Map-Making Alternatives for Roll20 Assets

Hope this is the right place to post this. In short, I love the assets and tile sets from the marketplace; I've several hundred dollars of them over my years playing on the platform.  I also rather enjoy making maps on Roll20, being the smooth-brained individual that I am.  I've gotten used to the simple drag and drop, foreground/background, rotate and resize method, even if it's not the most efficient way to go about making custom maps.  My one chagrin is that I have so many assets that Roll20 chugs along when I try to make maps these days.  I know posts like this exist asking similar things, but I haven't found anyone asking for what I'm looking for, mainly a suggestion for a program I can download to make maps in similar (if not identical) drag and drop fashion using the assets I have from Roll20?   

I use photoshop (gimp is a good free alternative). Drag the files from your file explorer into your map to be on photoshop/gimp. You can rotate, scale, etc as much as you'd like and then output a completed map as one file. I like to set the resolution of the map file to be 70 or 140px/inch and then one inch becomes equivalent to a grid square on Roll20. This also makes it easy to size assets to their intended size when you drop them in as you just set them to be the same number of inches WxH that they are supposed to be in squares.

One of my main go to's for map making is Tiled (mapeditor.org). You can import tilesheets, individual map backgrounds, images, etc. and once finished save out either as whole maps, as overlays with transparencies, in several formats. Those can then be reloaded back into your library in Roll20 for easier use. 

I have used both GIMP and Inkscape in the way that Scott C. describes (drag/drop from file browser).  If I am doing anything more than just adding a few decorations to an existing map, I generally go with one of those.  I have also used some assets from the marketplace (buildings, roads, and trees mostly) as custom assets in a program called Wonderdraft, which I use to do all of my world or region maps.  With custom assets it is a perfectly capable city mapper.

Thanks, I'll took a look at those.  I've heard of Tiled though always in the context of people do things with something like RPG Maker, and GIMP's comparison to Photoshop always stayed my hand, but if it is as simple as that, I'll give it a round.  Appreciate the input everyone.

Rindali said: Thanks, I'll took a look at those.  I've heard of Tiled though always in the context of people do things with something like RPG Maker, and GIMP's comparison to Photoshop always stayed my hand, but if it is as simple as that, I'll give it a round.  Appreciate the input everyone. When using GIMP, you can set your objects to snap to grid. Turn your grid on and set it to snap. It should be 2 inches per square at 72 px. Once you get the hang of it, you will be able to use hotkeys and such to build maps with assets really fast. Save them as JPEGs and upload them to Roll20. Also, the recommended max size of a map should not exceed 30" x 30". For this reason, I break my maps up and then make overviews of the whole area. Some good examples of this are the Complete Castle  and  Complete Fantasy Town  or any of my "Complete" map sets.

There are several map making programs. I use Other World Mapper, which has a battlemap functionality as well as overland and city. Some people use Dungeon Draft, Dungeon Forge. You can always set a grid and snap in a standard photo editor. At the lag level you're describing, either a battle map program or a free image editing program like GIMP or even the free in browser Photopea will be better than assembling live in Roll20. However, programs like Dungeon Draft come with image managers that will be more like looking through Roll20 packs. A photo editor you will have to either open individual items, or drag and drop directly into the window and position them after they load, it won't be a true drag and drop experience like you're accustomed to, unfortunately.

One thing that has not been mentioned in the thread above, from what I saw, is when you build your maps in Roll20 - the artwork does not count against your quota.  If you download the artwork from Roll20, use it to create a map, and upload it back to Roll20 - I believe it counts against your storage quota.  This may not be a major deal for someone with a Plus or Pro subscription, but a standard account holder might want to take notice.

Appreciate all the input.  So far I've been given Photoshop a go on a friend's account, and it actually does precisely what I was hoping for (after a bit of fiddling with the interface) as far as simulating a Roll20 map-making experience.  I'm going to play around with some of the free options to see how those match up before putting down the cash for it.

Another option is Inkarnate. If you use the Pro version (only $25/yr) you can upload your own art as stamps. But I also +1 GIMP.

Rindali said: Hope this is the right place to post this. In short, I love the assets and tile sets from the marketplace; I've several hundred dollars of them over my years playing on the platform.  I also rather enjoy making maps on Roll20, being the smooth-brained individual that I am.  I've gotten used to the simple drag and drop, foreground/background, rotate and resize method, even if it's not the most efficient way to go about making custom maps.  My one chagrin is that I have so many assets that Roll20 chugs along when I try to make maps these days.  I know posts like this exist asking similar things, but I haven't found anyone asking for what I'm looking for, mainly a suggestion for a program I can download to make maps in similar (if not identical) drag and drop fashion using the assets I have from Roll20?    When I'm making the map in the first place, I use Krita.  It's a free art/editing software.  Just create a grid of the right size and check "snap to grid."  That should make it simpler to drag and drop as needed.  Maps are generally 140 px per square as the default size.  Assets are more likely to be 280 px per square.  With the grid snap, it's easy to resize it correctly.