Map building - Is there a way to...

... Divide a map that you have made into smaller sections without losing content? Avid 30+ year gamer, Exceptionally IT savvy (its my job), but I am new to Roll20.net. I made a rather large map and got a little carried away with the design, and now the map (understandably) is very slow loading. I would like to divide the map into 4 separate map sections, and keep the content that is within each area. Is there a way to do this, without having to start over and do it in smaller sections? Thanks!

You could always screenshot those sections and copy them in as images. Unfortunately this would compress everything but it would make the map quicker to load because it is only a single layer as opposed to numerous line layers.

Yea, I thought about that...and it might work out better... What is a good size for a map? 25x25? 50x50? The map I did was 100x75, and that turned out to load very slow, even on a fast connection (150mbps).... so I was thinking of cutting them to 50x50.... Then again, I might wait on the size until I know what will fit/display best on the gaming table I am building...

Unfortunately, the best way to generate large maps is to download whatever assets you are going to use and create the map in an image editor of your choice (e.g. Photoshop or GIMP). Using a single image as your map allows you to create much larger pages than assembling the page out of individual assets in Roll20. As for separating your map into sections, Kyle's suggestion is pretty much your best bet. My only addition to that is that you could screenshot each section, and then open that image in your image editor of choice and use that as a template to regenerate your map. EDIT: The largest size of map I've got in my active campaign is 70ish x 50ish, but using only a single image as the map layer does allow you to go larger than this. You could probably go up to 100x100, although you might still notice some load lag at that size. I would suggest not making any map, regardless of number of assets, larger than 150x150. There have been some people that have had to have their campaigns reclaimed by the Dev's because they created a map 200+ squares^2.

Keith W. said: The map I did was 100x75, and that turned out to load very slow, even on a fast connection (150mbps).... so I was thinking of cutting them to 50x50.... I have maps well-larger than 100x100. They can work. However the loading time depends on how thick with assets and graphics that it is. Are your graphics assets primarily from Roll20 Marketplace, or primarily from your personal uploads library? Also note there is a web server issue presently (at the moment) which is causing slow or non-loading, so wait until that is passed to determine loading time.

Gold said: Keith W. said: The map I did was 100x75, and that turned out to load very slow, even on a fast connection (150mbps).... so I was thinking of cutting them to 50x50.... I have maps well-larger than 100x100. They can work. However the loading time depends on how thick with assets and graphics that it is. Are your graphics assets primarily from Roll20 Marketplace, or primarily from your personal uploads library? Also note there is a web server issue presently (at the moment) which is causing slow or non-loading, so wait until that is passed to determine loading time. ah, did not know that last bit, good to know. Suppose that's why all our profile pics are just blank atm eh?

Assets from Roll20, exclusively, at the moment. With a web server issue, it would explain the load issue....

Scott C. said: Unfortunately, the best way to generate large maps is to download whatever assets you are going to use and create the map in an image editor of your choice (e.g. Photoshop or GIMP). Using a single image as your map allows you to create much larger pages than assembling the page out of individual assets in Roll20. As for separating your map into sections, Kyle's suggestion is pretty much your best bet. My only addition to that is that you could screenshot each section, and then open that image in your image editor of choice and use that as a template to regenerate your map. EDIT: The largest size of map I've got in my active campaign is 70ish x 50ish, but using only a single image as the map layer does allow you to go larger than this. You could probably go up to 100x100, although you might still notice some load lag at that size. I would suggest not making any map, regardless of number of assets, larger than 150x150. There have been some people that have had to have their campaigns reclaimed by the Dev's because they created a map 200+ squares^2. All sounds reasonable. I have Photoshop, so I can duplicate this map there, then build new ones in PS first and upload the image. Does roll20 work be with any particular image type (jpg, etc...)? Thanks!

I've found it works with jpg, gif or png. There is a 5mb size limit. Which can be problematic depending on where you get your maps from. 

Dave T's got it correct except for one small fiddly bit. Support for gifs can be hit or miss because the gif format is not standardized. The animation of gifs will not work on the table top at all although gifs put in chat will animate correctly. For making maps, I would recommend a jpg image instead of a png as the image will be less memory intensive. Pretty much only use .png's for tokens or other things that you need transparency on. Use .jpg for everything else.

Suspected as much. With the 5mb limit, I may have to piece the map together, but better 3 or 4 images than 300 or 400.... Thank you, everyone, for the guidance. Its is much appreciated.

Just adding my two cents here as I just went through a massive asset size reduction exercise. I am using a map sized as 60x90 with a single background image (photo from a book).  My original upload size for this map which was about 2000x3000 (ish) was a JPEG at 1.8MB.  One of my players has a really bad connection so I made a pass at reducing asset sizes. The same size map, same resolution, but saved with a JPEG quality of about 40 reduced the file size to ~450kB with little to no degradation in the image quality.  Granted, the quality wasn't GREAT to begin with (phone camera and poor lighting), so the noise added from the lower JPEG quality did not stand out at all. The JPEG quality settings are your friend when working with large maps.

For overland maps, I use a bunch of hex tiles on 10x10 maps. Helps make discrete areas that players can explore without feeling overwhelming and makes it easier on me to add features.  For dungeons and the like, I typically make my maps in MapTool since that program has the option to export the map as a single image. Quite useful for putting down the base dungeon and objects that players likely won't interact with two much. Then in Roll20 I can add more detail as needed and since it's one big size image with a smaller overall memory footprint, instead of tons of little images, it loads easier.