Does anyone have or know a repository of .png files for Traveller for use on Roll20.com as Tokens and Maps?

Yenaldlooshi

Cosmic Mongoose
Does anyone have or know a repository of .png files for Traveller for use on Roll20.com as Tokens and Maps?

Specifically, I am looking for Starship .png files to use as tokens. I would like to have images that look as close as possible to canon images and not just not things like scaled down Star Wars Star Destroyers and just calling them Type S scouts. lol
 
Does anyone have or know a repository of .png files for Traveller for use on Roll20.com as Tokens and Maps?

Specifically, I am looking for Starship .png files to use as tokens. I would like to have images that look as close as possible to canon images and not just not things like scaled down Star Wars Star Destroyers and just calling them Type S scouts. lol
Why not extract the images from your legally owned PDFs yourself? If you have access to a *nix system you can easily do this with the pdfimages utility through the CLI:

  1. First navigate to the folder where you want the images to be extracted to
  2. run the following command:
    Code:
    pdfimages -all path_to_source_pdf extract
  3. You will get an ungodly amount of images dumped in the folder you navigated to
  4. Use an image browser to get rid of the images you don't want or need, but keep the ones you want together with their mask image*
  5. Convert any non-png images to png format first**
  6. Make a subfolder named Masks, one named Images and one named Composites
  7. Move the images to the images sub folder and the associated masks to the masks subfolder
  8. Add a sequence number to the images in both the Masks and images subfolders, making sure that sequence numbers between masks and their associated images match (easiest to use a batch rename program for this)
  9. Now navigate through the CLI into the Composites folder
  10. Run the following bash script:
    Bash:
    #!/bin/bash
    Arr1=(/path/to/Images/*);
    Arr2=(/path/to/Masks/*);
    for i in "${!Arr1[@]}"; do magick ${Arr1[i]} ${Arr2[i]} -alpha off -compose copy-opacity -composite "alpha_"$i".png"; done
Once the script has ran you will now have nice composited PNGs with proper transparencies.

* You will notice that for almost each image there is an associated B/W 'sharp' mask and a B/W 'soft' mask. You only need to retain the first mask and you can just throw away all the soft masks.

** Some files will be extracted as seemingly colour-inverted JPGs. These you will need to 'colour-correct' first before conversion to png, using ImageMagick and the command
Code:
magick original.jpg -negate fixed.jpg
 
Why not extract the images from your legally owned PDFs yourself? If you have access to a *nix system you can easily do this with the pdfimages utility through the CLI:

  1. First navigate to the folder where you want the images to be extracted to
  2. run the following command:
    Code:
    pdfimages -all path_to_source_pdf extract
  3. You will get an ungodly amount of images dumped in the folder you navigated to
  4. Use an image browser to get rid of the images you don't want or need, but keep the ones you want together with their mask image*
  5. Convert any non-png images to png format first**
  6. Make a subfolder named Masks, one named Images and one named Composites
  7. Move the images to the images sub folder and the associated masks to the masks subfolder
  8. Add a sequence number to the images in both the Masks and images subfolders, making sure that sequence numbers between masks and their associated images match (easiest to use a batch rename program for this)
  9. Now navigate through the CLI into the Composites folder
  10. Run the following bash script:
    Bash:
    #!/bin/bash
    Arr1=(/path/to/Images/*);
    Arr2=(/path/to/Masks/*);
    for i in "${!Arr1[@]}"; do magick ${Arr1[i]} ${Arr2[i]} -alpha off -compose copy-opacity -composite "alpha_"$i".png"; done
Once the script has ran you will now have nice composited PNGs with proper transparencies.

* You will notice that for almost each image there is an associated B/W 'sharp' mask and a B/W 'soft' mask. You only need to retain the first mask and you can just throw away all the soft masks.

** Some files will be extracted as seemingly colour-inverted JPGs. These you will need to 'colour-correct' first before conversion to png, using ImageMagick and the command
Code:
magick original.jpg -negate fixed.jpg
umm... thanks but that sounds a bit like work of the "I need to do more than download and then upload" variety. Not that I am work adverse... except I am. I can make my own image files from PDF's and elsewhere, but if someone has already done this specifically for starship tokens on Roll20, hook me up with that!
That said, I may give your instructions a go anyway just to see what I get. So thanks! :)

UPDATE: Wait, "*nix system"? Yeah, no. I am not trying to get a Phd in a single OS just to have IT bragging rights and to make a lot of money. Am way too work adverse for that mess.
 
UPDATE: Wait, "*nix system"? Yeah, no. I am not trying to get a Phd in a single OS just to have IT bragging rights and to make a lot of money. Am way too work adverse for that mess.

Assuming this implies you are not using macOS or a flavour of Linux; these days you can run a full-functional Linux-subsystem on Windows 11 (WSL), so unless you're adverse of running command line programs you wouldn't necessarily need to learn a different OS. Just the basics to learn how to navigate and how to install/run some basic programs through the CLI.

I agree it requires substantial more effort than just plucking some (crappy) pics from the web, but the upshot is that you can can get all the canon ship pics from any pdf that you legally own in pretty nice quality and relatively hassle free. As long as you use them for personal use only and not distribute them in any way I don't think there would be any legal repercussions either (but then again, I am no lawyer).
 
I should perhaps be a bit more descriptive what I am looking for: These .png files will be used for "tokens" that would normally be very small on the screen. My hope is to use them for vector plotted movement on a hex map. They really don't have to look great, in fact I have considered simple black silhouettes like on the game pieces of Invasion Earth and the FFW Board Game, both from GDW in the 80's. The main thing I hope to preserve is an accurate shape of the vessel. For example the Harrier from Pirates of Drinax. I don't need to use the elaborate art from that book, but if I can get an accurate shape looking down from a top view, then I think I will have what I am looking for.
I have created one of my tokens already by hand using an image found online, and it looks great (for my purposes)! But the work I put into it was more than I care to do for all the basic adventure class ships in the canon. Hence the post.
 
I have used this for counters for various Traveller situations. Brilliant website.


Many of these are also based on Traveller ships or as close as you need at that scale.

 
I use snapshot in Adobe reader to grab maps and the small illustration on the ship sheets and paste them into 70 x70 squares via photoshop, but I’m sure other free software could do this too.
 
Counters from the Traveller New Era "Brilliant Lances" game work well. The game is available thru Far Future Enterprises (FFE). I have purchased 3d models from 2nd Dynasty and "painted" them with Microsoft 3d Paint. These are models created by Ian Stead. Below is from "Brilliant Lances".

FFE sells two CDs with Traveller New Era content. Brilliant Lances is included in "The New Era-1". Maybe Mongoose could just start selling the counter sheet? https://www.farfuture.net/




1728407679168.png
 
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Made by "painting" a .stl file from 2nd Dynasty. File cost about $6 and for around $30 they have a group of common Traveller Ships.
1728407912927.png
1728407963928.png
 
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