Exporting Maps to Use in Other Software

## Intro

The RPG Engine exports both top-down square maps, as well as an orthographic projection.

To export a 2D map from The RPG Engine, select "Map Menu" from the toolbar and then click on the "2D Export" button. The toggle at top right switches the exported view between flat and isometric mode. Give the export a name, choose a resolution and then click on "Save". It will be exported as a \*.png file to the The\_RPG\_Engine/Map Exports folder on your system.

## Orthographic Perspective Export

The Orthographic projection TRPGE currently supports is called a dimetric projection - where the width of a square grid from left corner to right corner is twice as large as the distance between the top and bottom squares. This is the most common 'isometric' perspective seen in videogames. The angle of the screen-facing corner of a grid-square is ~126.84°. This is made with an Orthographic camera set 30° off the ground, or -60° down from a perfect bird's-eye view of the ground.

Actual isometric perspective, rather than having a clean viewing angle, has a clean round angle in the grid squares. The angle of the screen-facing corner of a grid-square is an even 120°. The camera angle needed to achieve that (I don't know. Update here with more info if you do). The RPG Engine (as of 2022-05-26) does not have an option to directly export to a perfect isometric perspective.

But! they're close enough that you should be able to use dimetric projection even if the software you're using defaults to the isometric perspective instead. This page will talk about how to export your maps from TRPGE to use in other software, and what transformational steps you'll want to take to make them compatible. (Currently a work in progress, please add more detail as appropriate).

## Foundry

Foundry uses a fully isometric perspective.

### Isometric

Foundry uses a classic Isometric grid by default rather than a dimetric grid. This means to get your TRPGE map image to look right in Foundry, you'll need to make a couple of quick adjustments to your image, in addition to the usual 'scale the image' settings you will want.

#### Image Adjustments

Open up the export in an image editor. Photoshop or GIMP should work. Take out a Calculator or open a Calculator App.

1. Get your export's image width, in pixels. We won't be changing the height, so you can ignore it. Type it into your calculator.
2. Multiply what's in your calculator by 0.8659417563398299. The number you get will be your new width, in pixels. Round it to the nearest pixel.
3. Make sure any 'preserve aspect ratio' checkbox in your image editor is unchecked, and put your new pixel width in the width box.
4. Save the resulting image (to a different filename, just in case.)

Now you should be able to import it into Foundry and scale it to fit your grid in Foundry.

Suggestion: If you're still having some trouble getting the sizes to match perfectly, once you have it as close enough, you can make a note of your scaling settings, redo your export and resizing from TRPGE with the gridlines turned off, and then just use the gridlines in Foundry.

## Roll20

Roll20 supports top down views, and both isometric and dimetric grids.

### Isometric/Dimetric

In Roll20, the grid type is set at the Page level, so each Page within a campaign could have a different grid type. The RPG Engine orthographic export is dimetric, so this is the best choice if you are looking to use orthographic exports in Roll20. The grid control is located within Page Settings for each Page, and offers a choice of Square, Vertical Hex, Horizontal Hex, Isometric and Dimetric when the Grid toggle is set to "On".

#### Best TRPGE Export Settings

A resolution of 200 will give you a sharp image in Roll20 which will allow a zoom in of upto 250% (the maximum in Roll20) without any significant loss of sharpness.

#### Importing the image into Roll20

Switch the Roll20 level in the required Page to "Map & Background" and then simply drag and drop the downloaded PNG file from The RPG Engine onto the Page.

#### Image Adjustments

No image adjustment should be necessary as long as you have set the grid type for the Roll20 Page to "dimetric".

#### Ease of Use Suggestions

1. When dragging the image into Roll20, hold down the <ALT> key to prevent the software resizing the image to fit the grid.

2. You will find it almost impossible to perfectly line the grids up between the exported image and Roll20's grid. Ultimately you will want to either use the Roll20 grid and set the RPG Engine grid to be invisible, or vice versa. Using the Roll20 grid will allow you to have your minis 'snap' to its spaces. If you instead choose to use the RPGE Engine's Grid on your map (which will draw correctly over non-flat terrain, but won't be visible on top of 3d buildings), you will want to hold down the <ALT> key while moving your token.

3. The measuring tool will still work correctly Although as far as Roll20 is concerned, the image is a flat plane. It has no concept of "height", so any measuring using the measuring tool will not take elevation into account. For the same reason, if you use Roll20's gridlines instead of the ones from RPG Engine, they will ignore the shape of your terrain and treat it as a flat plane.