Obsidian is a good program for organizing stuff, but i prefer HTML. Most of the visual stuff for my world has been maps, for which i use paper, Blender, Krita, and a giant empty plastic Christmas bauble that i can draw on with dry erase markers like a globe. I use Polyglot to organize my conlangs.

For visualization (I hesitate to call it art) I use FOSS programs like InkScape, Blender, and Krita. I was using Obsidian extensively for notetaking and conlanging, but especially with Conlangs where I use one note per lexeme, it can get bogged down when you have hundreds of notes stored remotely.

I’m currently exploring TiddlyWiki as it’s much more shareable online. I have several on my neocities page. I also have a (private/self hosted) mediawiki server running, mostly as a personal ego boost so I can say I have a “real” wiki.

Software tools -

• obsidian for keeping track and record keeping and noting ideas.
• Obsidian Canvas, Miro - for mood boarding, currently using canvas but I am looking for an alternative that’s FOSS and very light weight.
• paint to make diagrams and concept ideas.
• Typora - good distraction free free writing tool.
• Keep - quick idea noting, but slowly shifting over to obsidian mobile. Unfortunately it isn’t as intuitive on mobile, need to configure it.

I am only making use of these so far, but I am also currently on the lookout for a map creator tool. The mainstream ones are either to anemic or paid.

Idea Generation Tools -

• Immersion techniques, subscribing to the communities I want to use for inspiration to learn more in depth about them, watching videos, shows, reading articles
• I have an Idea bucket from where I pick and mix in with other ideas to come up with something.
• Deviant art, Reddit, other socials for interesting art to take inspiration from.
• recently I’ve also been creating playlists on all the social media platforms.

Obsidian MD for notes Wonderdraft for global maps Dungeondraft for local maps