Forum & Map Updates

[isaac.retox]

Great to see that you got Tectonicus working.
I was testing it out a month ago and found that it would constantly have Java memory errors on larger worlds.

I'll have to look into again, maybe it was just my system.

I'm happy with either Tectonicus or MCmap. both have their pro's and cons.
I always liked the fact that we can render signs and players in Tectonicus as we can start to make a proper map with landmarks and the like.

(although I was looking forward to doing a stylized overlay in photoshop, but perhaps it's for the best I save myself that time sink)

[Thermal Ions]

Originally Posted by isaac.retox

Great to see that you got Tectonicus working.
I was testing it out a month ago and found that it would constantly have Java memory errors on larger worlds.

I've been getting that if I try for a too large a minimum render distance and/or too many zoom levels on the large creative world. Trying to find the combo that works best.

[Thermal Ions]

Map for the creative server uploaded with 4 zoom levels

TOG Minecraft Creative World Map - 3 March 2011 (376 MB)

Player Positions
To have your player added to the map when it's updated, then please post here and I'll add you to the whitelist used in rendering for the creative and survival maps (both unless you specify otherwise).

Signs
For your signs to appear on the map renders you will need to add a dash (-), exclaimation mark (!), tilde (~), or equal sign (=) as the first AND last character on your sign. This could be something like the following examples:

~ My House ~

      =
Spawn Village
      =

!     My     !
!    House   !

Note that these are being done offline at the moment, and require the server to be shutdown or have saving disabled while a snapshot is taken. They also take several hours to render on my local machine. Updates will be as I get the chance to do so at the moment - I can't promise a set schedule.

Player position updates can be more frequently as they don't take too long to do.

[Thermal Ions]

I've tweaked the map render settings added an additional 4 zoom levels to the creative world map, while reducing the map render time down to approx 3 hours (from 7 hours). Note that this is still based on the snapshot of the world from last week.

I'm currently 30% through downloading the world in its current state and will be regenerating up to date maps (both creative and survival) on the weekend. I'm set up to use a render cache and after this initial download and render upload will be able to sync changes only (semi-automated for the moment) so the whole process will be quicker. I'll also be migrating to having the maps on the TOG server so that the responsiveness should be improved.

Oh, btw, there's a few signs on the servers currently that both start and end with one of the special characters (- ~ ! =) and as such are being rendered on the maps (I've so far manually edited them out on the testing renders). If you have signs like these and don't want them displayed, could you please change them to say start or end with a space or something else. I'd prefer to not have to continually manually edit the output files on every render to remove them (I will do so for the next couple of weeks so secret stashes aren't immediately exposed however).

Also, if you want your character displayed on the map when it's rendered, then post / pm and I'll add your player name to the render whitelist.

[DaedalusAlpha]

I think it's hard to know if one have a sign that happen to have those characters (especially if one has a lot of signs). How about posting a list of them here? or if that's too complicated just let them render and if people see a sign of theirs they don't want on the map they can remove it then.

[Thermal Ions]

Maps are now uploaded onto TOG Minecraft Server - so should load a bit quicker now when zooming and panning around. I've added one common map page* which will link to the various map renders for all the servers that are hosted at any time. It's URL won't change regardless of where the maps themselves may be hosted.

http://tog.swoit.as/minecraft/

Currently the page links to renders run last night for Survival (day and night) and Creative (day). A creative night render is currently running and will be up most likely tonight.

For those interested, using the cache functionality for rendering, the survival maps render in about 20 mins and the creative maps in about an hour. More stats can be found by clicking on the spawn icon. Note that the date/time relates to when I've run the render locally, which will normally is based upon the previous night's server backup (around midnight I believe). Uploading them is taking longer than rendering them currently.

I've gone with Daedalus' suggestion and just displayed all signs matching the "special" criteria (see above posts). I've noted some people have added signs to display. Once again if you want your player position shown, then let me know and I can add you to the render whitelist.

*It's functional. I'll jazz it up and use a proper html editor later when I've a bit more time.

[Obsi]

lol I love the players being on the map - how cool... please add me

[Thermal Ions]

Originally Posted by Obsi

lol I love the players being on the map - how cool... please add me

Added and maps updated.

Interestingly there's some code in the render output that looks designed to also display your inventory when your player icon is clicked on. I'm unsure if it's left over from a failed implementation attempt or a not yet complete option. I should ask on the forum.

[Meteo]

Still learning a lot but have made some great progress already pestering the wise vets.
Feel free to add us to the player render list also. Cheers for the updates.

[Misnik]

Not sure how much space the maps are using up. If its not too big. Might suggest saving/linking some older ones on the site to get a glimpse of how the server grows.

And sure add me for players showing up