Hi, I want to replicate this for a personal project. Are you able to explain how it was coded and the process you went through making this? Is there anywhere else I can contact you?
I have no code to share, sorry. But here is another generator based on the similar (but not exactly the same) idea with open code and some explanations of the method: City Map Generator.
About being lost: don't let yourself be intimidated by the academic lingo. For example, when I started reading that paper I didn't know what tensor fields are. So I've read a Wikipedia article on them and got back to the paper. And then I realized that I didn't need "tensor fields" to get the idea at all...
Hey watabou, this is absolutely wonderful and very, very impressive. Donated a bit :). I was just wondering if you could fix a tiny issue I found: the night-styled maps do add outline to the texts to ensure they are readable, however, exports (at least in PNG) don't include this outline. Apart from that, haven't found any other issue so far, it's just awesome.
As possible improvements... Perhaps add option to include fortifications in the future? Pallisade, watchtower, small local keep, tavern, generated shops/other points of interest with legend assigned?
Yeah, I'm aware of this issue, but there is no easy way to resolve it (that outline is created by applying a glow filter to the text, but apparently filters stop working on images which are too big). Probably I'll have to implement another way to add outline (e.g. like in MFCG) when there is more text in this generator.
Regarding those improvements:
Points of interest - definitely.
Local keep (or anything else that different from regular cottages) - unlikely.
Palisade - maybe. I didn't plan to add it, but it's a pretty popular request.
Sorry, with how everything works now that's not possible. Villages are grown "organically" and the generator doesn't how large a village will be in the end. It is possible, of course, to regenerate a village until its population is close enough to the target value, but considering how much time it takes to build a single instance, it will be too slow.
How about letting us change the population number without actually changing anything about the map? Like we change the town name. Just so that it's the desired number when printed out?
Thank you for this (and the others) wonderful tool! One thing I have noticed is that houses are sometimes placed on fields. It's not a big thing, but is there a way to prevent houses from spawning on a field?
Apparently people are bothered by houses on top of fields. Actually, this was sort of intentional. At first I discarded such fields, but then decided to keep them to emulate crofts. I can try to draw them a bit differently - as orchards or pastures.
This is an awesome village maker! If I could make two small requests for the future... I've had what appeared to be ponds come up a couple of times on the screen. These may be a fluke but if they are not I'd like to see more of them. Any chance to have ponds/lakes added with more frequency? Second request- I like the look of the trees but would like to have a "sparse" option where you would just have a few lone trees here and there. And perhaps palm shaped ones for the islands. Otherwise this is awesome!
Actually, these puddles are a source of numerous glitches. For example, often piers get spawned in them instead of "big water". So it's more likely I'll try to get rid of them :)
I'm planning to implement finer control over tree coverage but I'm not sure how exactly it's gonna work.
This is great! My only suggestion, something I've been looking for everywhere, is this same functionality with the ability to import a heightmap for the landscape.
Thank you very much for this generator! The best I have seen so far. I am definitely going to show my supports to you once I get my Paypal in order.
I am very excited to see the new updates and improvements you will be doing. It would be amazing to see options to select specific building to be included (/Church/market/other), or a central place!
Currently there are only two types of buildings in the generator - small ones and large ones. In the future I'll try to make them look more diverse, but I wouldn't like to assign any specific functions to them like "church" or "tavern". But I do plan to add village greens/town squares. Cheers!
Great generator, I fell in love, but would it be possible to add the ability to place each ceiling in a different color? or trees, it would be really cool
Are you talking about roofs? They differ slightly in brightness from each other. I think that adding more colors for buildings would make "styling" them less intuitive.
For trees you can assign two colors and every tree is painted in a random color from the range between those colors. It works only in "simple" and "cotton" modes.
I love this tool and others you've built for DND. The only requests for this creator is could we add the option for a t-junction/crossroads and an option to save the default and night presets in one go. The latter would just save me a couple of clicks as I import both into a rollable table on Roll20.
Crossroads are on my to-do list and probably they will be implemented in the next update. Saving a map in the Default and Night colours is a little too specific request. I mean somebody else might want to able to batch save in different styles (incl. custom ones) e.g. normal + haunted or summer + autumn + winter. I'll think about how it could be generalized.
Do you have an example of a map by any chance? My idea of bayou is pretty vague, so I can imagine mangroves and alligators, but I'm not sure I know how a "bayou village" should look.
This map from Hunt: Showdown is a fair example of the idea I'm thinking of, though the buildings are significantly more spread out than yours tend to be.
Fields were an excellent addition, and they're really well implemented too! Thank you :D
With the current algorithms being used, is it possible to add a function to generate based off of a small number of user-provided landscape features? For example, letting a user provide a main road and a river (via uploaded image) and generating the remaining features off of those? The idea being that, one may have a large map already and would like to create detailed randomized local maps. I think this would take VG from a simple generator to a premium map tool!
It would be pretty easy to implement custom "water maps". User-defined main roads are harder but also feasible. Actually, there are more things that could be customized, e.g. elevation, population density etc. Probably some of these options will be added in the future, but not until generated stuff is stable enough.
Wonderful, looks very organic and pleasing. I know others have been suggesting a (typically) stone keep/castle for defensive works. If you are thinking about adding some, perhaps a more pleasing and fruitful endeavor would be to implement motte and bailey fortifications, or earthen hill fortifications such as the Celtic oppidum or the mounds of Cahokia. These varieties of earthworks would fit particularly well with the graphic design and goal of this generator.
Yeah, tree coverage depends on where fields are, so I just reroll trees when they are toggled. It is possible to keep forest shapes constant and just apply additional "thinning" by fields, but it seemed too much work to bother.
Are you using some kind of algorithm? Or are you developing your own algorithm? I am building my generator, base points are hard to find. Starting on the road?
There is a pretty large number of algorithms in play for different aspects of the generator. The roads are based on "Parish-Müller's approach". Try googling these two names together, this should give links to a number of their papers.
I've been following this for a while and I'm definitely enjoying the improvements. There seems to be a bug with the island water type generation on tiny maps, where all it does is generate a solid green view. It may exist in other sizes, too, but it is frequent and consistent with tiny maps.
<3 the fields, they add another dimension. If this could be merged with MCG I'd be overjoyed. Having said that, it must be difficult for you when lots of people ask for just that little bit more... so I will be happy with what you have already created.
I like the individual buildings in VG compared with MFCG's blocks and would like to see the trees in MFCG too. However, it's more the other way round i.e. bring castles/churches/plazas/citadels etc. into VG. And also have it link to and from Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator. Thanks for asking. :-)
I love this generator and will be using it for my commercial products (with attribution, of course!)
If I may suggest one thing for an addition, I'll add my voice to those suggesting walls and a "keep"-like building (maybe a tower?) like in the city generator. Even villages need a bit of protection :)
This is incredible. It still has quite a few things to add, like walls or castles. If it could be set as Medieval Fantasy City Generator it would be a program of another level.
This is an amazing discovery, wonderful work thank you. I just generated 5 villages for my Pendragon campaign, then realised after downloading the PNG that I'd love to have nighttime and simple versions too. I guess its too late and I'd have to start again or is there away to re-import them to the tool?
Really nice work, it's already pretty cool but it would be cooler if it was possible to have river confluences as an option. Quite many villages or even towns are built on river confluences and it also brings more variety for random settlements. One can use coast and river but it doesn't really looks like a confluence, coast being for too large waterbody than a river when in reality sizes are mostly equal.
Why? You think it will randomly place a bridge on the merging point sometimes? I think it will be possible somehow to prevent merging area getting a bridge. I don't exactly know how you place the bridge on the map but I do think it won't be that much too random, there must be some excluded areas so I guess it will be possible to exclude that very problematic spot as well. Anyways, thanks for attention.
To place a bridge is harder than it seems. Initially the generator could place several bridges over a river, but it often produced weird configurations with a road changing sides back and forth. With two rivers I will have to allow multiple bridges again and there will be even more opportunities for the generator to build something silly.
I would like to say that I love this city generator. I really wish I could have $ 5 a month. but it is impossible. I'm from Brazil and I even want to cry, because I can't buy it. If it was a single time but every month, it would make me go through difficulties. is there another option besides paying $ 5 a month, for me to have this complete city generator? Help me, brother.
There is no such thing as "complete city generator". There is a desktop version available for my patrons, but apart from being "desktop" it's identical to the web version. Soon this desktop version will be expanded, but for now it's only additional feature will be an ability to save and load maps.
A village with more than one large road running through will inevitably turn into a town but in this generator I'm trying to focus on villages because it allows me to ignore marketplaces, defensive walls etc. On the other hand it's very easy to generate a settlement with any number of roads so in the future I will probably add an option to generate a village on a crossroads.
That's a bit harder because such single road needs to be terminated within village limits somehow. For example, it could end on a sort of village square/green, but such features are not implemented yet.
LOVING this! Quick feature request: A color picker in the style menu would be amazing. Until then, I can certainly use another picker and copy the hex over, just a little QOL idea.
Hi realy good generator map but i think something is realy missing in those generation. The plaza where is the beloved plaza of those game and in extension the " tavern like" building without this point great job
← Return to generator
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Hi, I want to replicate this for a personal project. Are you able to explain how it was coded and the process you went through making this? Is there anywhere else I can contact you?
Hi. Basically this generator is an implementation of the idea explained here: link.
I just read the paper and I am lost.
Are there any tutorials or are you able to share some code?
I have no code to share, sorry. But here is another generator based on the similar (but not exactly the same) idea with open code and some explanations of the method: City Map Generator.
About being lost: don't let yourself be intimidated by the academic lingo. For example, when I started reading that paper I didn't know what tensor fields are. So I've read a Wikipedia article on them and got back to the paper. And then I realized that I didn't need "tensor fields" to get the idea at all...
Is there a way to disable houses and roads?
No, why? Do you you need a generator of... empty spaces? :)
Haha! Yes, I would love to generate empty fields and islands for DND! Love your tools my friend!
Hey Watabou when we can place buildings and trees fields by ourselves?
Saying "never" would be a too harsh reply, but nothing like that is planned at this moment :)
Hey watabou, this is absolutely wonderful and very, very impressive. Donated a bit :). I was just wondering if you could fix a tiny issue I found: the night-styled maps do add outline to the texts to ensure they are readable, however, exports (at least in PNG) don't include this outline. Apart from that, haven't found any other issue so far, it's just awesome.
As possible improvements... Perhaps add option to include fortifications in the future? Pallisade, watchtower, small local keep, tavern, generated shops/other points of interest with legend assigned?
Yeah, I'm aware of this issue, but there is no easy way to resolve it (that outline is created by applying a glow filter to the text, but apparently filters stop working on images which are too big). Probably I'll have to implement another way to add outline (e.g. like in MFCG) when there is more text in this generator.
Regarding those improvements:
Cheers!
I love this! Thanks so much for sharing your work with us all!
One "small" request: Would it be possible at some point to be able to set the desired population?
I like that you included population density, but I cannot find an option for population count.
Sorry, with how everything works now that's not possible. Villages are grown "organically" and the generator doesn't how large a village will be in the end. It is possible, of course, to regenerate a village until its population is close enough to the target value, but considering how much time it takes to build a single instance, it will be too slow.
How about letting us change the population number without actually changing anything about the map? Like we change the town name. Just so that it's the desired number when printed out?
I can do that.
Thank you for this (and the others) wonderful tool! One thing I have noticed is that houses are sometimes placed on fields. It's not a big thing, but is there a way to prevent houses from spawning on a field?
Cheeers! I commented on this here:
Thanks!
This is an awesome village maker! If I could make two small requests for the future... I've had what appeared to be ponds come up a couple of times on the screen. These may be a fluke but if they are not I'd like to see more of them. Any chance to have ponds/lakes added with more frequency? Second request- I like the look of the trees but would like to have a "sparse" option where you would just have a few lone trees here and there. And perhaps palm shaped ones for the islands.
Otherwise this is awesome!
Thanks!
Nooooooo~ I love the ponds! It's not uncommon to have piers in lakes anyway! If my opinion means anything, I'd like to put in +1 vote for keep them~
Fascinated with the night view of the village - is that a style setting that can be toggled?
In the context menu:
Style settings... > Presets > Night
You can also create your own styles including night-like. The key is to set the "Lights" color to anything lighter than black.
This is great!
My only suggestion,
something I've been looking for everywhere,
is this same functionality with the ability to import a heightmap for the landscape.
Hi,
Thank you very much for this generator! The best I have seen so far. I am definitely going to show my supports to you once I get my Paypal in order.
I am very excited to see the new updates and improvements you will be doing. It would be amazing to see options to select specific building to be included (/Church/market/other), or a central place!
Currently there are only two types of buildings in the generator - small ones and large ones. In the future I'll try to make them look more diverse, but I wouldn't like to assign any specific functions to them like "church" or "tavern". But I do plan to add village greens/town squares. Cheers!
Are you talking about roofs? They differ slightly in brightness from each other. I think that adding more colors for buildings would make "styling" them less intuitive.
For trees you can assign two colors and every tree is painted in a random color from the range between those colors. It works only in "simple" and "cotton" modes.
I love this tool and others you've built for DND. The only requests for this creator is could we add the option for a t-junction/crossroads and an option to save the default and night presets in one go. The latter would just save me a couple of clicks as I import both into a rollable table on Roll20.
Thank you.
Crossroads are on my to-do list and probably they will be implemented in the next update. Saving a map in the Default and Night colours is a little too specific request. I mean somebody else might want to able to batch save in different styles (incl. custom ones) e.g. normal + haunted or summer + autumn + winter. I'll think about how it could be generalized.
Wow! I am seriously in love with this ❣
I really like this, but do you reckon it's possible to have a sort of 'bayou' setting, with lots of patchy waterways? That would be super neat.
Do you have an example of a map by any chance? My idea of bayou is pretty vague, so I can imagine mangroves and alligators, but I'm not sure I know how a "bayou village" should look.
This map from Hunt: Showdown is a fair example of the idea I'm thinking of, though the buildings are significantly more spread out than yours tend to be.
Fields were an excellent addition, and they're really well implemented too! Thank you :D
With the current algorithms being used, is it possible to add a function to generate based off of a small number of user-provided landscape features? For example, letting a user provide a main road and a river (via uploaded image) and generating the remaining features off of those? The idea being that, one may have a large map already and would like to create detailed randomized local maps. I think this would take VG from a simple generator to a premium map tool!
It would be pretty easy to implement custom "water maps". User-defined main roads are harder but also feasible. Actually, there are more things that could be customized, e.g. elevation, population density etc. Probably some of these options will be added in the future, but not until generated stuff is stable enough.
Wonderful, looks very organic and pleasing. I know others have been suggesting a (typically) stone keep/castle for defensive works. If you are thinking about adding some, perhaps a more pleasing and fruitful endeavor would be to implement motte and bailey fortifications, or earthen hill fortifications such as the Celtic oppidum or the mounds of Cahokia. These varieties of earthworks would fit particularly well with the graphic design and goal of this generator.
Thanks!
Yeah, I think I'll have to implement something like that in the future. Adding a palisade and (optionally) a simple keep shouldn't be too hard.
Great work as always. I like the fields update but, can you make the roads make some sense with the fields? Just a suggestion.
How do you mean? Is it about fields not hugging roads or trails crossing fields or something else?
but it does more, it re-generates trees for me
Yeah, tree coverage depends on where fields are, so I just reroll trees when they are toggled. It is possible to keep forest shapes constant and just apply additional "thinning" by fields, but it seemed too much work to bother.
Are you using some kind of algorithm? Or are you developing your own algorithm? I am building my generator, base points are hard to find. Starting on the road?
There is a pretty large number of algorithms in play for different aspects of the generator. The roads are based on "Parish-Müller's approach". Try googling these two names together, this should give links to a number of their papers.
This is a fantastic tool. Thanks for sharing.
I love your work, great inspiration my friend, left a tip
Cheers!
I've been following this for a while and I'm definitely enjoying the improvements. There seems to be a bug with the island water type generation on tiny maps, where all it does is generate a solid green view. It may exist in other sizes, too, but it is frequent and consistent with tiny maps.
Thanks for the report! I've uploaded a version which should fix (hopefully) this bug.
When's the next pixel dungeon update?
Looks great, except for all those buildings on top of the fields. But the fields are great
I'll comment on this in the post on Patreon (which is coming soon).
<3 the fields, they add another dimension. If this could be merged with MCG I'd be overjoyed. Having said that, it must be difficult for you when lots of people ask for just that little bit more... so I will be happy with what you have already created.
Thanks! What features of VG do you miss in MFCG?
I like the individual buildings in VG compared with MFCG's blocks and would like to see the trees in MFCG too. However, it's more the other way round i.e. bring castles/churches/plazas/citadels etc. into VG. And also have it link to and from Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator. Thanks for asking. :-)
Noted!
Amazing job!
Yo this tool is very fresh, kudos!
I love this generator but is there anyway you can give mountains as well??
I love this generator and will be using it for my commercial products (with attribution, of course!)
If I may suggest one thing for an addition, I'll add my voice to those suggesting walls and a "keep"-like building (maybe a tower?) like in the city generator. Even villages need a bit of protection :)
This is incredible. It still has quite a few things to add, like walls or castles. If it could be set as Medieval Fantasy City Generator it would be a program of another level.
This is an amazing discovery, wonderful work thank you. I just generated 5 villages for my Pendragon campaign, then realised after downloading the PNG that I'd love to have nighttime and simple versions too. I guess its too late and I'd have to start again or is there away to re-import them to the tool?
There is no way to save/load a village, sorry. In the next update it will become possible to get a seed of a village to regenerate it later.
Hi Watabou, what is the JSON export used for? Thought that would be to import and closed my village only to find out I was wrong.
Edit: Found it. Would still love to see an import back into this generator when/if feasible.
"Currently you can only load those JSON's in City Viewer. I don't plan to add a save/load functionality in this generator."
Really nice work, it's already pretty cool but it would be cooler if it was possible to have river confluences as an option. Quite many villages or even towns are built on river confluences and it also brings more variety for random settlements. One can use coast and river but it doesn't really looks like a confluence, coast being for too large waterbody than a river when in reality sizes are mostly equal.
Adding confluences is trivial, but I think it will break my bridges...
Why? You think it will randomly place a bridge on the merging point sometimes? I think it will be possible somehow to prevent merging area getting a bridge. I don't exactly know how you place the bridge on the map but I do think it won't be that much too random, there must be some excluded areas so I guess it will be possible to exclude that very problematic spot as well. Anyways, thanks for attention.
To place a bridge is harder than it seems. Initially the generator could place several bridges over a river, but it often produced weird configurations with a road changing sides back and forth. With two rivers I will have to allow multiple bridges again and there will be even more opportunities for the generator to build something silly.
There is no such thing as "complete city generator". There is a desktop version available for my patrons, but apart from being "desktop" it's identical to the web version. Soon this desktop version will be expanded, but for now it's only additional feature will be an ability to save and load maps.
So cute! Your generators never fail to impress. Keep up the excellent work & know that we appreciate everything you do!!
I'm loving this, but for both this and the City Generator I'd love the option to remove docks.
A good idea would to have the option for more than 1 road coming into the town. If you added that feature, this would be phenomenal!
A village with more than one large road running through will inevitably turn into a town but in this generator I'm trying to focus on villages because it allows me to ignore marketplaces, defensive walls etc. On the other hand it's very easy to generate a settlement with any number of roads so in the future I will probably add an option to generate a village on a crossroads.
I'd like to see the opposite, a single road in and out. For out of the way villages this is fairly common.
That's a bit harder because such single road needs to be terminated within village limits somehow. For example, it could end on a sort of village square/green, but such features are not implemented yet.
Such an amazing tool. Thank you!
A fantastic addition would be to get a scale on the map similar to the city generator!
Cheers! I think this will be added in the next update.
Great stuff! Thank you!
LOVING this!
Quick feature request: A color picker in the style menu would be amazing. Until then, I can certainly use another picker and copy the hex over, just a little QOL idea.
Either way, thanks so much for this!
Yeah, I know a color picker is expected when clicking a color box. This will be implemented eventually.
Hi realy good generator map but i think something is realy missing in those generation. The plaza where is the beloved plaza of those game and in extension the " tavern like" building without this point great job