1. Overview
One editor for a quick draft and a detailed finish
The canvas, hierarchy, inspector, asset library, generator, validation panel, and export queue operate on one versioned scene model. Manual and generated content use the same entities, so moving from a fast layout to precise editing never requires rebuilding the project.
- Use square, flat-top hex, point-top hex, or gridless coordinates without tying the project to one export size.
- Edit semantic rooms, walls, doors, lights, terrain regions, annotations, and object instances.
- Organize the scene into layers and vertical levels with stable object identifiers.
- Preview player-safe and Game Master information before export or VTT publication.
- Search commands and assets while the inspector exposes controls for the current selection.
2. Availability
Verified Windows download
The Windows x64 application and installer are Authenticode-signed for Aethera.TV through Azure Artifact Signing. The Tools page enables Download only after the current host validates a release manifest and the exact installer size and SHA-256 hash.
Staging and stable releases are isolated. A staging installer is never presented as the stable public release, and an unavailable or altered artifact leaves the download disabled.
3. Lite, Pro, and commercial use
A generous free editor with an optional advanced tier
Delve Lite is free and supports unlimited local maps and projects with no watermark or resolution cap. It includes polished flat styles, core structured editing, the manual and procedural workflows, user assets, save and export, VTT publishing, and creator-pack workflows.
Delve Pro is $3.99/month or $35.99/year with no trial, and is included with active Aethera Premium. Pro can create new top-down Depth visual profiles for a 3D-looking finish, use Depth-only Quick Build recipes, author new animated visual treatments, and use advanced first-party style and recipe entries included in the installed build. Animated treatments have an interactive preview and deterministic static export fallback; Delve does not currently promise a video or GIF exporter.
Maps exported from Lite or Pro may be used in commercial games, streams, videos, client work, and publications, subject to the rights for any third-party or imported material. After a downgrade, existing Pro-authored projects remain open, editable, renderable, savable, and exportable; only creation of new gated Pro treatments stops. See the map-output terms and current checkout availability.
4. First map
Start from the intended table experience
- Create a project and choose dimensions, units, grid type, pixels per cell, theme, and output target.
- Draw a room or floor region, then add walls, doors, terrain, props, lights, and annotations.
- Use the hierarchy and inspector to name, group, lock, align, and precisely transform content.
- Open validation to resolve missing assets, geometry issues, unsafe secrets, or target incompatibilities.
- Choose a variant and level set, then export locally or review a structured VTT revision.
5. Structured editing
Keep tactical meaning attached to the artwork
Construction tools retain geometry and behavior rather than painting permanent pixels. Walls can join, openings remain attached to their host wall, rooms retain boundaries and roles, and terrain regions keep their tactical properties for validation and publication.
- Select, multi-select, duplicate, group, align, distribute, mirror, replace, and edit numeric transforms.
- Use snapping, guides, measurements, grid controls, and object filters for precise placement.
- Paint materials, masks, decals, scatter instances, and effects through parameterized brush presets.
- Undo and redo grouped edits, bulk placement, generation, asset replacement, and regeneration.
6. Procedural generation
Generate a structured draft, then keep editing
Delve generation is deterministic for the same recipe, parameters, and seed. Generated rooms, corridors, terrain, walls, portals, dressing, and vertical connections become ordinary editable scene entities rather than a single image.
- Control size, room roles, connectivity, loops, entrances, secrets, verticality, hazards, and dressing.
- Lock accepted regions before regenerating another room, corridor, terrain area, or dressing pass.
- Validate required connections and walkability before accepting a result.
- Save safe data-only recipes and themes without allowing content packages to execute code.
7. Assets and Exchange
Owned content appears where it is used
Core, imported, project-local, team, and entitled Exchange assets share a searchable library. Compatible owned metadata can appear without downloading every source file, while install and dependency work stays resumable and verified.
- Filter props, materials, brushes, themes, generator presets, templates, lights, effects, and sounds.
- See cloud-only, installed, updating, pinned, incompatible, expired, and missing-dependency states.
- Pin exact dependency versions in projects so pack updates do not silently change existing maps.
- Validate redistribution rights before preparing editable content or rendered maps for Exchange.
8. Levels and variants
Share a base scene without duplicating the whole project
Levels model floors, basements, roofs, bridges, balconies, pits, and vertical transitions. Variants apply bounded overrides for states such as day and night, intact and ruined, dry and flooded, or player and Game Master views while unchanged entities remain shared.
9. Aethera VTT
Publish a revision without erasing the live table
Delve owns map structure; Aethera VTT owns live play. A reviewed publish can create a scene or stage a new linked revision with rendered layers, grid, walls, portals, lights, regions, elevation, effects, sounds, notes, and player-safe output where the target supports them.
- Stable identifiers and revision tokens produce a meaningful update diff.
- VTT-owned tokens, combat state, chat, player drawings, and session changes are preserved.
- Conflicting map-owned edits require review instead of silently overwriting the active scene.
- A failed staged revision remains inactive and can be rolled back without leaving a half-updated scene.
10. Exports
Render the target you need without resizing the project
Export presets control variant, levels, layer sets, grid visibility, player or Game Master information, resolution, crop, padding, transparency, and lighting. Large output is tiled so 16K and capable-desktop 32K jobs do not require one GPU texture the size of the finished image.
Static output supports PNG, WebP, and JPEG, including foreground, roof, transparent overlay, per-floor, print-page, and structured Aethera scene packages. The export queue reports progress, estimates memory, supports cancellation, and keeps the editor responsive.
11. Projects and recovery
Local-first documents with recoverable history
The portable .battlemap project keeps versioned structured data and permitted project-local
assets. Incremental autosave, a recovery journal, migration backups, checksums, and snapshots make useful
work recoverable after interruption. A cloud-revision control is available only when it is explicitly
enabled in the installed build; the portable local project remains the recoverable source document.
12. Current limits
Focused on map authoring and safe handoffs
- Delve does not manage combat, characters, chat, or campaigns; those remain in Aethera VTT.
- World-scale cartography and lore remain in Aethera Atlas and Aethera Mythos.
- Ordinary Exchange content packages are data-only and cannot run arbitrary scripts or shaders.
- Optional AI assistance is not required for editing, procedural generation, saving, or export.
- The current Windows release does not advertise automatic updates until its dedicated feed is operational.