Best map maker for a semi-digital play group?

[MrFahrenheit]

Whats the best map making tool out there? My group meets in person, so I don't want roll20 or FG. I'm just interested in a program that can make more in depth maps than donjon's site, but less complicated than nbos or its ilk. I've come across three programs in particular, but only want to shill out money for one. Was wondering if anyone in the playground has any experience with the following, and what their thoughts are on...

...Arcane Mapper
...Dungeon Painter Studio
...Infinitas DM

From screenshots and reviews, I'm leaning toward Arcane Mapper, but just barely over Dungeon Painter Studio, whose being much closer to full release is certainly a draw. Infinitas DM would be nice, since my phone is far more portable than a laptop or tablet, but even if I could get the license to work on my laptop (since I don't have AppleTV, Chromecast or the like), its non-touch format seems frankly bad, per its Steam reviews.

[Jama7301]

I recently picked up Dungeon Painter Studio on Steam and have toyed with it for two hours or so, and half built a map for a cave system for a level 1 adventure.

Pros
+ It exports to formats for popular digital tabletops (Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, etc) and PDFs for printing, with customizable grid width on the export.

+ Comes with Steam Workshop Support, so you can find new tile sets that others have built.

+ Fairly straightforward - Drag a square to fill it with the selected pattern, create polygonal shapes for weird shaped rooms and halls.

+ Dropping an object down on top of the map level is easy peasy.

Cons
- Some of the default templates/tile sets don't have all the tiles or objects I wanted, so I had to install some packs off the workshop. Due to this, mixing and matching tile sets can leave you with some mixed aesthetics.

- No arrow/WASD scroll means I have to use the mouse to slides the viewing area around when I guild too far in one direction.

Mixed (Mainly usability issues for me)

+- It tracks everything you add like a layer in a picture editor. It allows you to click on the side and select individual objects, which allows you to then change it's pattern, if you find you don't like how one dirt patch looks tiled. Downside is that they're all named like this...


Dirt Tile 1 - 01
Dirt Tile 1 - 02
Dirt Tile 1 - 03 (I deleted 02)
Skeleton_01 - 01


You may be able to rename them, but I'd rather not do it after each chunk I make.

+- You can rotate objects, but you do it by placing it/selecting the object once it's placed, and clicking on a 0, 90, 180, 270 degree button, or by a free-rotation degree option.

+- Since Roll20 has a 5MB upload limit, if you choose the Roll20 export option (70x70 px per square), you can quickly exceed the file size limit for the site quickly. I switched to using 35x35, so I could cut down the file size and scale up the image, but it did suffer from some graphic loss. You can combat this by doing smaller sections per-export.



Overall, I like Dungeon Painter Studio more than the other free options I tried. It's not as powerful as a Campaign Cartographer appears to be, and it might be a stretch for some at $15, but I feel like I will get my value from it. I plan on messing with it more, and if I come up with anything new, I'll provide some updates.

[MrFahrenheit]

+- It tracks everything you add like a layer in a picture editor. It allows you to click on the side and select individual objects, which allows you to then change it's pattern, if you find you don't like how one dirt patch looks tiled. Downside is that they're all named like this...


Dirt Tile 1 - 01
Dirt Tile 1 - 02
Dirt Tile 1 - 03 (I deleted 02)
Skeleton_01 - 01


You may be able to rename them, but I'd rather not do it after each chunk I make.

...

Overall, I like Dungeon Painter Studio more than the other free options I tried. It's not as powerful as a Campaign Cartographer appears to be, and it might be a stretch for some at $15, but I feel like I will get my value from it. I plan on messing with it more, and if I come up with anything new, I'll provide some updates.

Thank you for the response! A few remarks:

1. The overall tileset that at least is show cased in the Steam previews seems a bit too bright/"cheery." TBH this was the biggest turnoff for me (and biggest reason why I was thinking about Arcane Mapper instead. Well that and AM appears to have a better pit mechanism) - sure, I can tell my players that they're in a dank, dark dungeon, but it seemed like the aesthetic wouldn't match. Glad to hear I don't actually have to worry about it.

2. While I'm tracking on your point about the obnoxious nature of the file names, I'm not sure what you mean by your "layer in a picture editor" remark. It doesn't seem like the rest of that point regarded what I think of as layers in a map making/picture editing program.

3. On that note...one of my biggest gripes with nbos is that if you don't manually change the layer with each different type of tileset you use, you'll end up with (for example) a bunch of barrels, a house and pond that are all part of the "background" level, which then - unless I haven't found a "change layer" option - must be deleted and re-added as appropriate: barrels at the object layer, house at the buildings level, and pond at the terrain level. With that in mind, I'd ask if there are a ton of layers that you have to manage yourself, or do each grouping of tileset seem to know where they belong?

[Jama7301]

I could have clarified my layered section a bit more. I had just finished doing a little work in GIMP last night, so photo editing was on the brain.

It's not quite layers, it's more like a list of every item you added. While this is convenient, especially for single-use items like a Barrel or a Chest for your sectioning, it's kind of hard to find what you need to edit, if you found you made a mistake.

Granted, it's been a few days since I last poked around. I'm starting to doubt how I listed they label things... They either label it by Tile or by the Shape Tool you used (Like Line, Rectangle, or Polygonal). My apologies.

One of the default templates is very bright. It's called "Fairy" or something, and has a lot of bright grasses and trees and such. The one I used was called something like Dragon and it had a nice selection of interior floors (tile and wood) and some nice rocks. Grass tiles were a bit bright.

One of the downloaded packs from the workshop had some darker stuff that fit what I wanted to do.


I haven't tried layering background on top of items. I did notice there are buttons on the panel of placed shapes/objects that lets' you move them up or down the list, so they can be moved on top of anything else placed, I believe.

I haven't done any intensive testing of the system, so I apologize for not having more information to help ya with today.