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Add to SafariWhen comparing MapZone vs Filter Forge, the Slant community recommends Filter Forge for most people. In the question“What are the best programs to create procedural textures?” Filter Forge is ranked 6th while MapZone is ranked 9th.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Resolution independent
All maps will be resolution independent because of procedural techniques which MapZone uses. So you can work at a decent resolution, resize when done and you have a higher resolution texture immediately.
Pro Map focused
MapZone focuses on maps which are the core components of any texture. Your diffuse and normal maps created with it match perfectly. And because it's not linear and all are related to each other, if the diffuse is modified then all the other maps will sync automatically.
Pro Not only a Photoshop plugin, has a lot of other hosts
Pro Several filters
Filter Forge includes a lot of filters and each of them has several presets. Filters are grouped into different categories (Organic, Patterns, Creative, Distortions, Photo, etc...) so it's easy to locate them.
Pro Large online library of filters
The website has thousands of filters available for download. This is the only thing that makes the basic edition feasible.
Pro Standalone application or PhotoShop plugin
Filter Forge can be used as both a standalone application and as a plugin for PhotoShop.
Cons
Con Discontinued
MapZone is a discontinued procedural texture creator for windows. (Web page is discontinued but you can download from Dropbox or Google Drive.)
Con Slow development cycle
New versions come fast enough, but for example, the beta version of 7 doesn't have a lot that 4 didn't have.
Con No free tier
Filter Forge is not free. The basic edition (cheapest one) is $149. It does go on sale regularly though for around $30.
Con Hefty price tag
Its $399 for the professional version, whereas a big competitor used by large studios is only $149.
