Map build size/details max for smooth play?

Starting a new campaign build, so I'm creating my new maps. What is your experience of map building that allows for seemless streaming but maxing out your maps? I want to know how big I can build maps and what detail to limit so that my players are not running into lag issues or anything else like that.

Unfortunately, a lot of this will depend on the hardware your players use, the quality of their internet service, etc. A couple things that you might keep in mind: 1: Webgl has a hard limit of what pixel dimensions can be rendered on your hardware.&nbsp; Most modern hardware can render images that are up to a little over 16k pixels in either dimension, but older/simpler hardware will cap at just over 8k pixels.&nbsp; If you exceed the number of pixels their hardware can render (in height or width, it only takes one), then it simply won't be rendered on their machine.&nbsp; Also, the closer you push to the limit, expect there to be more of a performance hit.&nbsp; You can find out the limits of hardware (yours and your players) by visiting this page and checking out the "Max Texture Size":&nbsp; <a href="https://webglreport.com/?v=2" rel="nofollow">https://webglreport.com/?v=2</a> 2: Another bottleneck can be bandwidth and/or processing power.&nbsp; If you have someone on poor internet service (possibly with old hardware as well), or anyone running on a wireless machine with too many devices in their home using that wireless router bandwidth, then you might have loading issues with maps.&nbsp; While the person I learned that particular lesson with has since moved to a place with better service, I still make my maps so that the initial jpg file that I upload is no larger than 2-2.5 mb.&nbsp; Any larger than that, and it would take multiple reloads for him to see the image, or he would be looking at a blank map of whatever color I set the background for the map page with whatever dynamic lighting lines/sources I had set up.&nbsp; I do sometimes go over that, but only for maps that I don't intend to have lighting or possibly even tokens on, like regional or world maps.&nbsp; Just because you can upload up to a 10mb image doesn't necessarily mean all your players will be able to load it, unfortunately.&nbsp; So watch your image (data) size.&nbsp; Those 2 things are all that come to mind for me.

Some things: 1) If you are using Explorer Mode (EM), it puts a very large strain on some computers. Smaller maps are better for EM. 2) If you are using Dynamic Lighting (DL), it requires more resources than Fog of War (FoW). The number of light sources and DL calculations will have a very large effect on this.&nbsp; So a large map with a large number of light sources and DL capable NPCs will slow down more than a smaller map with fewer light sources etc.&nbsp; 3) Even without EM or DL, if you have a large map with a huge number of tokens on it that can also slow things down. Roll20 recommends limiting map size to 100x100 squares.&nbsp; Ultimately it will all depend on your players and their machines and connections, as Kraynic stated. You might poll your players for who has the worst machine, run some test maps with that person to see what flows and what chugs.&nbsp;

If for some reason, you need to use very large maps, you can increase performance and decrease perceived loading time by slicing a single large map into multiple pieces and assembling them on-screen. If you can slice them up so that their grid lines are at 70 or 140 pixels, they'll snap for easy placement. It basically requires less work from the server if you are zooming into one section of a map—it only has to send the image that is in the view area.

I'd say up around 260x200 squares or so is cool, using Fog Of War (not Dynamic Lighting).&nbsp;

keithcurtis said: If for some reason, you need to use very large maps, you can increase performance and decrease perceived loading time by slicing a single large map into multiple pieces and assembling them on-screen. I've done this before and it really does help.

If you split a map into slices, a good followup is to output an extremely low-resolution copy of the entire map (100px across is fine) and place it behind the slices, sized to fit the overall area. This does two things: It will likely load first, giving the player an indication that a full-resolution map is still loading. Being the largest image on the page, it will provide the thumbnail in the Page Menu, where its low resolution will not be an issue. Otherwise, only one of the slices would be used.

I tried turning on FoW (instead of using Dynamic Lighting), but the map continued to stay black no matter what lighting setting I used for the character tokens. Tried night vision, bright light, dim light auras but still nothing would illuminate the map with FoW on. So how can I use FoW to minimize the loading impact of my maps if no one can see anything?

Fenric said: I tried turning on FoW (instead of using Dynamic Lighting), but the map continued to stay black no matter what lighting setting I used for the character tokens. Tried night vision, bright light, dim light auras but still nothing would illuminate the map with FoW on. So how can I use FoW to minimize the loading impact of my maps if no one can see anything? With fog of war, you have to manually reveal whatever parts of the map you want players to see. <a href="https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/360037774513-Fog-of-War#FogofWar-Revealing/HidingAreas" rel="nofollow">https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/360037774513-Fog-of-War#FogofWar-Revealing/HidingAreas</a>

Fenric said: Starting a new campaign build, so I'm creating my new maps. What is your experience of map building that allows for seemless streaming but maxing out your maps? I want to know how big I can build maps and what detail to limit so that my players are not running into lag issues or anything else like that. Use as small of maps and as few of resources as possible for the best performance.&nbsp; Avoid any kind of animations - Roll20 really seems to struggle with them.&nbsp; Don't use Explorer mode.&nbsp; When using Dynamic Lighting make sure to only use straight lines and don't get too fancy. All in all, think of Roll20's VTT as an old used car.&nbsp; It will get you from point A to B and will do so affordably but its not going to look great and don't put too much stress on it or expect it to break down. -Adam