Large Maps

Hey guys i am currently working on a city for one of my campaigns using a 260x200 map, the website its self warns against using big maps but how have you guys found using them ? It seems to work perfectly just needing the odd refresh when i am adding stuff but my computer and net isn't great in the first place so that is to be expected.

The warning came about due to large maps causing severe lag or locking up browsers of users that have older systems. The 100 units x 100 units (I think that is the size) map size is the warning trigger. You can still build bigger maps than that but it is usually at your own and your player's risk of crashing the game to the point of requiring a dev'shelp

Make it much smaller and drop the grid much smaller. So maybe make it 52 Units x 40 Units. Then set your grid to 0.2 Units.  That way you get 260x200 grid squares but you're using a 52x40 map.

Thanks for the advice guys i guess ill break it down too 11 smaller pieces can't really make the grid smaller already have it pretty low and would hate to loose the detail !

Andrew (Halfling Gypsy) said: Make it much smaller and drop the grid much smaller. So maybe make it 52 Units x 40 Units. Then set your grid to 0.2 Units.  That way you get 260x200 grid squares but you're using a 52x40 map. So the size constraint is the number of units, not the pixel dimensions of the map? I had always assumed it was a file size issue, not a programmatic one.

keithcurtis said: So the size constraint is the number of units, not the pixel dimensions of the map? Correct.

Started breaking down the map and was having problems with tiles going blank when zooming in ? Which was my main worry in the larger map and is fixed with a simple page refresh i assume this would be caused by poor internet speed ?

If you are using tiles to create the large map, try uploading the tile set to your PC, then open Gimp or Photoshop and create the map in that program. I know PS has a snap to grid feature, set your grid to be 140x140px (so do the math to create the file size first, 200x200 multiplied by 140 should be your size then create grid layout to 200x200 and each square grid should line up to 140x140px- thus lining up in Roll20 perfectly to its grid system). Once you create your entire map, merge all layers together and cut them into chunks (25x25 grid units is a good safe size- so 3500x3500px is being uploaded at a time). Once you start cutting pieces, create a new file at the 25x25 (3500x3500px) size then save that file. That's the file you'll be uploading back in to Roll20. Now your server will be loading in 16 pieces of a map when you load in to the game as opposed to 100s even 1000s of smaller pieces. That reduce the lag and loading time of your large map for you and all players on that server. Hope this helps!