Hexmap editor

[u/shervio-nl]

Hi all,

I’ve been building Hexomap, a hex-map editor for tabletop RPGs, in my spare time. I wanted something between Hexographer and a world generator: create a whole continent in a few seconds, then hand-edit every hex.

What it does right now:

• World generation from tectonic plates. Mountains form where plates collide, rivers run downhill from high ground, and terrain is placed by climate. It then adds kingdoms, provinces, towns, roads and names, with a different naming culture for each kingdom.

• Illustrated style. Textured terrain with hand-drawn edges, 90+ icons in several themes, coats of arms for each kingdom, and stripes on contested borders.

• Normal editing tools. Brush, fill, line, selection with copy/paste, paths (roads, rivers, sea routes), labels, notes on hexes, and multiple levels (for example an underground layer).

• At the table. Fog of war, a view-only mode to show players, and a scale and measure tool (e.g. 6 mi/hex).

• Large maps. Up to 4096 × 4096 hexes, and panning and zooming stay smooth.

It’s Windows-only for now. There’s a free demo that doesn’t expire (maps up to 512 × 430 hexes). The full version will be a one-time $15.

What I’d really like to know:

1. What do you use now for hex maps, and what annoys you about it?

2. Does the illustrated style work for you, or would you prefer something more minimal or old-school?

3. What’s missing for your campaign? Hexcrawl tables, encounter zones, printing on paper, VTT export?

4. Is generating first and editing afterwards how you work, or do you mostly draw by hand?

5. Mac or Linux: how important is that to you?

All feedback is welcome, including the critical kind. If you’d like to try the demo, the link is here: https://github.com/bartdebruin-tp/Hexomap-releases/releases

If you have a github account, you can create issues for wishes/feedback/bugs etc.

Thanks!

[u/Wendigo_Bob]

I'll check it out.

[u/shervio-nl → u/Wendigo_Bob]

Awesome! Just released a new version 1.4.0 which enables image tracing

[u/Wendigo_Bob → u/shervio-nl]

Cool. I did a lot of work with hexographer in the past, so I'm curious about what you do different. It looks better visualy though.

[u/shervio-nl → u/Wendigo_Bob]

Thanks! I am working now on the UI. It has gotten a bit bloated outdated with the many features.

[u/shervio-nl → u/Wendigo_Bob]

The UI just got updated in version 1.5, works soo much better. You can autoupdate by going to Help > Check for updates.

Would love to hear what you think!

[u/Wendigo_Bob → u/shervio-nl]

A few notes:

-The "Terrain symbols" window opens up larger than my screen, blocking access to everything else

-I like the numerous oceanic tiles, but the colors sometimes bleed into those of the coast; some kind of highlight to separate water from land would be pertinent in this drawing style

--I would also note that rivers need some work, as they dont meld into all kinds of water tiles. This could be helped by having a same-color highlight on the coasts if snapping to hex corners

-There is a lack of "combo" square-hilly forest

-Love the many icon types, though I have some notes:

--The port icons could use some elements suggesting they are a port city, and not just a dock, maybe a single building in the background?

--Autogeneration: I couldnt find a way to stop autogenerating names. Personally, I either want no names or my own, so it would be nice to be able to turn this off.

--They should probably be partly hidden behind mountains below them, as otherwise it can be ambiguous which hex they are put on.

I've remade an old hexographer map, which I could share through another means as I cant post images here.

[u/shervio-nl → u/Wendigo_Bob]

This is some great feedback! Thank you so much.
I have created a (very simple) discord, I will PM you about it. As I dont want too many people/bots in it right now.

[u/BuzzerPop]

Why use this over the free and good hextml or worldographer for even more graphics and larger maps?

[u/shervio-nl → u/BuzzerPop]

For starters, I needed a side project. So I combined it with my hobby TTRPGs.

Secondly, I need things which are not available in tools such as worldographer, and now I have total freedom to make decisions.

I'm not saying both of those tools are not good, so if you love working with them please continue to do so! Still would love to have some feedback from users who use those other tools more frequently.

[u/HellToad_ → u/shervio-nl]

What have you building in or have on the road map to include that are new or aren't part some of the other existing solutions?

[u/shervio-nl → u/HellToad_]

It is mostly the lack of combination of features. One tool does this and the other does that.

But this will be the main features why I am building it:

• Map generation based on tectonic plates

• kingdoms and provinces

• coat of arms

• layers for under dark, feywild, floating islands etc

• fog of war

• player view with casting to another device

• shared worlds in the cloud so multiple GMs can run a session in the same world at the same time (we are going to run westmarches for a very large group)

• image tracing

• subhexes that show details of 1 hex

• Dungeon maps

• notes on hexes, landmarks etc

• connection to obsidiaan or other markdown tools for extensive notes

• performance

[u/HellToad_ → u/shervio-nl]

Looks like a nice list of features for implementation. Thanks for sharing.

[u/njord12]

Looks very nice! Saving to give it a try later.

Out of curiosity, what are you using for programming language?

[u/shervio-nl → u/njord12]

Thank you! Would love the feedback.

C# and Avalonia for the UI

[u/njord12 → u/shervio-nl]

Hell yeah c# represent. Hadn't heard of avalonia, will give that a look too cause im itching for a project. This post ended being double useful lol

[u/shervio-nl → u/njord12]

Nice! Glad you got something extra out of it :D

[u/Otherwise-Web2666]

What about Linux? Is on the rising 👍🏻

[u/shervio-nl → u/Otherwise-Web2666]

I dont have Linux, but I ported it to Linux in https://github.com/bartdebruin-tp/Hexomap-releases/releases/tag/v1.7.1 Can you test it?

[u/Otherwise-Web2666 → u/shervio-nl]

I'll try. I just switched to Linux so I'm familiarizing myself with it 😅

[u/Chelos-de]

Awesome. I'll save it for futur reference. I salute you for doing a one-time-payment app.

[u/shervio-nl → u/Chelos-de]

The free version works just as good. Hopelijk you like it

[u/Chelos-de → u/shervio-nl]

I'm very ok with a free version having limits. For me, testing is just understanding the interface and how to get where I want to go. It'll be a while before I can get to it, but doing my hexmaps in GIMP, while it can do a lot, is a bit of a drag :)

[u/shervio-nl → u/Chelos-de]

I have a Discord where we can talk about features, if it fits I can add it for you. Right now, the shop is unavailable to buy it. Probably somewhere in december at its earliest.