Cave/Glade Generator
Press Enter to generate a new map, more shortcuts ⌨️here. All the options are available via the context menu (right-click on the generator).
This generator is a part of 🃏Procgen Arcana.
You can use maps created by the generator as you like: copy, modify, include in your commercial rpg adventures etc. Attribution is appreciated, but not required. Please consider supporting this project on Patreon☕!
Development log
- 2.1.3: new shape optionsAug 27, 2024
- Cave Generator is now a part of Procgen ArcanaJun 27, 2024
- 2.1.1: assorted new featuresJun 21, 2024
- 2.1.0: assorted new featuresNov 08, 2023
- 2.0.2: waterApr 11, 2023
- 2.0.1: improved gladesJan 10, 2023
- 2.0.0: glade viewDec 29, 2022
- 1.1.0: customizationOct 19, 2022
Comments
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I have to say your tools are amazing! I'm really looking forward for a JSON exporter that can be used for VTT support in the same vein as the One Page Dungeon one. I am having a blast with the dungeons I get to make there!
I love your work - Here is a request...
Can there be a 'cavern' option? Instead of a cave complex, a single large cavern, perhaps with a few side rooms?
Can the hexes be scaled? We run 28mm miniatures, the hexes are a little large. 1" hexes would be ideal.
tell me who knows what kind of sprites are used, I would also like to change what is generated myself
I love this tool so much. My only frustration is that so far I've frequently wanted to go back and make a small change to a map I've found... but it seems like once you've ended the session it's gone forever?
Is there a way to save the information/link/whatever so that you can bring up a map during a later session and turn off the grid and lower the water level (for example)? Is that stated in the instructions and I'm just missing it?
Oh, okay... I'm dumb.
For those who have the same question after me: On the generator above there's an option to pull down a permalink. That will then link to a fullscreen version of the generator that does NOT have the permalink option in the menu... but it will update the link in your browser window for the same effect.
This is a brilliant app. There should be a link to this in the DMG.
would it be feasible at some point to add an option to invert the trees and glades? e.g. instead of connected clearings surrounded by woods and broken by by copses of trees, connected copses surrounded by grassland ?
This is more difficult than it might seem because it will affect a number of features - water, entrances, roads etc. But why do you need this? What would such copses represent?
i hadn't thought about that, makes total sense!
the notion i had was that the inverted version would represent the woodlots maintained by e.g. farming communities for timber or by nobles for hunting grounds, these being relatively small and surrounded by pasture and farmland , compared to the current version showing clearings surrounded by indefinite woodland
also, just want to say i think it's amazing how responsive you are to comments on all these generators, really appreciate it ! the generators themselves have been absolute godsends for my campaigns as well
You can try to achieve something similar in the Village Generator, just hide buildings (Layers > Buildings in the context menu) if you don't need the village itself. Cheers!
amazing tool ❤️
Amazing tool!!!!
would help if there were some more customizableoptions like feature painting when we want to make the maps more intricate
Thank you for this wonderful tool.
Feature Request: option to generate a river running through it.
I can't seem to figure out how large the tiles are, could I get some help? Are they some specific size (in pixels) or how do I figure that out? I'm having a hard time just "guessing."
Internally, these maps are made of hexes of specific fixed size, but when drawn they are scaled to maximize resolution. As a result, the size of hexes in pixels depends on the map. I'm planning to implement "precise export" similar to 1PDG, maybe this will help. Why do you need the exact value? Is it for using these map in some VTT?
I'm trying to use the Foundry VTT and it takes an exact pixel value for tile size, along with taking a "scene dimensions" which by default is the image's resolution, but I just ended up turning off the grid here and using the built-in grid system for foundry, but I also ended up making the grid be rather small since I couldn't find a "good" size that would work with the terrain that also wouldn't end up being small.
Besides not being able to figure out the grid, (either square or hexagonal,) this is a great tool.
I would just like to echo Hoovy in requesting this feature. What you've done in the Dungeon Generator by allowing for tile size selection during export is sorely needed here if these maps are going to be quickly usable in VTTs like Foundry. I love your work, btw, and am adding Patreon today. Keep up the excellent work on these tools!
Having some rather odd issues with the newest update where the maps are no longer filling the frame. Currently using Edge. Something you're aware of?
It seems to be caused by the same bug as this. Initially, I thought it was an itch.io's glitch, but now I'm not so sure. In any case, if this happened to you more than once or twice, I would recommend using the Arcana version of the generator instead.
I absolutely love the "mist" option for Glades!
Wow. Just wow. Thank you for this gift to all of dungeonkind!
Hi, is there a way to set the Square grid size to 48 ?
You can set the grid size to 48 via Grid > Customize... but it's a relative value - the exported map won't have a grid size of 48 pixels (if that's what you need).
I really love this so far, but it would be great to be able to adjust the size of the hex grid. Not sure if that interferes with the generation because it seems the hexes align with where the generated edges are located. I will be using this with the Glade View in my next session themed after Monster Hunter and can't wait to see how it goes!
Yeah, the grid is relatively small and sometimes it affects the growth of caves. It shouldn't happen too often, but I'm planning to fix it anyway.
To be honest, I was thinking that having the grid be smaller would be easier just for the battle with massive monsters. Right now, a Rathalos would take up just about any space generated by the generator if the hexes are 5ft across. I know I could just set each hex to a 10ft radius to help conceptualize, but a 5ft radius is so much easier to work with, especially with a game where body part targeting is essential. I know for many people, the grids being so large might be a bit much and my design is probably a little more niche. I will make do with the square grid.
Great work, though! I love your tools and have already used the City Generator on several occasions as well as Perilous Shores. I have looked into so many options, and your tools surpass everything else out there by a long shot.
I loved it. Will be very very useful for future rpg projects :3
A small bug report here. It appears that the grid (both square and hex) is somehow ignored when opening the file in older vector software (I still use Illustrator CS2). I can see the grid on the One Page Dungeon properly in CS2, but not here. Newer software sees the grid properly.
Thanks!
Imagine printing these out on A1 to A3 for table top games. Nice work ;-)
Two suggestions:
Make "Enter" use the currently set tags, so we don't have to keep the tags popup open.
[very minor] I'd like an option to tell it not to make the entrance into water. I like to hide things at the back of the cave, behind water, as I find that judiciously described water tends to freak the adventurers out, especially when it's getting deeper, or with slippery footing. Oviously, I can just hit "generate" again, but sometimes I really like a cave, and then I have to, clumsily, edit the image.
Thanks for a wonderful little generator.
It would be unclear how to return to purely random generation (without tags). You can "minimize" the tags window by clicking its title. This way it won't obscure much of the map and at the same time you will be able to use Enter for generating caves with chosen tags.
Yup. That works. Thanks.
So so so great
BTW, the permalinks are 404ing… eg: https://watabou.github.io/cave-generator/?seed=1707255013&tags=passage,tree,medium
From https://www.patreon.com/posts/cave-glade-2-0-1-77042624:
coolio… keep up the fine, work, sir…
Awesome, I wish the permalink would contain the display settings so when I come back it a Grove with door for one link and a cave view for another
I don't know about other settings, but the cave/forest one will be added to permalinks in the future.
What is supposed to happen when I shift+click a tag? I’m guessing a description should show somewhere, but nothing happens.
Yeah, the tag's description is displayed temporally at the bottom of the generator window (as a "toast"). Let me know if it doesn't work for you.
being able to warp the caves like you can warp towns in the city generator would be awesome
I'll think about it.
I realize you'd probably have to build that in an update that rewrites the generator from scratch.
Will it eventually be possible to export to JSON and import caves into Dungeonscrawl? I love being able to generate a Watabou one-page dungeon and add details in DS
JSON export will be added one day, but right now it is too early as I don't really know in what direction I want to develop this generator.
If I could just specify the number of entrances and the number of caverns, it would be perfect. For example, last night I quickly needed a cave map with one big cavern and two entrance tunnels … this would have been the perfect way to make it, if I could give those exact numbers.
Also, FWIW, I would love a forest generator!
You can request a layout like that with the existing tags:
I think the "forest view" will be added in the next update of this generator.
Thanks! I’ll try that. I tried Small and Junction, didn’t see Passage :)
this is cool I guess, yeah you know what this is cool, I hope you keep updating.
This is amazing - I'm a developer who is looking to create RPG tools for people. Hit me up if you wanna colab.
W
Great tool. Any plans on open sourcing it?
Thanks! Normally I open source only those projects I am more or less finished with. This one is pretty new, so I don't think I'm going to publish its source code anytime soon.
I'm procedurally creating caves using cellular automata but aren't as good as yours, so your code could be really helpful. Any suggestion of good articles on procedural cave generation?
The only one I can suggest off the top of my head is Amit Patel's one, but I use a different method, very briefly described in my post. I'm under the impression that most cave generation methods involve cellular automata and mine does it too, but only for creating individual caves, not the entire map.
Thank you so much. One small reply from you, one giant leap in my progress.
Great stuff! Thank you!
Any plans to have it generate the maps in Universal VTT format so that the line of sight and lighting data can be easily used in a VTT program?
Not for now, no. At the moment I'm going to focus on the more essential part of the generator i.e. generation itself.
That's a shame; the addition of UVTT would instantly catapult this into an indispensable prep tool. It's very nice as is—stunning even—but I have to retrace everything by hand to make use of this in my VTT. Hopefully, it will be added in the not too distant future!
Could we get an option to turn off the "shadow" around the outside of the caves? Would be handy for automatic generation of vision blocking in VTTs.
You can hide the shade by setting its alpha to zero in the Style dialog.
Excellent!
Another great tool! Is there a way to ensure that passage ways contain at least a full one square gap? I only mention this as tokens cannot move through gaps of less than one square after setting up dynamic lighting and token exclusion in Roll20. Not a big problem though - just airing a thought :)
Originally, all passages are at least one hex wide. The tunnels are visually narrowed to make them look more "tunnelly". You can disable this feature by unchecking Shape > Narrow tunnels in the context menu.
I love the apps. Thank you so much for your hard work.
I would ask only one favor. Can you sticky a list of controls under the work area? It would help so that I don't have to relearn them each time I use the app.
Cheers! You are asking about hotkeys, right? May I ask why you prefer hotkeys to the context menus?
Not the OP, but I for one think using the context menu is a bit tedious if you want to make multiple changes at once because it always closes after selecting something. I love your generators, but this could be handled a bit better... (On top of that, for many people it's just more comfortable to use the keyboard instead of the mouse).
Anyway, keep up the great work!
https://watabou.itch.io/cave-generator/devlog/407935/keyboard-shortcuts
I was speaking about the different short-cuts keys for menus across the various apps. They are not always the same. I think the keys for bringing up various control menus are listed for ease of use. I like to work from menus just to be faster. I have to try keys to remember which key brings up which control.
Also, working with the new village Gen today, the "M - open the parameters window" is not working.
I'll make a similar list for Village Generator and eventually for all my generators. I try to be consistent (at least Enter always works!), but I don't really check. By the way, that M is replaced with Tab exactly to use the same key as in Neighbourhood Generator.
https://watabou.itch.io/cave-generator/devlog/407935/keyboard-shortcuts
Very cool! What is the hex grid size on the exported images? The face-to-face distance in pixels. Trying to match the map grid in a VTT and any whole number of pixels I use drifts out of alignment over the width/length of the map.
The hex size varies from map to map because the generator always exports maps with maximum possible resolution (16MP). So on small map individual hexes are larger and on large maps hexes are smaller. In the future I am planning to implement export with fixed resolution (similar to 1PDG), although I am not sure how it's going to work with hexes (vs squares).
Thanks. Until then I can just leave the grid off the map itself and apply a grid in the VTT that is "close enough".
Oh, and you can try using SVGs. In exported SVG files the size of a hex is fixed. Its side is 20px and that makes the distance between 2 neighbouring hexes 34.641px.
thanks watabou
Hi! Fantastic as ever. I was just curious what the dots toggled with 'D' represent. They seem to be placed at choke points or passageways between chambers, so is it D for Doors, or something else?
Yes, these are doors. Doors are important in 1PDG, so for now I've kept them here as well, but most likely they will be removed in the future.
Thank you! Another fabulous tool- and extremely helpful. Can't wait for the export option and thank you for all of the great work! :)
A fine addition.
Well Done.
Curious to know about your design decision to do a Hex grid. And it appears you have 2 half hexes at each room entry-exit: is this to do with your algorithm?
Do you have a square grid planned or in the works?
Hexagonal grid is better suited for mapping natural locations (for the same reason it is used in Perilous Shores). I'm going to add a square grid as an option, but this will be a purely visual feature - the underlying mesh will remain hexagonal.