Tutorial - Existing Bitmap to hexGimp

The following steps are what I do when converting a map from an existing map to hexGimp. For this tutorial I'm going to do the first isle from Eternal Dagger. Below is the map extract I have (provided by Andrew Schult from the Commodore 64 version). I took the map he created and cut the portion I wanted (in this case the upper left hand portion of the map, the human isle).

Next I get the size of the map in pixels and then create a hex map to align. It turns out a hex map that is 15 X 15 fits the existing map. My naming convention for maps I'm create is "name".x.y.0.0.1 where x is the number of columns of hexes and y is the number of rows.

The next step is getting the borders of the major bodies of water, or if an island the water. Some legacy tile maps will have a solid color for water, some won't. For those that do you can do a select by color then do a selection to path to get a path of the water. Some times there is writing or other parts of the map that interfere with the water, for those you have to redo the selection by hand (using one of the selection tools). If the water isn't a solid color then you will have to create a path by hand using the path tool.

For this map we have a solid color but we also have waves near the land. This will interfere with the selection. There are two ways I can over come this, both are fairly easy to do.

1. Select all the colors except blue and white for the waves. Then invert your selection. The only problem with this is the tower and mountain tops will show up but that can be manually removed.

2. Clone the water and waves into a new layer. Then manually recolor the waves to match the color of the water. Then remove the tower and mountain tops.

Once you have your final selection choose selection to path. Rename the path to be coastline.

My next step is to smooth out the coastline. I use another tool for this called Inkscape. I extract the path into a file, normally named coastline.svg. In Inkscape import coastline.svg and then select the simplify path option.

Once that is done save the path as coastline.rev1.svg, Re-import into Gimp. You will need to move the path over to align with the map again. Once that is done you will see a path around the along the edge of the map. I usually remove this path to allow the water to go to the edge of the canvas. I paint a sample hex with coastal terrain, copy the color then use the fill tool to fill in the water.

Roads and Rivers are not present in this map. If rivers or roads were present I would remove them from the coastal areas, lakes and oceans. I would then manually draw the rivers and roads using the path tool. I use the coastal water color for rivers, I use black or brown for roads.

This map also does not signify deeper water, but that can be done either via a color select (if there is one color for deeper water) or free hand with the path tool. I would still use Inkscape to simplify the path to create a smoother coastline.

Next step is to color in the overlays. For this map there are 3 locations of interest. One is the city ruins of Greenbay, Ssur's tower and the cave of the Necromancer. I will draw them on the map in the city layer and then focus on the terrain.

Next step is to color in the terrain. Because of the size of the squares versus the hexes in this map some of the hexes will need to either be a blend of a few squares. In this maps there are grasslands, marshes, forests, hills and mountains. I normally create a layer above the tile layer but below the water group. This allows me to color in the terrain and to have the ocean cover over where the ocean is present.

The map is now complete.