Ground Overlay with Transparency. Ask Question Asked 5 years. Google Map V3.png groundoverlay opacity. How to offset the center point in Google maps api V3. Hex transparency in colors. Google Earth API stop support?-1. Passing array as parameter google maps.
Just do an overlay of an actual map. Give each hex a centre dot.
Whatever terrain that dot covers is the general terrain of the hex. It takes a bit more interpretation on the GM's part, of course, but set-up is a breeze once you have the map scaled.The nice thing is it also gives you some less-abstract guidelines as to what that 6-mile hex contains which can actual create some interesting situations.
The thing with hand-made hex maps is they always tend to simplify a lot of features out unless the creator goes the extra mile. But overlaying an actual map gives you a lot of room for either abstracting out things you don't want to deal with, or adding more when you desire it.Not sure where you'd find the template, of course, but you should be able to pop one on using GIMP or Photoshop. If you're just doing this as a map for yourself and don't care about aesthetics, here's what you do:Get the original map.
Assuming 5 hexes to an inch, resize the map so that one inch is 30 miles. Print this map at a lighter print density than usual- maybe 50% or so. Then download a blank sheet of.2-inch hexes. Print this hex map on top of the map you just ran off. Poof- you've got your hex map.If you want to reproduce it in hexmap format all pretty and accurate-like, it gets substantially tricker. I'll reproduce the steps I used when I made the hex map of the northeast US for Other Dust. To do this, I needed Hexographer and Photoshop.
I'm sure there are more elegant and clever ways to do it, but it worked for me.1. Pick or freehand a base map 800 x 800 kilometers wide, or whatever size you want. I'm assuming the land is one color and the water is another.2. Import it into Photoshop, select color range eyedropper on the ocean to select all the water and delete it, leaving just the land mass on a transparent backing.3. Cut rivers or lakes into the landmass with a fine-point eraser, as they're usually too thin and small to be picked up by the color select.4.
Save the base land mass.5. Assuming a 20-km hex, make a Hexographer map 40 x 40 hexes in size with blank white hexes. Save this as a PNG file at whatever hex-to-inch scale you choose.6.
Import the png into Photoshop, select color range white, and erase it all. You just want the hexes themselves on a transparent background. This will later be the almost-top layer of your map, with only text labels going on top of it.7. Return to the Hexographer map and use your base map image as a tracing guide to fill in the hexes. Hexographer should have an option to set an image as the background for this. Extend the hexes into the water- you'll be clipping off all the parts that should be covered by the coast.8. Turn off the map's grid and export it at the same scale you used in step 5.9.
Load up the base landmass you made in step 4. On top of it, copy the map you made in step 8. On top of that, copy the blank grid you made in step 6. You should be seeing a neatly-aligned grid on top of the Hexographer map, which should be completely covering the base landmass on the bottom, and it should be surrounded by transparent canvas.10. Hide the Hexographer map and the grid, selecting the base landmass layer.11. Ctrl-click the base landmass layer to select what you drew there.
Then Select-Invert to select everything but the base landmass. Re-enable the Hexographer layer and select it.
Then, while the not-landmass is still selected, hit delete. This will 'punch out' the hexographer map so it has the exact same outlines as the base landmass, creating the coastline match.12. Throw away the base landmass layer and replace it with a sea layer in whatever shade of blue you want, to be the 'sea' background for the Hexographer map.13.
Maybe put a thin stroke layer style on the Hexographer layer to define the coast more crisply.14. Turn the overlay grid back on. You might lower the fill from 100% a bit to make the grid a little lighter.15. Use the text tool to apply location labels, possibly with a white stroke around them so small text doesn't get blurred with the hex lines.And that's that. The overall basic idea is that you draw your Hexographer map over the real map, then go into Photoshop, select the sea on the real map and use it to clip the edges of the hex map. Then you put the hex grid layer on top of it all to make it look pretty, and the text on top of that to make it crisp.