Where to get them!

edited July 2009 in Maps and Symbols
Most users probably have noticed that FM8 is delivered with a very small collection of raster (bitmap) symbols.

Don't let that trouble you. At the addresses I'm about to list, you can find between 40,000 and 50,000 raster symbols in the categories fantasy, modern and sci-fi. All of the symbols are free and may be used in private work. All but a few also are licensed for use in commercial work.

The best starting address is Cecil Solomon's CSUAC:

The CSUAC for FM8 now is available at:

http://www.vintyri.org/CSUAC/

This is an authorized mirror site.

Our next stop is Jeff Albert's (screen name Steel Rat) huge RPG Map Share site at:

http://www.rpgmapshare.com

There you also will find thousands of free fills (textures) in the categories fantasy, modern and sci-fi.

From there we go to Greg Taylor's (screen name Greytale) site:

http://www.greytale.com

Where you'll find a large collection of free symbols and fills made by some of the most accomplished cartographers in the Dundjinni (TM) community.

And then there' are the Dundjinni user forums at:

http://www.dundjinni.com/forums/

Where you also can download a huge number of free symbols and fills in the categories fantasy, modern and sci-fi. Heads up, however! Microsoft's Internet Explore will download these symbols and fills as BMP files, which makes them useless if they have transparent elements. Firefox downloads them correctly.

As I mentioned in my last post, our Vintyri website also has several hundred free symbols and fills available. See my signature for the address.

IMPORTANT POINT:

The CSUAC and Vintyri symbols all are scaled correctly for FM8. All of the other symbols mentioned above are in standard Dundjinni resolution. In every FM8 non-Vintyri and non-CSUAC folder where you save these symbols, you need to add an XML file to set the correct FM8 resolution. To do that:

1. Open the Windows Notebook (Windows Editor in some non-English language versions.)

2. Write the following code for folders containing non-CSUAC and non-Vintyri symbols:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' ?>
<symbol>
<pixel size='0.025' unit='Feet'/>
</symbol>

3. After you've copied or typed that in, save the file with the name default.xml.

This step is not necessary with CSUAC or Vintyri symbols if you install them according to instructions. Both then automatically will be unzipped into folders that already contain the correct XML file.

If you know of other good sites for mining symbols and fills, please add them to this thread!

Also ... if you take symbols from these sites, then make some symbols of your own and post them on these sites. That's what makes the symbol, fill and map sharing system work. If you take without giving, the system eventually will fail.

Comments

  • Thanks for the links to the resources! I'll be checking them out as soon as I have the time to do so.

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