Incline GRIDMONGER — a new free & open-source cRPG mapping tool

[Rincewind]

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

"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?????????


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.

Clickety CLICK!

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!

 

[7h30n]

Awesome. I will check it out definitely as I'm playing original Wizardry atm. Though, no Linux is support is a really big bummer for me. Other than that, I was also thinking of coding up a completely keyboard driven mapper with similar design goals as this (i.e. no automapping, etc.) I even wrote a design document, and wanted to start coding it today. What a great coincidence to keep me playing Wizardry :D

 

[Fedora Master]

Gridmonger more like Grimdonger hurr hurr

 

[Rincewind]

Though, no Linux is support is a really big bummer for me.

Some people started helping me with that just now, so it might come a lot earlier than I thought... Probably it will be an AppImage.

 

[7h30n]

Though, no Linux is support is a really big bummer for me.

Some people started helping me with that just now, so it might come a lot earlier than I thought... Probably it will be an AppImage.

Awesome! I'm currently trying to compile it on my Arch. Props on using nim!

 

[Rincewind]

Though, no Linux is support is a really big bummer for me.

Some people started helping me with that just now, so it might come a lot earlier than I thought... Probably it will be an AppImage.

Awesome! I'm currently trying to compile it on my Arch. Props on using nim!

The dude just managed to compile it, so this might be your lucky day. We might publish an AppImage over the next few days, after all.

 

[7h30n]

Though, no Linux is support is a really big bummer for me.

Some people started helping me with that just now, so it might come a lot earlier than I thought... Probably it will be an AppImage.

Awesome! I'm currently trying to compile it on my Arch. Props on using nim!

The dude just managed to compile it, so this might be your lucky day. We might publish an AppImage over the next few days, after all.

Was about to post the same thing, though I managed to compile it in `debug` mode only. Btw, you have a couple of PRs from me on `koi` and `nim-glfw`

 

[7h30n]

Alright, this works amazing! Rincewind, you've just made my idea completely obsolete! Though, I would've made my inputs more closer to vim & emacs, with motion & repeat style commands. Also I would've included support for easy rebinding and extending it with new tilesets. Thanks, now I don't have to do anything :D

 

[Strange Fellow]

Cool, nice work! I'll be sure to give this a go next time I play something mappable. You are right in pointing out that GC is formidable competition, but it also has a lot of features I don't use (game link among them) so if I could trade those for an even snappier keyboard-driven interface I would. In any case, having a free alternative is always a good thing.

 

[octavius]

Looks good.
Will try it next time I play a true blobber again.

 

[Rincewind]

Alright, this works amazing! Rincewind, you've just made my idea completely obsolete! Though, I would've made my inputs more closer to vim & emacs, with motion & repeat style commands. Also I would've included support for easy rebinding and extending it with new tilesets. Thanks, now I don't have to do anything :D

Thanks man, I've merged your PRs. The other guy who gave this a shot has problems with the window movement on Linux, but otherwise works fine for him. Are you experiencing any window movement related issues?

About motion & repeat commands... did not want to overcomplicate it, really. I don't think they would be that useful when just editing maps (vs editing text). But who knows, maybe I'll add some basic command support later.

Rebinding, yeah the bindings should come from a config, but that's quite a bit of work. Maybe one day!

Tilesets — my idea was again to keep it simple, and only have a fixed icon set that's generic enough to make more or less everybody happy. Note that everything is vector based at the moment, so there's no bitmap support.

In any case, you can build it now, so further PRs are always welcome

 

[7h30n]

Alright, this works amazing! Rincewind, you've just made my idea completely obsolete! Though, I would've made my inputs more closer to vim & emacs, with motion & repeat style commands. Also I would've included support for easy rebinding and extending it with new tilesets. Thanks, now I don't have to do anything :D

Thanks man, I've merged your PRs. The other guy who gave this a shot has problems with the window movement on Linux, but otherwise works fine for him. Are you experiencing any window movement related issues?

I haven't yet experienced window issues... But the again, I'm using i3 wm so I don't move my windows that much.

About motion & repeat commands... did not want to overcomplicate it, really. I don't think they would be that useful when just editing maps (vs editing text). But who knows, maybe I'll add some basic command support later.

Rebinding, yeah the bindings should come from a config, but that's quite a bit of work. Maybe one day!

Tilesets — my idea was again to keep it simple, and only have a fixed icon set that's generic enough to make more or less everybody happy. Note that everything is vector based at the moment, so there's no bitmap support.

In any case, you can build it now, so further PRs are always welcome

Cool, maybe now is the time for me to take that in-depth look into nim I've been postponing for a while now.

 

[Rincewind]

Was about to post the same thing, though I managed to compile it in `debug` mode only.

I assume you ran into a problem with `osdialog` not compiling in release mode. We've just fixed that for Linux, so after a `nimble install osdialog` you should be able to do a release build (note that there are no file dialogs in the debug build — kinda hard to load/save anything without them ).

So basically now it's fully functional on Linux if you build it yourself, minus a few glitches that don't harm any actual functionaliy (potential splash screen transparency problem, and window movement/resizing glitchiness on some window managers).

 

[7h30n]

Finally got some time after work to finish up reading the manual, and fire up Wizardry 1. I've remapped my 1st floor (and started working on 2nd) and I have to say, this is the pen & paper replacement I've been looking for! The only "missing feature" for mapping Wiz1 is the fact that I cannot link 2 (i.e. multiple) teleport sources to a single destination. Oh and, I cannot somehow wrap around the map (which Wiz1 does for some weird reason)

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Bardstale often wraps as well and Ultima 3-4

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Downloaded both 32/64 as i have a winxp laptop

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Compared to GC, how is a more zoomed out view of the map? When I played Dungeon Master not too long ago I was annoyed at how GC didn't keep much detail whenever I had the entire map in view. I don't care about the whole automapping thing, because the only games I've played that need that wouldn't work with it anyway. Something really huge like Dimensional Fighter Epsilon3 or Fate on Amiga, that are just huge games where mapping is a pain in the ass, rather than part of the fun. I just want a map that shows me a single level in sufficient detail that wall lines that show that a secret door or a lever is there appear.

 

[Rincewind]

Compared to GC, how is a more zoomed out view of the map? When I played Dungeon Master not too long ago I was annoyed at how GC didn't keep much detail whenever I had the entire map in view. I don't care about the whole automapping thing, because the only games I've played that need that wouldn't work with it anyway. Something really huge like Dimensional Fighter Epsilon3 or Fate on Amiga, that are just huge games where mapping is a pain in the ass, rather than part of the fun. I just want a map that shows me a single level in sufficient detail that wall lines that show that a secret door or a lever is there appear.

Indeed, that was a *very* important consideration, and I've paid special attention to it that typical map sizes fit nicely into the available area on a typical 1920 x 1080 screen (btw, this is one of the reasons why I don't want to bother with custom tile sets; it was lots of work to make things appear nicely with the built-in vector icons, and with custom tilesets all bets are off).

This is how I normally play games at 1920 x 1080; I use the second icon in the toolbar to snap GRIDMONGER to the right 50% of the screen. This is one of the included example maps, a level of Dungeon Master at zoom level 6 with your comment displayed in the "notes pane" at the bottom -- everything fits nicely!

Spoiler

And you've got zoom levels 1 to 5 to zoom things out even further!

Here's zoom level 3 (pretty comfortable still, super handy for those huge maps)

Spoiler

And the lowest setting, zoom level 1 (still legible if you have good eyesight, and I think it's pointless to go further than this)

Spoiler

You can even hide the bottom notes pane for more vertical space (Alt + N), or even the tools pane on the right (Alt + T), or even hide the title bar with Alt + Shift + T. With the notes pane hidden, you can press Space when in a cell that has comments to have them displayed in a tooltip.

 

[Rincewind]

Downloaded both 32/64 as i have a winxp laptop

So does it work? I guess I could test it on my WinXP box but that has a GT 430 in it (that's a 2010 DX10/11 video card), so I doubt the pixel shaders used for the OpenGL drawing would work... Might try it for fun tough.

I've remapped my 1st floor (and started working on 2nd) and I have to say, this is the pen & paper replacement I've been looking for!

Glad to hear you're enjoying it!

The only "missing feature" for mapping Wiz1 is the fact that I cannot link 2 (i.e. multiple) teleport sources to a single destination.

It's very easy to represent such teleports at the data level; the problem is how would you handle jumping between them in the UI.

Right now it's simple; cell A is the source, cell B the destination, so you can jump between them with the "G" key. Now, if cell C would also teleport you to cell B, you can still jump from C to B easily, but what happens when you press "G" on cell B? That destination has two sources: cell A and C. I guess one solution would be to enter "select teleport source" mode when a teleport destination cell has multiple sources, so you can switch between them with the movement keys (remember, the other end of the teleport might be on an entirely different level). I guess something like this can be added, but I'll need to think more about it.

Oh and, I cannot somehow wrap around the map (which Wiz1 does for some weird reason)

Ah, that's an omission and easy enough to add. I'll do it today, and make the wrap around behaviour an option in the user prefs.

Also, thanks for your bug report about the "draw wall repeat" modifier issue on Linux; just replied to you on GitHub about the fix.

 

[7h30n]

Excellent, thanks!

Btw, this is my setup on 1920x1080, zoom level is 9, and tools pane is hidden (unless when I need it).

Spoiler

 

[Rincewind]

Excellent, thanks!

Btw, this is my setup on 1920x1080, zoom level is 9, and tools pane is hidden (unless when I need it).

Spoiler

Noice There's something magical about seeing stuff just compile and work on an OS I've never personally tested this thing on.

 

[ManaJunkie]

The program is really good. Everything runs without problems. Thank you Rincewind.

Is it possible to show ALL notes as a list under the map or in a separate window?

 

[Grauken]

while I'm married to GridCartographer, this looks pretty good too, good luck with it

 

[Rincewind]

Is it possible to show ALL notes as a list under the map or in a separate window?

Not yet, but I agree it would be a pretty useful feature. I routinely put notes in cells I want to revisit later for whatever reason; my current workaround is to use a circular marker with a distinct colour for those so they stand out from the other notes.

I'll think I'll add a notes side-pane at some point with various filters, including real-time full-text search.

There are other exciting features in the pipeline too, such as:

- export to PNG (maybe SVG & PDF too)
- infinite levels (so they auto-expand whenever you add more content)
- transparent overlay mode (to be used with modern full-screen games such as Grimrock, M&M IX, etc.)
- full-screen mode

Btw, keep the feature requests coming; one of the reasons I shared this was to get feedback on what features people would like to get added. As it is now, it was pretty much built for my personal needs (but with some level of configurability in mind, of course).

 

[hackncrazy]

Thanks a lot for your effort, Rincewind. I've just started using this software on Wizardry: The Five Ordeals and it's absolutely great. The fact that everything can be done by very simple keyboard commands is really surprising. I even trying using excel before, but the amount of work and clicks needed was really bringing down the experience. With this amazing software, the act of drawing the maps is so simple that it feels like it's a natural part of the game, the same way it was with things like Etrian Odyssey that had a map drawing feature on DS/3DS.

Thanks again for this, It's definitely a godsend for a person like me that can't afford more famous options like Grid Cartographer, but Gridmancer is so awesome that I really feel I don't need any other option right now.