Need Map Tips, 5Mb maps look like blobs of pixels.

I make these awesome detailed maps in Maptool, but when I drop them into roll20 they look like pixel blobs due to the 5mb map size limit.  If I upgrade my account will I be able to load larger maps, or does it just increase the overall storage space?  The library maps don't look like pixel smears, were they created in Gimp or some other program?  I thought that if I set Maptool to 70 pixels per square things might match up better, because I thought that was the roll20 max size, but it doesn't seem to help much.  I export the Maptool map to Photoshop  (to compress it down to 5mb or less) save it, and then drag it to roll20.  Should I use more or less compression, interlaced or not?

J Gorgon, could you send me a Join link? I would like to take a look at the images you are using. - Gauss

Does it look fine when its in Photoshop?  5MB should look just fine unless the file is supposed to represent hundreds of squares.  Its all to do with pixels per inch.  As long as you are somewhere in the 40 to 80 pixels per inch things should look really nice, even zoomed in. I'm sure Gauss can figure it out if you get him into your campaign.  Its got to be something simple.  You can send me the file you are trying to use and I could have a look or just Gauss in there! :)

Link pm'd, maybe I just need to carve this map into quarters, but look at the toad statue in the chapel as imported, versus the token I drug in later, same image different size.

Gauss suggested I save the file as a jpg instead of a png.  I think this map is a loss.  I'm going to try different settings on the next map and see if the jpg save helps.

A few things to keep in mind. Each square on a Roll20 map is about 70 pixels wide when viewing at 100% zoom.  So if your map is 25 squares wide but only 800 pixels wide, then it's going to be stretching 32 pixel squares out to 70 pixel widths.  And it gets even worse if you zoom in beyond 100%.  Ideally, for a Roll20 map you're going to want at least 110 square pixels per map square you intend to use.  So for a default map that's 25 squares by 25 squares, it's going to have to be 2750 pixels by 2750 pixels. When creating maps, jpgs saved at maximum are more memory efficient (usually) than PNGs because maps tend to be much larger than your average tile and don't usually require transparency effects.  That being said, they can still be quite a bit above 5mb, especially if you're saving with a resolution of at least 110 pixels/square, so you may be forced to quarter your map, and assemble the four pieces together after uploading. I usually create my map tiles and tokens at very high resolutions and then shrink them down to 210 or 350 pixels/square.  Folks usually have to resize them down a bit when adding them to their maps, but as a result the image quality is retained when zoomed in at all levels.

J. Gorgon said: Gauss suggested I save the file as a jpg instead of a png.  I think this map is a loss.  I'm going to try different settings on the next map and see if the jpg save helps. Let me or someone have a look at the file and I'll tell you exactly what is wrong.

I used a massive 4500x3600 map that was only 4.7MB and it shows up beautifully in roll20, with no loss in detail:&nbsp; <a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15933439/League%20Caverns%20unbugged.png" rel="nofollow">https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15933439/League%20Caverns%20unbugged.png</a> Unless you're using some ridiculous transparency or something, it should not take up more than 5MB for a normal sized map.

I'm Old-School.&nbsp; If it doesn't look like 8-bit graphics it doesn't feel like I'm gaming.&nbsp;&nbsp; :-)

This map was made in Maptool at 350 pixels per cell, (I'm assuming that is less than an inch) with a distance of 5 feet per square, but since the grid size is adjustable, I doubt that tells you anything.&nbsp; I'm going to try turning the distance down to one.&nbsp; I think the problem comes from stretching the map to fit the roll20 grid size.&nbsp; It looks okay when I plunk it down, but then I have to stretch it out for the token size to look correct.&nbsp; The original file is a .cmpgn file, so you could only view it if you use Maptool ( it is not an image file) and it weighs in at 90.5M.&nbsp; I turned the cmpgn export file into a jpeg and it was 410.4K but, I still would have to stretch it out in roll20 to make it work and it still looks pixel blobby.&nbsp; The problem seems to be in the initial image size.&nbsp; If the the roll20 board is 100 by 100, or 200 by 200, that means my original needs to be scaled larger in Photoshop, instead of using a scale of 800 by 800 pixels, I need to make the image say 22 inches by thirty inches or something.&nbsp; I have Gimp, so if anyone knows how to do it in Gimp or Photoshop that works.

Alex, that's a good looking map, what program did you make it in?&nbsp; Did you notice that the table with the ham hock on it looks like a d20 with chaos runes at maximum distance?

I think if I take Phiilip's advice and use his scale the next map will turn out.&nbsp; If not, it has to do with how I am adjusting for the roll20 grid size.

I looked at the map we played on and set the page size 80 by 80 leaving me space for tokens beyond the 66 x66 grid needed for the map.&nbsp; Started the whole export over from the original cmpgn file.&nbsp; Following Phil's scale I set the Photoshop document size to 6600 pixels by 6600 pixels with a resolution of 100 pixels per inch.&nbsp; The problem remains, even though the file size was reduced to 552.6K.&nbsp; I changed the color mode from 8 bit to 32 bit.&nbsp; Still no solution.&nbsp; The only thing left to change is from square pixels to some other setting.&nbsp; When I plunk the image down on the map it looks fine, but then I have to stretch it out to fit the play area and it makes the pixels stretch into blobs. Let me rephrase the question, if you aren't using Maptool with Photoshop, how are you making maps?

Here you can see the toadfiend as imported versus the same image that I drug in (made in Tokentool).&nbsp; In the original the white colored pixels beneath the skeletons look like bones in a red magic circle.&nbsp; Here, they look like pixels.

That was at 70% zoom on roll20.

Here it is zoomed at 20%

If you look to the left of the toad in the courtyard, the well doesn't look much like a well, either.

I make custom maps using Pyromancer's Dungeon Painter. &nbsp;They are usually big sizes (biggest was something like 75x90) and end up being like 8MB pngs. &nbsp;I save them as gifs and they look just as good for like 33%-50% of the space. Anyways, the image is too low of resolution as other have said. &nbsp;When you make it in Photoshop (or Maptool, GIMP, w/e), are you creating your image at "Fit On Screen" size or "Actual Pixel" zoom ? &nbsp;I'm guessing you are using low resolution tiles and stretching them out on Fit On Screen zoom to obscene sizes.

Not sure that answers your question though, Mike.

Konrad and I have come to this conclusion: while you can build large maps in Maptool the export function is&nbsp; . . . leaves much to be desired.&nbsp; In order to get a decent resolution you would have to&nbsp; narrow in on many small sections, export them and paste them together.&nbsp; My other guess is I need to re-size the tiles to be much smaller, in order to build large maps.&nbsp; I'm no Maptool expert, so if you want to weigh in please do so, but in order to make a playable map for our next session I'm going to try this Pyromancer Dungeon Painter.&nbsp; Thanks to all for your help.

J. Gorgon said: Konrad and I have come to this conclusion: while you can build large maps in Maptool the export function is&nbsp; . . . leaves much to be desired.&nbsp; In order to get a decent resolution you would have to&nbsp; narrow in on many small sections, export them and paste them together.&nbsp; My other guess is I need to re-size the tiles to be much smaller, in order to build large maps.&nbsp; I'm no Maptool expert, so if you want to weigh in please do so, but in order to make a playable map for our next session I'm going to try this Pyromancer Dungeon Painter.&nbsp; Thanks to all for your help. Yup, looks like Maptool allows incredibly large maps which Gorgon was doing. &nbsp;But when you want to export it it only exports what is show on the screen. &nbsp;Its kinda like a screen capture. &nbsp;So his incredibly large map when zoomed out enough to show all on the screen exports to a very low resolution. So I zoomed in a lot and exported 12 screens. &nbsp;Then put them all into photoshop and put them together. &nbsp;The final map looks not too bad.

Konrad J. said: J. Gorgon said: Konrad and I have come to this conclusion: while you can build large maps in Maptool the export function is&nbsp; . . . leaves much to be desired.&nbsp; In order to get a decent resolution you would have to&nbsp; narrow in on many small sections, export them and paste them together.&nbsp; My other guess is I need to re-size the tiles to be much smaller, in order to build large maps.&nbsp; I'm no Maptool expert, so if you want to weigh in please do so, but in order to make a playable map for our next session I'm going to try this Pyromancer Dungeon Painter.&nbsp; Thanks to all for your help. Yup, looks like Maptool allows incredibly large maps which Gorgon was doing. &nbsp;But when you want to export it it only exports what is show on the screen. &nbsp;Its kinda like a screen capture. &nbsp;So his incredibly large map when zoomed out enough to show all on the screen exports to a very low resolution. So I zoomed in a lot and exported 12 screens. &nbsp;Then put them all into photoshop and put them together. &nbsp;The final map looks not too bad. There is an option to export entire map, but when chosen his map is so large I guess that it comes up with a memory error. :(

"Bring out the GIMP." When you create a new doc in GIMP it asks you how many pixels wide you want to go.&nbsp; Now I should be able to fine tune my maps with relative ease.

If you are playing the home version, the GIMP told me that interlaced is for web pages that are slow to load, in essence build the photo a line at a time, or wait until the whole thing is uploaded, so you Photoshoppers can ignore that for our purposes.