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Updated Quick Start Tutorial (markdown)
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# Quick Start Tutorial
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# Quick Start Tutorial
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## Introduction
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## Introduction
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_Fantasy Map Generator_ is a tool that creates highly customizable fantasy worlds for you. It runs in a browser and does not require any software installation. It’s free and you can use created maps for any purposes including commercial. You can even download the Generator and then run in a browser without Internet connection available.
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_Fantasy Map Generator_ is a tool that creates highly customizable fantasy worlds for you. It runs in a browser and does not require any software installation. It’s free and you can use created maps for any purposes including commercial. You can even download the Generator and then run in a browser without Internet connection available.
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The tool generates a new fantasy map on opening. The map is auto-generated, but it doesn’t mean that you cannot control the generation. To open the controls click on the arrow button at the top left corner on the screen or press Tab. You can either change the generation parameters and generate a new map, or edit the current map. You can also create a new map from scratch using paint brushes.
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The tool generates a new fantasy map on opening. The map is auto-generated, but it doesn’t mean that you cannot control the generation. To open the controls click on the arrow button at the top left corner on the screen or press Tab. You can either change the generation parameters and generate a new map, or edit the current map. You can also create a new map from scratch using paint brushes.
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## Moving around
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## Moving around
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@ -13,7 +15,8 @@ The map is getting generated in a default zoom so that all the map area is displ
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The same operations can be performed using keyboard. Press <kbd>+</kbd> to zoom in, <kbd>-</kbd> to zoom out. Use <kbd>1</kbd>-<kbd>9</kbd> number keys to set an exact zoom level. Press <kbd>0</kbd> to reset zoom to default. Use arrows keys to move around.
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The same operations can be performed using keyboard. Press <kbd>+</kbd> to zoom in, <kbd>-</kbd> to zoom out. Use <kbd>1</kbd>-<kbd>9</kbd> number keys to set an exact zoom level. Press <kbd>0</kbd> to reset zoom to default. Use arrows keys to move around.
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## Map layers
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## Map layers
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By default the map shows the world’s political situation, but it’s not the only available preset. Open the first tab of the menu – _Style_ – to change the preset. _Preset_ is a set of different map layers being toggled on. There are 5 presets available for selection: political map, cultural map, heightmap, biomes map and the pure landmass view. You can either select one of the presets or use buttons below to display or hide a particular label.
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By default the map shows the world’s political situation, but it’s not the only available preset. Open the first tab of the menu – _Style_ – to change the preset. _Preset_ is a set of different map layers being toggled on. There are 5 presets available for selection: political map, cultural map, heightmap, biomes map and the pure landmass view. You can either select one of the presets or use buttons below to display or hide a particular label.
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@ -25,6 +28,7 @@ Some layers are sort of a background and may not be visible if upper layer is to
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There are cases when you may want to see multiple background layers simultaneously. The only way you can do it is to make the upper layer partially transparent. Choose the required layer from the _Select element_ drop-down list and change the opacity slider.
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There are cases when you may want to see multiple background layers simultaneously. The only way you can do it is to make the upper layer partially transparent. Choose the required layer from the _Select element_ drop-down list and change the opacity slider.
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The same approach is used for styling all the map elements. For example if you want to change the color of state borders, select _Borders_ element and click on color box to set a new color. Here you can also change the borders stroke width, its style and apply a visual filter. Different map elements have different styling controls.
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The same approach is used for styling all the map elements. For example if you want to change the color of state borders, select _Borders_ element and click on color box to set a new color. Here you can also change the borders stroke width, its style and apply a visual filter. Different map elements have different styling controls.
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Using the section below the styling drop-down you can apply a filter to the whole map.
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Using the section below the styling drop-down you can apply a filter to the whole map.
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* _Save as .map_. It is an internal file format that stores all the map data including your manual changes. It can be them loaded directly into the Generator and used to proceed with the map creation. I highly recommend saving the map you are working on at least every 30 minutes. The generator is still in beta and critical error with data loss or even browser crash may happen.
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* _Save as .map_. It is an internal file format that stores all the map data including your manual changes. It can be them loaded directly into the Generator and used to proceed with the map creation. I highly recommend saving the map you are working on at least every 30 minutes. The generator is still in beta and critical error with data loss or even browser crash may happen.
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* _Save as .png_. It makes a screenshot of the currently displayed map fragment. Just an image and nothing more. The png resolution can be set in the _Options_ tab. By default it is 5x of the map size. Saved file can be opened and edited in any image editor.
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* _Save as .png_. It makes a screenshot of the currently displayed map fragment. Just an image and nothing more. The png resolution can be set in the _Options_ tab. By default it is 5x of the map size. Saved file can be opened and edited in any image editor.
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* _Save as .svg_. It is a vector image that can be rescaled to any size without quality loss. The Generator naturally renders maps in svg, so there is no conversion and hence saving as svg is better than saving as png. To just open and view a saved file I recommend using your browser, not a vector images editor. To edit the file you need special software – the most common are _Inkscape_ (free) and _Illustrator_ (proprietary).
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* _Save as .svg_. It is a vector image that can be rescaled to any size without quality loss. The Generator naturally renders maps in svg, so there is no conversion and hence saving as svg is better than saving as png. To just open and view a saved file I recommend using your browser, not a vector images editor. To edit the file you need special software – the most common are _Inkscape_ (free) and _Illustrator_ (proprietary).
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Please note all these 3 options use popups for saving. So please allow browser to show popups for the site and ensure they are not blocked by _adBlocker_. Please don’t worry, there is no ad on the site.
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Please note all these 3 options use popups for saving. So please allow browser to show popups for the site and ensure they are not blocked by _adBlocker_. Please don’t worry, there is no ad on the site.
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## Generation and UI settings
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## Generation and UI settings
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Let’s move to the settings overview. Open the menu and open the _Options_ tab. There are multiple options split into 2 categories: map generation and user interface. Map generation options require a new map generation to be applied. UI options are getting applied immediately on change.
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Let’s move to the settings overview. Open the menu and open the _Options_ tab. There are multiple options split into 2 categories: map generation and user interface. Map generation options require a new map generation to be applied. UI options are getting applied immediately on change.
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* _Map size_: the size of the map canvas. By default the map size is a browser window size, but it can be changed to any value. The button on the right expands the size back to the window size. Please note that size the map was generated with cannot be changed later
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* _Map size_: the size of the map canvas. By default the map size is a browser window size, but it can be changed to any value. The button on the right expands the size back to the window size. Please note that size the map was generated with cannot be changed later
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@ -82,6 +88,7 @@ The _precipitation_ value defines how much vapor can clouds bring and spread acr
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## Heightmap editing
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## Heightmap editing
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If you don’t like the heightmap generated automatically, you may edit it or even create a new one from the scratch. Open the _Tools_ tab in the menu and click on _Heightmap_. Now you need to select an edit mode. All secondary data like rivers, burgs and state depend on the height values, so changing the height manually will break the default generation logic. So the best practice here is to use the _Erase_ mode, create the heightmap you want and let the system to re-generate the secondary data based on a current heightmap. It will remove all the changes made for burgs rivers and so on, but it will guarantee the smooth generation.
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If you don’t like the heightmap generated automatically, you may edit it or even create a new one from the scratch. Open the _Tools_ tab in the menu and click on _Heightmap_. Now you need to select an edit mode. All secondary data like rivers, burgs and state depend on the height values, so changing the height manually will break the default generation logic. So the best practice here is to use the _Erase_ mode, create the heightmap you want and let the system to re-generate the secondary data based on a current heightmap. It will remove all the changes made for burgs rivers and so on, but it will guarantee the smooth generation.
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If you want to perform just a minor change, you need to select the _Keep_ mode. You won’t be able to change the coastline, but all the data, including manually placed relief icons and rivers, will be kept as is. So it’s more like a visual change without changing the basic data. This mode is also safe.
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If you want to perform just a minor change, you need to select the _Keep_ mode. You won’t be able to change the coastline, but all the data, including manually placed relief icons and rivers, will be kept as is. So it’s more like a visual change without changing the basic data. This mode is also safe.
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If you have manually edited data and still need to change the coastline, you may use the _Risk_ mode. As the title says, it’s not safe and can cause some issues. So please use this mode only if you really need.
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If you have manually edited data and still need to change the coastline, you may use the _Risk_ mode. As the title says, it’s not safe and can cause some issues. So please use this mode only if you really need.
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Heightmap editing process has multiple build-in tools. These tools won’t be covered in this tutorial, just note that they allow you to use brushes to “paint” the map, to edit and apply heightmap template and to convert any image into a heightmap.
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Heightmap editing process has multiple build-in tools. These tools won’t be covered in this tutorial, just note that they allow you to use brushes to “paint” the map, to edit and apply heightmap template and to convert any image into a heightmap.
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## Customization tools
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## Customization tools
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The last section, which in collapsed by default, provides some info about the hovered map cell.
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The last section, which in collapsed by default, provides some info about the hovered map cell.
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## Editing map elements (labels, rivers, roads etc.)
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## Editing map elements (labels, rivers, roads etc.)
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Individual map elements such as rivers, routes, relief icons, labels, burgs and labels can be edited on mouse click. The editor screen that is getting opened is different for each element and it’s also out of this tutorial coverage.
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Individual map elements such as rivers, routes, relief icons, labels, burgs and labels can be edited on mouse click. The editor screen that is getting opened is different for each element and it’s also out of this tutorial coverage.
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## Points of contact
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## Points of contact
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