The MapTool project

I am currently working on a little program as a gaming aid. It allows the loading and movement of little icon images on a background image, and keeps multiple clients in sync over the network. I haven't done extensive testing to see how it runs over the internet (only tried it between two machines at home) or with people fiddling with it all at once, but I look forward to a chance to try all that.

Get it Now!

The program is written in python, with the wxPython toolkit, but I've run it through py2exe to produce a windows executable that should work even if you don't have python on your machine. If it doesn't, please let me know, as that was one of my goals, and I'd like to fix it if I can.

• Download the current version(revision 577) as a zip file.

The unpacked file should contain 2 executables. MapTool.exe runs the client, and GuiServer.exe the server. If you start MapTool.exe with the -S flag, or click the "local only" checkbox in the connection dialog, it can be run without a server (but will be unable to speak with other clients).

Features

• Any gif image can be placed in the 'maps/' directory and used as a background in the local-only client, or any clients connecting to the server.
• Any gifs in the 'icons/' directory will be available as icons to drag across the screen.
• The background image can be resized to a variety of scales from 10 to 400% and scrolled to work with maps larger than the window
• A set of gridlines can be superimposed on the background image (currently with an unadjustable spacing.
• All icons carry a name which can be seen by hovering the mouse over the icon. Icons can be renamed by right-clicking on the icon
• Icons can be deleted by dropping them on the garbage can image.
• In client-server mode, all map changes, repositioning of icons, deleting of icons and renaming of icons is reproduced on all clients.
• A chat bar can be toggled on and off, and allows clients connected to the same server to engage in witty perciflage.
• Ctrl-Click and drag to draw temporary lines for marking distances, and LOS's
• A variety of artwork.
  • My originals, like the stunning guy.gif, the terrifying dragon.gif, and the equisite and highly detailed map.gif. Includes all the toolbar artwork.
  • A couple maps I snagged off wizards.com's map of the week section.
  • An assortment of artwork I nabbed at various points off the net
• Gui-wrapper around the server. Still very simple
• New Save and load the state of your maps via the server.
• New The server can set the 1st client to connect as privileged. The privileged user is the only user to be able to move icons. (Soon, he will also be the only user able to create icons, or change backgrounds, or change the size of the grids) If no privileged user is set, all users have full control

That's all for now, this is still a work in progress, and I'm adding to it rather haphazardly as I think of changes that I'd like. Further suggestions are welcome.