- Blueprints v1 - 29 January 2025
Hey all, In this update, I added blueprints, which are essentially images you can overlay onto your battlefield. In this first version, you can add blueprints to your environment from file and then move, scale, and change color opacity a selected blueprint. I plan to expand on the blueprints feature in the next update, with the following upgrades: Add many blueprint "instances" to your map to manage. Save blueprint instance attributes (like position, scale, and color opacity) Update the UI to show all blueprints and blueprint instances Let me know if you have any questions or feedback about blueprints. Enjoy! - Bradley
- Performance Improvements - 18 November 2024
Hey everyone, I haven’t been able to find much time to work on Battle Map Studio these days, but I have a performance update for you all! I’ve been working on Hewn Core (the system that powers Battle Map Studio’s grid) and have integrated the latest updates to Battle Map Studio. The updates come with some significant performance improvements, including a ~50% reduction in memory usage. There are some major changes behind the scenes that affect almost every area of the codebase, so if you notice any strange behavior or bugs, please let me know about them. I also updated to Unity 6, which boasts a number of performance improvements, like reducing performance overhead and using the new render graph system. I also made some other minor improvements here and there: I updated the water shader and outliner package, and fixed a few bugs. I hope I can find more time to work on Battle Map Studio…
- World Locations - 19 March 2024
Hey all, In this update I added the ability to create worlds in different locations, including land, sky, outer space, and underwater. These simple changes surprisingly add a very different feel to environments. Now, instead of selecting a sky color when creating a new world, you select a location. Each location has certain sky settings, which you can of course change later. I also added some basic metal and metal tile materials for to help build sci-fi environments! I added 8 new metal materials and 6 new metal tiles. I also added a new Gloss material for almost invisible blocks, which I hope help with in-air areas. Sci-fi props and building materials have been on lots of users' wishlists for a while now, and I'm eager to learn more about how I can make building sci-fi environments easier to build in Battle Map Studio. Let me know if you have any 3D models, materials, or features in mi…
- Fixes to Noise Generator - 10 March 2024
Hey all, I have been super busy with other projects as of late (Hewn Core, BitCraft, NSF grant writing), but I have fixed a few bugs related to the noise generator and have been collecting assets for a content update. Updates Fixed a bug with the noise generator and image wizard gizmo where it was no longer draggable. Fixed a bug with the noise generation where block components could not be placed on top of blocks that were created by noise. Added voxel mode support to noise generation and image wizard. Hope you are all doing well, and if there is anything I can do to make Battle Map Studio better, let me know on Discord! ~Bradley
- Fix to Missing Paint Elements in Column Mode - 4 February 2024
Hey everyone, A player kindly brought it to my attention that all of the paint elements were missing when painting in Column mode. Sorry about that! It should be fixed now. -Bradley
- Voxel Mode! - 31 January 2024
Hi, I hope your 2024 is going well. I finished the first version of voxel mode, and I’m super excited for you to try it out! Voxel Mode When you create a new map, you now have the option to choose between column (original mode) and voxel modes. Voxel Mode Tools Painting tools unlock extra capabilities when in voxel mode. Voxel Brush When using the brush, hold X to start painting on the vertical plane. Additionally, blocks and units still intercept pointer rays in voxel mode, so as to make it easier to paint vertically without holding X. In voxel mode, you can drag-draw horizontally and vertically, which makes it easier to make steps, or gradual gradients. With the brush active, try holding Shift and moving horizontally. Then, hold X and move vertically. See that a diagonal line is created on the horizontal and vertical axes. Voxel Dragger The dragger can now create 3D areas! When using…
- Hewn Core - 18 January 2024
Hey, I've got big news! Over the past couple years, I've slowly generalized the block-based grid system that powers Battle Map Studio. I call it Hewn Core. Since many games use a block-based grid, I thought a generalized 3D hex/square grid system might be useful for a lot of devs. Today I'm releasing Hewn Core on the Unity Asset Store! Check it out here. About Hewn Core Hewn Core is a grid system and worldbuilding framework that functions as the foundation for any block-based game. Hewn Core provides easy-to-use methods for creating and manipulating world entities, like blocks and block decorations. Simply use the add, update, and remove methods, and the system will take care of the rest. Hewn Core lets you build big without sacrificing performance. Powered by Unity's Data-Oriented Tech Stack (DOTS), Hewn Core is blazing fast when spawning, updating, and rendering world entities. Hewn C…
- Voxel Mode Preview - 26 December 2023
Hi everyone, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I’ve made progress on voxel mode and wanted to share what I’ve been working on. I’ve found time here and there between work, holidays, and other projects, and set up a testing environment to test voxel-related tools. Here are a few tools I’ve been developing: Voxel Brush The voxel brush is like the regular brush but allows you to paint in 3D. Instead of painting just on the XZ plane, you can switch to the XY plane to paint vertically. Voxel Dragger The voxel dragger is the voxel mode equivalent to the standard drag shape tool, except (and you can probably guess) you can drag in 3D. You can drag on the XZ plane, the XY plane, and combine drags to create a 3D drag. Mesh Brush The mesh brush essentially takes a 3D object and “voxelizes” it to create blocks that fill the volume of the mesh. It’s a lot of fun to try out different models as the…
- Cleanup & Upgrades - 11 November 2023
Hi, I hope you’re all enjoying autumn! In this update I mainly cleaned up project files, updated old 3D models, and brought in updates to several packages. Updates: Brought in updates from my proprietary grid system package, which should increase performance a bit. Updated Tilt Five SDK to 1.4.0. Updated MixCast SDK to 2.5.2. Spent a lot of time cleaning up the assets in the project, reducing the size around 60%. This probably won't affect the game size, just a win for me as a developer! I removed a lot of old asset packs I had, some of which contained models I was currently using. Those models have been updated. Changed the D20 layout to align with the standard D&D D20 layout. Fixed dice roll number inconsistency with visible dice value. Reverted a change made for the rain tool that was made for a client-enforced demo requirement. Added a light to the campfire. Updated two pot models.…
- Back at it - 22 October 2023
Hey everyone, I hope you are all doing well! As I mentioned in the previous post, I’ve been on a little bit of a break while I got married, went on my honeymoon, and moved a couple thousand miles from my original home in Maine. I’m finally back into the swing of things and have my development setup ready to go. Before I jump into the main subject of this post, here are a few photos of the beautiful views of my honeymoon on the Maine coast and in Acadia National Park: Okay, back to Battle Map Studio. In this post I wanted to talk about the current state of this project and my plans for its future. Past & Present Situation Since its inception, Battle Map Studio has always been a side-project of mine that I’ve self-funded through my work as a contract software developer building in-space construction software. As much as I wish I could spend 100% of my time on this project, it has not been…
- Development Update - 8 June 2023
Hi everyone, I hope you are all well and enjoying life. If we haven't met yet, I'm Bradley, the creator and sole developer of Battle Map Studio. In this update, I wanted to let you in on some exciting behind-the-scenes stuff that's happening with Battle Map Studio, my other projects, and my life. Battle Map Studio A few months back, I added multi-headset support for Tilt Five, and the folks at Tilt Five demoed Battle Map Studio at GDC. This month I had another opportunity to demo Battle Map Studio at AWE with Ultraleap. So for the last couple months or so, I’ve been working on a Battle Map Studio demo that showcases Ultraleap's new hand tracking device. I'm currently working towards comprehensive hand tracking support for the full version of Battle Map Studio, so keep an eye out for that! While I'm very happy that I'm getting opportunities to showcase Battle Map Studio, it is affecting…
- Battle Map Studio is at AWE (May 31 - June 2) - 31 May 2023
If you're at AWE this week, be sure to check out Battle Map Studio at the Ultraleap booth! The demo combines Tilt Five and hand tracking so you can build virtual worlds with your hands in AR. 👋🧙 Ultraleap's Leap Motion Controller 2 Press Release Also, keep an eye out for future updates regarding hand tracking in Battle Map Studio! 👁👁👁 😁 Bradley
- Patch Notes 230502 - 2 May 2023
Got some of fixes for you! Polish Fixed a Tilt Five bug where shared panels would only ever appear on Player 1's canvas. Fixed a Tilt Five bug where the main menu tool manager was not initialized correctly, resulting in all tool selections affecting just Player 1. Fixed a Tilt Five bug where only Player 1 had a landing window. Fixed several network serialization issues with editing character actions and spells. Fixed a bug where changing saving throws or death saves would not display the intended value change properly. Fixed effect and hit dice parsing bug for spells and actions. Fixed a visual issue where a sprite was missing, resulting in some panels not rendering. Fixed a visual issue where some input fields were too small for font size, resulting in text not rendering. Fixed a DDB serialization issue where certain null values were not properly verified. Fixed a DDB serialization iss…
- February-March Update - 20 March 2023
Hey, happy Spring Equinox! So in the middle of preparing an update for February I had to switch focus onto adding support for Tilt Five® multi-headset support because Battle Map Studio is being demoed at the Tilt Five GDC booth (Booth #P1770) this week! Check out Tilt Five @ GDC! For the last month or so, I’ve been incredibly busy reworking the Battle Map Studio codebase to allow for multiple local players. I also created a new demo version of Battle Map Studio. Tilt Five Multi-Headset Support While Battle Map Studio was designed for multiplayer online play, I hadn’t spent much time designing for local multiplayer play. Reworking years of code that was developed for a single local player to work for multiple local players was a major task. Codewise, this might be the biggest update I’ve made to Battle Map Studio. I won’t bore you with all of the specifics of what I needed to change (mos…
- January Update - 23 January 2023
Happy New Year! Since the last update, I added drag & drop movement, updated the interface designs, upgraded the backend grid system, and made a ton of fixes and refinements. Drag & Drop Movement After I integrated Hero Forge compatibility, I wanted to be able to drag and drop minis, so I added in drag & drop movement. It’s simple, hold left-click on a character or prop, and then drag the object to a new position. Boom, dragged and dropped. When dragging an object over a position already occupied, a red outline will appear. Attempting to drop an object over an invalid position will reset the object back to its original position. When selecting multiple units (shift + click), you can drag while holding shift to move all selected objects! Remember that dropping any object over an invalid position will reset it back to its original position. UI Design Updates I spent some time updating som…
- December Update - 21 December 2022
Merry Christmas and happy holidays! I hope you are enjoying the season as much as I am. I have some awesome additions to share with you in this update, so let’s get started. Official Hero Forge® Support A little while ago I met with the folks at Sky Castle Studios about bringing Hero Forge® support to Battle Map Studio. They introduced me to their API and gave me the OK to integrate it to Battle Map Studio. Since then, I have been working on adding Hero Forge® support and improving Battle Map Studios' asset management tools. Importing a Hero Forge® Mini To get started with importing your Hero Forge® minis to Battle Map Studio, navigate to the Asset Manager and then select the Hero Forge® tab. Before importing minis, you’ll need to connect your Hero Forge® account by inputting your Hero Forge® Access Key (find it here). If you don’t have a Hero Forge® account, create one here! Scroll dow…
- November Update - 11 November 2022
Hey! I thought I’d have this update ready a couple weeks ago, but there was a bad performance regression in a recent Unity update, so I had to wait until a new version of the Unity game engine was available. Very frustrating! Oh well, in the meantime I was able to work on a few extras for this update. I was feeling adventurous these past couple weeks so I upgraded my project to use ECS 1.0. I also added an option to export your environment as a model file! DOTS 1.0 (Note: the following section might be boring for players not interested in backend framework development) For a while now I’ve been stuck on an old version of Unity DOTS packages (the framework I use for high performance grid systems). Unity kind of left DOTS alone for a long time and only recently restarted development on it. The updates came in two phases, version 0.5 and 1.0, but I decided to skip the 0.5 version because i…
- Blaster & Palette Reworks - 12 October 2022
Hey everyone, In continuing my experiments with hand-tracking, I realized that the blaster tool and palette management needed improvements and fixes. I'm currently traveling, so I'm writing this from my laptop! Fortunately, I already recorded the video I wanted to include in this update. :) Blasting and Hand-Tracking I recently made a hand-tracking tool that shoots projectiles from my fingers! While I extend my fingers toward the board, the tool begins blasting shapes from the tips, and the blast intensity increases when I squeeze my thumb closer to my palm. It was a lot of fun to work on this experimental tool, and by making it, I became aware of several problems with the blaster tool and palettes. Blaster Improvements When I started playing with using the blaster with hand tracking, I scaled up the shapes so they were more visible when recording with MixCast. What I noticed was that t…
- Patch Notes 2022.09.22 - 22 September 2022
I’ve continued to test and refine the various job systems, and have a few nice updates to share! Updates Improved grid updates for when a single layer is updated, so that only blocks and block components on that layer are marked as changed. Restructured the codebase so that the base grid systems are not entwined with map editor tools. So much cleaner! This likely won't affect gameplay. Polish Fixed a bug that prevented image wizard generations to complete. Fixed a visual bug where overlay grid tiles would not always be positioned correctly on top of blocks. Fixed a job issue where the grid system would not always allow blocks to finish updating before marking them as unchanged. Fixed a visual issue where shallow water would not be level with other liquid meshes. Fixed a visual bug where the system would not generate liquid meshes with the proper elevation if a block had negative elevati…
- Improving the Grid - 16 September 2022
Hey everyone, I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying your week! For this update, I improved the grid system performance, added many new soil materials, and played around with MixCast and hand tracking. Grid Improvements I have been incrementally improving the efficiency of how the grid updates when changes are made to the map. Now, when you add or change a block or block “component” (like a plant), the system is much smarter in determining what to change. The Battle Map Studio grid framework is built on Unity DOTS (Data Oriented Technology Stack). The framework takes advantage of Unity’s burstable job system, which makes iterating over many entities very fast. Even though the jobs run much faster than an Update method on a Monobehaviour, scheduling an update job more often than necessary can certainly decrease performance. In the last update, I improved job performance by making the…
