Ye Olde Inn

by **StratosVX** » April 7th, 2016, 6:31 pm

Jasper Akhkharu wrote:I can keep ppl updated with this if anyone is interested. HeroScribe has just become too outdated for me to use effectively anymore

For me, it is still usable, but I can't add anything new but maps which is why I'd like to try to update it. But I need to learn Java first and I'm back in school so that eats a lot of my time. I really prefer the vector images that come out of HS over raster images which is why I haven't used PS or some of the other options I've seen. I'm fairly particular in that regard.

Well... I've almost identified the exact problem. Currently I have a new drawing from inkscape rendering without the silly offset. A little more work and I will have the exact lines in the inkscape header that need to be adjusted, or a procedure for importing the images defined.

HeroScribe is pretty much perfect for what it is. It is written in Java so it is basically a source code distribution. As long as you send your fixes / changes back to the original author for re-posting, this project can continue producing excellent maps in newer contexts.

HeroQuest is outdated, but we continue to be fans and play, and make new fans

HeroScribe is actually a sweet application that we are very lucky to have, and certainly not outdated. Java is modern programming language, and the fact that an application does not properly support every input variant of EPS is a minor bug, the kind which are always revealed over time. I don't have to pay for HeroScribe, it does not have the learning curve of photoshop (can I even get that outdated program on Linux?), and HQ map creation is much faster than it could ever be in a generic graphics program.

@Stratos I was considering adding a new XML tag to identify our new files <hasoffsetissue = 1> and correcting it in the Java, but I have had success reading the eps. And Java is not exactly my cup of tea.

by **StratosVX** » April 7th, 2016, 11:37 pm

whitebeard wrote:Well... I've almost identified the exact problem. Currently I have a new drawing from inkscape rendering without the silly offset. A little more work and I will have the exact lines in the inkscape header that need to be adjusted, or a procedure for importing the images defined.

HeroScribe is pretty much perfect for what it is. It is written in Java so it is basically a source code distribution. As long as you send your fixes / changes back to the original author for re-posting, this project can continue producing excellent maps in newer contexts.

HeroQuest is outdated, but we continue to be fans and play, and make new fans HeroScribe is actually a sweet application that we are very lucky to have, and certainly not outdated. Java is modern programming language, and the fact that an application does not properly support every input variant of EPS is a minor bug, the kind which are always revealed over time. I don't have to pay for HeroScribe, it does not have the learning curve of photoshop (can I even get that outdated program on Linux?), and HQ map creation is much faster than it could ever be in a generic graphics program.

@Stratos I was considering adding a new XML tag to identify our new files <hasoffsetissue = 1> and correcting it in the Java, but I have had success reading the eps. And Java is not exactly my cup of tea.

Right now I'm ok with anything that will allow us to import files. I've never heard back from Derfel and I know people get busy with other things so he may have just put HS aside (hopefully only for the time being and not permanently). I've just thought there has to be an easier way to import files than the old, outdated method, even if it takes a little coding to make it happen. Let me know if you get it to work please. I've got some I'd like to try.

by **whitebeard** » April 7th, 2016, 11:53 pm

whitebeard wrote:I'm guessing that the usual eps format used in the base icons declares a reference coordinate system that is in the top right and this other standard declares (or does not or vice versa) it in the middle of the icon. So when HeroScribe draws our new stuff, we get the center landing in the top right of the box.

The EPS is just text, so a well placed text command in each file should fix it.

Wow I wish I had read this post more closely!!! Would have saved me a lot of time:

The magic recipe for inkscape .eps files is exactly that.

Step 1: underneath the header place a symmetric Bounding box about <0.0 , 0.0> like this one I got from the "falling rock" tile... These are the first 3 lines in the file.

%!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0
%%BoundingBox: -10 -10 10 10
%%HiResBoundingBox: -9.721904 -9.774639 9.721904 9.774639

Then delete the later line which references the old Bounding Box e.g. this line (which is line 7 in my files).

%%BoundingBox: 0 1 19 20

Also delete the "Page Bounding Box" line (this is the step I missed when I tried to solve this in 5 minutes with a guess)

%%BeginPageSetup
%%PageBoundingBox: 0 1 19 20
%%EndPageSetup

In the above, it is only the middle line you need to take out. The rest is there to show context.

Then the very next line is a new one, and should be (negative 1/2 of the Bounding Box size in X and Y):

-10 -10 translate

Step 2: ...

Step 3: Profits

Obviously if your bounding box (BB) is not the same scale as mine (20 x 20) then you need to change all of the numbers

This process is easily automated in a script.

Does it work for you?