New Art for Maps

When Putting a map or tile on one of your campaign settings, what file format should I use? JPG, BMP, ???

JPG

In some cases, PNG. You might use that if you want some transparent features, such as a bridge you're placing over a stream, or buildings of some shapes, etc. Generally, you use JPG for large terrain, and PNG for objects on that terrain.

Here you go: <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Image_Best_Practices_for_Roll20" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Image_Best_Practices_for_Roll20</a>

Tokens : 280x280 pixels in PNG format, regardless of the "in-game" size of the token. At this image size, the token could be as large as 4x4 squares in-game without any issues, and will support zooming in -- and it will look good on the Marketplace listings page, as well. Do be sure, however, that your tokens are still recognizable/"look good" at smaller sizes (e.g. 70x70 pixels). Note that tokens should "fill" the square without any excess padding, and feature a drop-shadow or other outline to make them easy to distinguish from background elements. For a great example of this in practice Maps : 140x140 pixels per "square" in JPG format. So if the map is intended to be a 20 square x 20 square room, the map image should be 2800x2800 pixels. If your map is going to be larger than 30x30 squares (4200x4200 pixels), you may want to consider offering one "full" map, and then several different "sub-maps" that can be pieced together in the app to make the full map -- this can improve performance for the end-user. In addition note the file size restrictions below. Map Tiles : 140x140 pixels per "square" in JPG format, unless it is an "object" such as furniture or decorations that will sit on top of other tiles, in which case use PNG. Only use PNG when necessary -- it places a much heavier burden on the processing of the end-user's system than JPG. For multi-square (or "room") tiles, you will want to experiment to make sure that any grid lines line up once placed in Roll20. If each of your tiles is only one "square" in-game, then you don't need to worry about this. Note: Map tiles are the hardest assets to create correctly, so for your first set you may want to try and create tokens or full-scale maps. Above are other Roll20 recommendations. If you are thinking of tiles you might consider using this design: <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Geomorphic_Map_Tiles" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Geomorphic_Map_Tiles</a> A few tiles can go a long way and the map set up work is really easy with Roll20 (place, spin and/or flip.)

BTW, if you're using The GIMP (and probably photoshop too), I find it really handy to set the resolution to how ever many pixels per tile I'm using (280 in the case of tokens, 140 for maps and map tiles), then I can just set the size in inches as the size in tiles. It also makes it really easy to measure things in "tiles" later by just setting the units to inches. So, if I want a grid that divides all the tiles into quarters, I just set it to .25 inches. =D That kind of thing.