Edit Interactive Maps

Presentation

Maps are organised as follows:

• Maps represent other Entities like Areas and Regions.

• Map Tiles and Map Images represent Maps. Maps can have multiple of them.

• Maps contain Map Features, such as points on the map.

• Map Features indicate the location of specific Entities, their target.

Create Maps

Follow these steps to create a simple map:

• Choose a game.

• Go to "Interactive Maps"

• Click "Create a map". It might be under the 3-dot dropdown.

• Provide a "Name" and "Image"

• Add the map.

This will create a Map with a Map Image. Map Images are single large images. For large maps greater than 1MB, you will want to use Map Tiles instead as they load faster.

Create Map Images

As described above, Map Images are single large images. To ensure your Map Images are optimised:

• If the map is pixel art or uses flat colours, use PNG. Otherwise use JPG.

• Make sure the map has a black background with no transparency.

• Use the map's native resolution. Do not make the map bigger or smaller than its original size. Users can zoom in as much as they want if they need a closer look.

Create Map Tiles

If you would like to create Map TIles contact an Admin and send over the image you want to convert.

Configure Coordinates

Coordinates use the follow axis:

• Longitude and X is the horizontal axis.

• Latitude and Y is the vertical axis.

By default, a map will use real world longitude and latitude coordinates for the map where:

• (-180,-180) is the south-west corner.

• (+180,+180) is north-east corner.

The default coordinate reference system (CRS) uses a globe-like projection, so the values on a straight line will be curved, not linear. This is fine for most maps as the specific values don't really matter as long as the map features are in the right place.

If a game has a known linear in-game coordinate system for its maps and you know its size and offsets, you can change FrontierNav's coordinate system to match.

• If it doesn't already exist, add a "CRS Size" number column to the "Map" table.

• Set the value for each map to the game's world size.

  • Use the width or height of the world, whichever is largest.

  • By default, north-east coordinates are positive. In games where north-east coordinates are negative, use a negative value to reverse the direction of the axis.

As an example, Tears of the Kingdom's full map images are 36000x36000, its mini-map images are 10800x10800. However both use the same 12000x12000 coordinate system, where (-6000,-6000) is south-west and (+6000,+6000) is north-east. So the CRS Size is 12000.

If a game's map does not centre on (0,0), you can apply an offset to match.

• If they don't already exist, add a "CRS Offset X" and "CRS Offset Y" number column to the "Map" table.

• Set their values for each map to match the game's coordinates.

Updating CRS for Existing Maps

Any CRS changes will automatically update all existing Map Feature coordinates assigned to the Map so that they remain in the same location. However it will not update coordinates for any existing map notes and links. To avoid this:

1. Create a new Map with the same CRS values as the old map.

2. Move all of the old maps Map Features to the new map.

3. Update the new maps CRS values.

4. Keep the old map so it can still be used by existing map notes and links with the old CRS values.

"Capital of Mysteria" has inverted coordinates and an offset centre. (CRS Size: -36000, CRS Offset X: 4070, CRS Offset Y: -740)

Create Map Features

RightClick anywhere on a Map to place a Custom Marker. From there, you can create a Map Feature and choose an Entity to target. The Target Entity will open when the Map Feature is clicked.

Customise Map Features

Point map features will use its target's Icon and Hue properties by default. When no Icon is available, it will use a plain coloured circle. To use an existing icon from a different property or relationship, change the target's type configuration. See Edit Sidebars.

To set an icon using the default configuration, create an "Icon" column with an "Attachment" type set to "Image" on the target table. Then upload icon images to the column.

Text map features

To show plain text instead of an icon, change the Map Feature's "Shape" property to "text" using Data Tables.

Currently only Point features are available. In the future other types of features like Lines, Polylines and Polygons will be made available.

Legacy Maps

The maps for Xenoblade X do not support editing from the Maps view as they are tailor-made. These will be migrated once community editable Maps are able to provide a similar user experience.