Automating the map creation process

2012-07-16T00:48:32Z

2.216.138.92: /* IDs */

There are several tools available that allow you to quicken up the map creation process.

== Vision creation ==
You could just start with a map in SVG format. These can be most easily found on [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] or a Wikipedia in your language.

Various raster (ie., not SVG) maps are viable for conversion to SVG format - two most used tools for this are potrace (bundled with Inkscape, available as Path -> Trace Bitmap.. command) and AutoTrace (available for online use [http://www.roitsystems.com/eido/index.pl here]). The clearer the map, the better results you can get - single-color borders on single-color background, or differently colored territories, work best.

== IDs ==
Inkcape extension plugin for automatically assigning selected Paths ID is available here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/89026778/WLExtension.zip

Other tool that makes every path have a territory ID automatically can be found here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10983006/tmp/warlight_territories.exe. It does only work on Inkscape-made maps.

== Centerpoints ==
A tool that can create centerpoints is available on forums: http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread.aspx?ThreadID=2452. It calculates the centroid of every territory-polygon and places the centerpoints. It does not work correctly on multipart territories. Source code (in Ruby) is available here: https://github.com/MatmaRex/Warlight-Tools

== Connections ==
A tool that can create connections is available on forums: http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread.aspx?ThreadID=2668. It checks every pair of territories and every pair of their points - and considers them neighbors if the distance between any pair of points is less than 5 pixels. It does not work correctly on multipart territories, can take a long time to finish (up to a few hours on large maps), and may be overzealous, connecting territories that don't actually touch (but are pretty close). Source code (in Ruby) is available here: https://github.com/MatmaRex/Warlight-Tools

[[Category:Map Making]]

War.app Wiki - User contributions [en]

Automating the map creation process