To claim your rewards, be sure to download the MapForge v1.3.9 Patch and install it, since all 14 new Add-Ons developed by this campaign require v1.3.9.

Instructions for installing a patch: Download the patch file, unzip the downloaded file, then move the file/s that it contains into your MapForge directory, overwriting any existing files. Make sure that MapForge isn’t running when you apply the patch.

Those of you who are new to MapForge should first get the latest Full Install from here. Important: Be sure to follow the setup recommendations in the "Technical Tips" section of that page. You should already have received an email with instructions on how to claim your license. If for some reason you didn't receive it (perhaps it ended up in your spam inbox by mistake), you can also find the instructions here.

Once you've completed the Survey I just sent out (check your email), you should automatically have access to download all of the Add-Ons you pledged for.

I generally advise users to not install/activate more than 5 new Add-Ons at once, to avoid overwhelming MapForge with too much new content all at once. However, some of these new Add-Ons are so large (e.g. Ruins, Rustic Nature, Roads & Sidewalks, and Roofs Pt.1), that you should really count those as two Add-Ons, in this regard.

Keep in mind that the first run with any given Add-On can take a while, as image thumbnails and search tags are cached to your hard drive, to make content navigation and asset searches really speedy. Subsequent launches with previously-loaded Add-Ons should be significantly faster.

Exactly how much faster will depend on your particular computer. I timed loading times on my laptop and the results below should give you a rough idea.

Add-On/s Loaded: Rustic Nature (just 1 Add-On)
Load Time, First Use: 57 secs
Load Time, Subsequent Uses: 16.5 seconds

Add-On/s Loaded: All Generic Buildings & Distinctive Buildings (4 Add-Ons in total) 

Load Time, First Use: 52 secs
Load Time, Subsequent Uses: 17.5 seconds

Add-On/s Loaded: All Floors & Roofs (4 Add-Ons in total) 

Load Time, First Use: 45 secs
Load Time, Subsequent Uses: 18 seconds

Add-On/s Loaded: Trains & Rails, Ruins, Roads & Sidewalks (3 Add-Ons in total)

Load Time, First Use: 1 minute and 45 secs
Load Time, Subsequent Uses: 17 seconds

So it looks like Add-Ons load anywhere between 3x to 5x faster after the first time they're used. I'd be curious to know if you get similar (or wildly different) results.

Once you've had a look at the Add-Ons' contents and played around with them a bit, I'd love to get your feedback in this Update's Comments.

If anyone needs tech support or other assistance, email me at this address: [email protected]

Sorry, folks. I really thought I was going to be able to send out all the rewards this week, but I've been blindsided by a requirement that I didn't know about, because I'm still learning the ropes on BackerKit.

You see, BackerKit requires project creators to send out a post-campaign Survey, where backers lock-in the things they pledged for, and are given the opportunity to pledge for additional items/rewards.

What I didn't know is that before the survey can go out, there's an approval process on their part, where they need to check that everything is correctly configured, so that creators don't inadvertently screw up the Survey (which I think can only go out once). I've gone ahead and asked them to do the review.

Even after the Survey is approved, I need to run something called a Smoke Test, which is described above, before every backer gets the Survey. So, in summary, the rewards will be going out next week, not this week, as I'd planned. My apologies for this slight delay.

On the plus side, I've already configured the MapForge server with the items you've each pledged for, so if you open the Add-On Registration panel in MapForge and use the "Claim from server" button, you should be able to get the Add-Ons you pledged for all registered at once. This means that when you get the Add-On download links next week, they'll be all ready for use.

Those of you who pledged for a MapForge license during this campaign should have already received an email explaining how to claim it. If you didn't, please let me know.

I've finished adding the "Export to Isometric" feature that I promised. Here's how that turned out.

Start my making a regular top-down map, like this.

Then, in MapForge's Export panel, enable the new "Export to ISO" checkbox, and export the map.

You'll end up with something like this.

That might be "good enough" to actually use in a game, but if you wanted to take it a step further, you could import that image right back into MapForge (using the Background Image feature) and start placing actual isometric assets to represent the vertical elements (e.g. building walls, street lights, rooftop signs). A little minor retouching in Photoshop/Gimp to erase the 2D streetlights from the streets & sidewalks, and you should have a pretty impressive 3D-looking map.

This "Export to ISO" feature should give new life to top-down mapping content, by allowing you to repurpose it for ISO mapping.

I've also finished creating all 14 Add-Ons in the Dystopian Utopia Collection. I think they turned out great.

Even better, you might recall that on the campaign page I had estimated that there would be around 4600 assets in this collection. Well, with all the color mods I added plus some custom pre-builds I provided made from modular components, the final tally is actually 6028 assets! Over 30 percent extra content than what was promised. Not bad, eh?

All that remains to be done is creating/compiling the final MapForge v1.3.9 build, and getting it hosted on the server. I should be able to get that done tomorrow.

So I'll probably start delivering the rewards on Wednesday, March 5th. Woohoo!

Once that's taken care of, I need to figure out what my next crowdfunding campaign is gonna be and get rolling on that (the money from this campaign is all but gone already, yikes!). Let me know what you'd like to see me work on next.

Since the last Update, I've completed four more Add-Ons in this collection. A couple of them were 2-parts (simply too much content for a single Add-On file).

Here are some pics to preview how they came out. Note that these aren't "beauty shots" designed to show off the product in its best light; they are simply screenshots of test maps that I make during development to test for seamless tiling, etc.

The Add-On I'm currently working on, "Generic Buildings", will also be 2-parts. I'm done with Part 1, and am currently working on Part 2.

Once that's done, there will only be two of the fourteen Add-Ons left to do: "Distinctive Buildings" (2-parts) and "Rustic Nature". So it looks like you'll be getting the rewards from this campaign by the end of this month (hopefully a bit sooner).

Happy New Year, everyone!

I've been hard at work since my last Update. Figured you'd want to see some preview pics of how these Add-Ons are turning out. So without further ado...

I've thus far completed 7 of the 14 Add-Ons. But since I worked on the smaller Add-Ons first, and the largest Add-Ons lie ahead, that means I'm nowhere near halfway done.I suspect I'll be well into February by the time the last 7 Add-Ons are done.

But rest assured, these are turning out real nice.

I'll be away for a few days later this month (on a short family vacation), but I'm looking forward to coming back to work rested and re-energized, to tackle what remains of this gargantuan project.

Take care, and may 2025 bring great things to everyone.