07c. Mini-Map Area, View Options, & Layers Drawer Controls

Overview

These three areas are normally on the top right sidebar once you have a map created/open. The Mini-map area is always shown at the very top, while the View Options and Layers areas are drawers where only one drawer is open at a time.  You can make all of these as floating dialogs with the “Use Toolboxes” checkbox in the right side of the menu bar and the buttons next to it.

Mini-Map Area

The mini-map area’s main feature is a small version of your map with a rectangle inside showing you the area you’re viewing. It also has some tile sizing controls:

The mini-map area.
The mini-map area.

Mini-Map

A small view of the current map.  The greenish rectangle is the section of the map your main map view is displaying. You can click and drag the rectangle to move the main map’s view.

Pan Button

When selected, you can click and drag the main map to move the map around.

Refresh

Refreshes the mini-map view in case you’ve made significant changes and it hasn’t refreshed yet.  By default, it refreshes multiple times a minute.

Level Drop-Down List

For world/kingdom maps only (and if you have the pro version of Worldographer for world/kingdom maps) this allows you to jump to a new version of the same map with many more or fewer hexes per hex in the current hex.  See the Map Levels section on the Creating World/Kingdom maps page for details.

Hex Width (to be renamed Tile Width) & Height

The width and height of each individual hex or square on the map in pixels.  Change these to zoom in or out.  (You can also use the plus/minus buttons described below or the scroll wheel on your mouse as you hover over the main map.)

Plus/Minus Buttons

The Plus button zooms in on the map by 50%.  (If the tiles’ width is 40, it will become 60.) The minus button zooms out by 25%. (If the tiles’ width is 60, it will become 45.)  The system keeps the map view centered.

Preserve Aspect Ratio Checkbox

If checked, when you change the Hex Width & Height, the other value will change proportionally.

Memory Usage

This widget shows how much memory Worldographer is using as well as how much is currently allocated and the total it can allocate according to its settings and your computer. These values are all in Megabytes, so a Max of 4096 in the screenshot above is equal to 4 Gigabytes of memory.

  • Max: The maximum memory Worldographer is allowed to allocate according to its settings and/or your computer. (If using the Windows or Mac OSX native builds, this is 75-80% of your computer’s memory. If using the Java version, this depends on the command line option you chose.)
  • Total: How much memory Worldographer currently has allocated.
  • Free: Of the total allocated (the prior bullet here), how much is available/open to create new objects/data.
  • Progress Bar: (Total-Free)/Max.

View Options Drawer

This drawer consolidates a number of settings that impact the view of your map. It looks something like this:

View Options drawer.
View Options drawer.

Add/Edit/View Note

If selected, any notes on the map will appear as small squares (by default yellow, but the color can be changed on the Notes dialog. Notes are auto-generated for settlement buildings when placed on the map and when you click the “Notes of Selected” button on the Features drawer for some common world/kingdom features such as a city, village, castle, fort, etc.  But you can also add a note anywhere on the map you wish with this button.  (If a note isn’t where you click on the map, a new note will be added when the Note dialog is saved.) The notes dialog is briefly described here:

A Store's Note Dialog.
A Store’s Note Dialog.

Note Dialog

  • Title Field: Enter a title for this note.  It could be the store name, city name, etc.
  • Color: The color for the small note square placed on the map.  (These can be turned off when viewing the map with the Show Notes checkbox listed below.)
  • File: You can associate a file with this feature.  It can be a picture of the building/feature, a spreadsheet of a store’s inventory, a link to another Worldographer map of the city’s layout or building’s floorplan, or any file on your computer.)
  • Tabs (Details, Potions, Staff): Some tabs are text editor areas (as shown here) and others are mini spreadsheets for product lists & prices, details about residents or store staff or tavern customers, etc. Click a tab to see the related data.)
  • Text Editor: A simplified word processor.  Enter text for your note here.  Use the controls to make it look prettier (font, size, bold, bullets, etc.
  • Regenerate Details Button: For a feature where the system can randomly generate the data (most settlement buildings, as well as some world/kingdom features such as cities, villages, castles, ruins, etc.) click this button to regenerate the data. Note: this will wipe out all prior note data for this feature, not just the selected tab.
  • Close: Closes the dialog without saving
  • Save: Saves and closes the dialog.

Show Notes Checkbox & Filter

If selected, any notes will appear on the map as small squares, by default yellow in color, but the color of each can be changed in the Note Dialog above. The filter text field allows you to filter which notes are shown on the map. This is a great way to find all the buildings of a given type on the map. Type “Smith” and only your smiths will show. (Note: Armorers may not show unless named Armorsmiths.)

Show GM Only Items Checkbox

If selected, any GM Only items will be shown even if GM Only is set to true.  This is a good way to briefly check the map: Hide it from your players, toggle this on, check the location of the dungeon or how large the next room is or whatever, then toggle this off, then show the map to your players again.  For more on Worldographer’s Fog of War feature, go to that section on the Fog of War/Explore & Trace Underaly instructions page.

Add Red Glow to GM Only Items Checkbox

To help a GM see which map object have GM Only on, toggle this on (when the players can’t see the map).

Show Feature Labels Checkbox

Features can have labels associated with them.  See the Features drawer instructions for details to set them up. However, they can clutter a map.  Turn them on or off depending on if you want to see them via this checkbox.

Hide Objs w/Tags

Shapes, features, and labels can all have tags added to them.  For example, you could set map borders as “politiical” and geographic features as “geographic” and roads as “infrastructure”.  Once that prep work is done, you can then hide any objects with a given tag by entering that tag here.

Show Objs w/Tags

Entering any value here will hide all tagged map object except for those that have the tag you enter in this field.

Show Grid Checkbox and Gear Button

If selected, the map’s grid will display.  The Gear button opens a dialog to let you configure the grid.  See the Configuration Windows page for an explanation of it

Show Numbering Checkbox and Gear Button

If selected, numbers will appear in each tile. The Gear button opens a dialog to let you configure the numbering scheme.  See the Configuration Windows page for an explanation of it

Layers Drawer

The Layers Drawer allows you to configure which map features appear above or below others. You can also turn them on or off to hide groups of features. To assign a feature, shape, or label to a specific map layer, look for the “Layer” control on the matching drawer (ex: the Features drawer for a feature). Select the map object, then use that Layer control to move it to the layer you want to use.

Here is what the Layers Drawer looks like:

The Layers Drawer.
The Layers Drawer.

Add Above Selected

This button adds a new layer above whichever layer is currently selected. It will prompt you for a name of the new layer.  If no layer is selected, the new layer appears at the top of the list.

Remove Selected

Removes the selected layer from the list and from the layers of this map, after prompting you for confirmation.  Note: Any map objects on that layer are also deleted.

Checkboxes

Turn layers on or off (don’t display them) via these checkboxes.

Reorder Layers

You can click and drag a layer in the list to reorder it.