did follow the instructions download the necessary deps (Linked to gridmonger/Configs).

Edit - I saw the post about osdialog, and I tried the different branches.
I think you missed this part of the readme:
For koi and nim-glfw, clone their Git repositories, check out the gridmonger branch in nim-glfw, then install both with nimble develop for local development.
Edit: Right, so you might wanna try this (remove the space after the colon; I had to put a space there otherwise a smiley got auto-inserted there... eh...)

nim debug -d: osdialogGtk2

I got my Raspberry Pi 4B last week for Linux dev, so at some point I'll add proper support for Linux, plus a downloadable tar.xz distribution (statically compiled, I'm not a fan of these newfangled package managers).
No I hadn't missed any part of the readme.

A saner syntax for the command you supplied is
nim debug -d=osdialogGtk2

but it results in the same value out of range exception as above.

Edit - So I can at least build Release mode with osdialogGtk3. Unlike debug mode, it launches a Gtk window, but then crashes with a fatal error (no specific logs).
 
Last edited:

KeighnMcDeath

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This looks nice, and it was high time there was at least one decent open source grid mapper.

But if you don't mind me asking, what is Nim? And why did you use it for this project?
I think he's channeling the science company that abuses er experiments on mice.
 

Rincewind

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No I hadn't missed any part of the readme.

A saner syntax for the command you supplied is
nim debug -d=osdialogGtk2

but it results in the same value out of range exception as above.

Edit - So I can at least build Release mode with osdialogGtk3. Unlike debug mode, it launches a Gtk window, but then crashes with a fatal error (no specific logs).
Not sure what goes wrong there, man. Yes you must be using the `gridmonger` branch of nim-glfw, otherwise you'd get compilation errors, so that's fine. I'm using a custom version of glfw statically compiled and linked against the main exe. The sources are bundled in nim-glfw.

Just for good measure, try all this again:

cd nim-glfw
git checkout gridmonger
nimble develop [press Y if asks to overwrite]
cd ../gridmonger
nim debug -f -d=osdialogGtk3 [force full rebuild with -f]

Anyway, if you can't figure it out, you'll have to wait until I add proper Linux support. I've never tried to compile it on Linux myself! But 7h30n uses it on Linux; he even submitted some fixes & patches, so it's definitely possible.

But if you don't mind me asking, what is Nim? And why did you use it for this project?
Look around here: https://nim-lang.org/

In short, I was looking for a C/C++ replacement for hobby projects that gives me the same speed, full low-level control, and full interoperability with any existing C/C++ libraries without making me tear my hair out, and without having to write a single line of C++ code.

I can write C++; in fact, I'm forced to use it for DOSBox Staging development... begrudgingly. If there is a way to *not* use C++, I always take that option (not an option with DOSBox, sadly). Life is just too short for C++.

I wrote about the start of my Nim journey here:

https://blog.johnnovak.net/2016/03/03/the-quest-for-a-programming-language-that-doesnt-suck-part-1/

https://blog.johnnovak.net/2016/04/28/the-nim-ray-tracer-project-part-1-introduction/
 

ind33d

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Hey guys, I've just unleashed a dungeon mapping tool I've been working on for the past couple of years. It's intended to aid manual mapping via an efficient keyboard-driven (and attractive!) interface. Ladies and gentlemen, I present you

COQXQYl.png


"bbbbut there's Grid Cartographer bro, why did u bother lulz?" Well, I literally learned about GC the next day after I came up with the bright idea to do this. Checked out a few videos of the thing, and decided that my design goals are different enough that I still want to write my own (never used GC myself, by the way). Plus, after more than two decades of writing software commercially for other people, a man needs a project he can call his own. I guess that's as good a reason as any.

While the Game Link feature in Grid Cartographer is certainly cool and technically impressive (and so are other auto-mappers, such as Where Are We?, Gold Box Companion, and The All-Seeing Eye), I'm really really really against auto-mapping of any kind — to me, mapping these games one cell at a time is half the fun! So, depending on your stance on this pressing issue, you might absolutely love Gridmonger, or perhaps not care about it at all (but if you ask me, you should definitely give creating your own maps a go!)

Well, and did I mention it's free?????????
:grpg:

You luddites should be pleased to hear that it runs fine on Win7 (probably XP too, but didn't bother to check). There's a Mac version as well, and eventually I'll do a Linux build (I'm just too lazy to set up a dev environment on my Raspberry Pi...)

Anyway, here's a few screenshots as bait; if you're interested, it has its own website with all the info you'll ever need, including a very comprehensive manual.

ss-dm.png


ss-mm.png


ss-eob-full.png


ss-uukrul.png

https://gridmonger.johnnovak.net/

Comments, bug reports, feature requests, etc. are always welcome (but don't ask for auto-mapping or full mouse support, I just don't care about these things). It should be pretty solid, I've completed Eye of the Beholder I and about half of Uukrul with it.

I'll probably update some of themes slightly over the next couple of days, but I wanted to release it TODAY, otherwise I might sit on it for another year...

Pleasant dungeoneering to y'all! :salute:
playing an old-school dungeon crawler and running this on a second monitor to map the dungeon as you go would be cool as fuck
 

Rincewind

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Funnily enough, you wouldn't have these issues with C++, if you used CMake.

C++
CMake


:notsureifserious:

That's not the problem here, mate...

As I said, the project is *untested* by me, the author, on Linux. You'd likely get problems with *any* project written in *any* language if you tried to use it on an *untested* platform for the first time...

Having said that, the issues are obviously very small, and 7h30n has figured out how to compile it correctly already. And so will I when I get to it. Please be patient or roll up your sleeves a bit more, then tell me what was needed :)

PS: try meson instead if you're stuck in C++ land instead of that CMake garbage. That's what we use in DOSBox Staging, and it's quite sane.
 
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Funnily enough, you wouldn't have these issues with C++, if you used CMake.

C++
CMake


:notsureifserious:

That's not the problem here, mate...

As I said, the project is *untested* by me, the author, on Linux. You'd likely get problems with *any* project written in *any* language if you tried to use it on an *untested* platform for the first time...

Having said that, the issues are obviously very small, and 7h30n has figured out how to compile it correctly already. And so will I when I get to it. Please be patient or roll up your sleeves a bit more, then tell me what was needed :)

PS: try meson instead if you're stuck in C++ land instead of that CMake garbage. That's what we use in DOSBox Staging, and it's quite sane.
Maybe my perspective is warped since i'm stuck in Bazel land (an industrial level build system not commonly used by "normal" people), but at least with a well written CMake file, your dependencies are deployed correctly no matter the platform (or fail descriptively most of the time). Also resolving dependencies in C++ are relatively straight forward, imo.

Anyways, i might take a closer look this weekend.
 

Rincewind

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This looks cool and more suited to what I was looking for than some other programs. I'm looking forward to giving it a spin and seeing if I can get used to the interface.
Make sure to read the comprehensive manual.

In other news, I haven't forgotten about the bugs & feature requests from the earlier posts in this thread. I've just been busy, but they're almost ready... Probably a new release will come out in Dec.
 

Salathor

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I'm using this now to map Wizardry 5 and loving it. Most of the way through level 2 and it's super helpful. Two requests:

-As stated before, would be nice to have a scrollable pane at the bottom so all notes show up
-I would like to be able to either toggle or have two different grid options--one that changes wall state and one that doesn't. For "tunnel" style games, it works great. In wizardry I have to keep redrawing walls when I create a path on the other side of the wall. It would be nice if I could create a tunnel without ruining the adjoining walls. I would still need to add the walls to the OTHER side, but at least I wouldn't have to be sure I didn't mess anything up.
 

Rincewind

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I'm using this now to map Wizardry 5 and loving it. Most of the way through level 2 and it's super helpful. Two requests:
Thanks man, glad you're enjoying it.

-As stated before, would be nice to have a scrollable pane at the bottom so all notes show up
It's scrollable if the text doesn't fit, in which case a scrollbar appears on the right side. You can either drag that to scroll, but it's easiest to scroll with the mouse wheel. That's what I do. Note you can also make the whole comment appear in a tooltip by pressing Space, or just simply hovering over the cell with the mouse pointer.

In the future, I think I'll make the size of the bottom notes pane adjustable.

-I would like to be able to either toggle or have two different grid options--one that changes wall state and one that doesn't. For "tunnel" style games, it works great. In wizardry I have to keep redrawing walls when I create a path on the other side of the wall. It would be nice if I could create a tunnel without ruining the adjoining walls. I would still need to add the walls to the OTHER side, but at least I wouldn't have to be sure I didn't mess anything up.
Yeah for "tunnel" style maps it's best to fill the whole map with "floor" type cells first, then use the "draw wall repeat" tool only. So forget about the draw tunnel tool in that case, that's what I recommend. The draw wall repeat tool takes some practice, but it's really powerful:
https://gridmonger.johnnovak.net/manual/basic-editing.html#draw-wall-repeat

That's the best I could come up with that works well together with the rest of the features. But I'm not against further improving it if I (or someone else) has a better idea.

Someone suggested to add an "auto-fill with floor cells" option to the "new level" dialog for tunnel style maps, I'll probably add that.
 

Salathor

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1) Good suggestion about filling all with floors. I'll try that for the next floor and see how it goes! Filling in all of these one-cell rooms on floor 3 of Wiz 5 is rough since it deletes all the old rooms first. Maybe I'll try filling with an off-color so it's clear what I have and haven't explored yet.

2) I'm not sure I understand about the notes. My whole note shows up, but I can only see one note at a time--it would be nice if it showed all of the notes (at least all the numbered notes) underneath the map in a list. I'm thinking like in the old game clue books or in a D&D paper module.

Again, thanks for making this tool! I've looked before but never found anything worth using so I've stuck with paper til now.
 

Rincewind

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2) I'm not sure I understand about the notes. My whole note shows up, but I can only see one note at a time--it would be nice if it showed all of the notes (at least all the numbered notes) underneath the map in a list. I'm thinking like in the old game clue books or in a D&D paper module.
Ah, I misunderstood! Yeah, searchable notes (via full-text search) and showing notes belonging to a particular category (e.g., numbered notes) are important features (and interesting technical challenges). I will definitely add that; I'm planning to do it as an extra toggleable left pane. I'm just busy with other stuff, but it will happen in 2024.

Probably I'll start with just showing all numbered notes in the left pane, then you could jump to the location by clicking on the note. That's easy enough to do.

Again, thanks for making this tool! I've looked before but never found anything worth using so I've stuck with paper til now.
Glad to hear you're enjoying it. Yeah, it's for a very specific type of person, but I believe if you're in the "target market", there's no substitute.
 

Salathor

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2) I'm not sure I understand about the notes. My whole note shows up, but I can only see one note at a time--it would be nice if it showed all of the notes (at least all the numbered notes) underneath the map in a list. I'm thinking like in the old game clue books or in a D&D paper module.
Ah, I misunderstood! Yeah, searchable notes (via full-text search) and showing notes belonging to a particular category (e.g., numbered notes) are important features (and interesting technical challenges). I will definitely add that; I'm planning to do it as an extra toggleable left pane. I'm just busy with other stuff, but it will happen in 2024.

Probably I'll start with just showing all numbered notes in the left pane, then you could jump to the location by clicking on the note. That's easy enough to do.

Again, thanks for making this tool! I've looked before but never found anything worth using so I've stuck with paper til now.
Glad to hear you're enjoying it. Yeah, it's for a very specific type of person, but I believe if you're in the "target market", there's no substitute.
Perfect, a left pane just for numbered notes would be great. Right now this has revitalized my interest in self-mapping games. I've done a few in the past and I love the act of mapping, but keeping track of all the paper and stuff is a pain (as is erasing when I inevitably mess up). I'll keep my eye out!
 

Rincewind

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Perfect, a left pane just for numbered notes would be great. Right now this has revitalized my interest in self-mapping games. I've done a few in the past and I love the act of mapping, but keeping track of all the paper and stuff is a pain (as is erasing when I inevitably mess up). I'll keep my eye out!
I'm exactly the same, I love mapping and paper mapping is fine... until you need to correct your mistakes, then it's a major pain to redraw things. Hence I came up with this tool, and I needed a hobby project anyway as a proof-of-concept for some things (e.g., alternative GUI approaches; I wrote my own UI library for this, it only needs OpenGL support from the OS and that's it).
 

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