Dynmap

From This Land Minecraft Server
A typical view upon loading the Dynmap page in your browser. Unexplored areas remain black.

Dynmap is a server plugin which generates an interactive, live-updating map of This Land as a webpage, not unlike Google Maps. Click here to visit ours.

Understanding and using the map[edit]

On loading the page, the main area is filled with a large bird's-eye view map of the world. The colours on the map are intuitive representations of the blocks visible on the surface (blue = water, green = grass, etc), and shading displays the contours of the surface. Black marks areas of the map which haven't been generated (i.e. no player has been there). A globe icon marks the global spawn point for the map. The world border (edge of the world) is marked in red.

Players who are online (and not hidden) are shown on the map with an icon of their in-game skin's head. These are also labelled with their IGN and their current health and armour bars.

The scroll wheel zooms in and out of the map. Click and drag to move around.

Accessing the tools[edit]

Overlaid on the map are several sets of controls and information.

Navigation tools (top left)[edit]

The top left tools on the Dynmap.

There are three tools toward the top left of the screen. Top to bottom:

  • Zoom buttons: + to zoom in, - to zoom out.
  • Layers: An icon of three sheets. When hovered over, this displays two checkboxes that are checked by default, plus any sets that have been added:
    • Players: controls whether online players' positions are shown on the map.
    • Markers: controls whether the central spawn point (globe icon), player-added markers and the red world border are shown on the map.
  • Location: Shows the current co-ordinates that the mouse cursor is hovering over on the map (xxx,yyy,zzz).

Clock (top centre)[edit]

A clock showing the time as 19:30 in-game, with the moon rising, the sun almost completely set, and the sky clear to show the moon on the right.
The in-game time is represented with moving sun/moon icons, and in numbers. The large moon or sun icon to the right of this shows the current weather (clouds, rain, etc).

Compass (top right)[edit]

A compass rose shows the in-game directions.

Communication and connectivity (bottom left)[edit]

In the lower left corner is a small chain-link icon button:

Click this to generate a direct URL link for the exact current view of the map, including exact location, whether it's 2D/3D, and how far you are zoomed in. This is very useful for showing someone a particular location on the map.

For example, here is a link to the isometric/3D/"surface" view of Spawn Island:

Players and map types (sidebar)[edit]

Here's the tray with one player logged in. It covers the compass rose when it pops out. The overhead view of the world is currently in use, and that icon is highlighted.

Along the right edge of the page is a semi-transparent black bar with an arrow on it halfway down. When you hover, a very useful tray slides out.

The sidebar contains two sections:

  • Map Types: allows you to switch the map between different views and different worlds, by clicking on the small icons. The overhead view of the world is shown by default.
    • World: A map of the overworld. The icon on the left is the overhead (flat) view. The icon in the middle is an isometric (3D) view of the surface. The icon on the right is an isometric view of the caves below the surface.
    • World_nether: A map of the Nether. The icon is for the flat view. (We removed the isometic view because it's too confusing for the Nether!)
    • World_the_end: A map of the End. As above, the icon on the left is an overhead view, and the right is an isometric view.
  • Players: Shows a list of all players currently online (and not hidden).
    • Clicking on a player's name in this list will navigate to them on the map.
    • Clicking on a player's head in this list will navigate to them on the map, and your map view will "follow" them as they move in-game.

Hiding your location[edit]

You can choose to hide yourself from dynmap, so that you are not visible on the map when you're online. (You will still be visible in the game, and your name will show in the tab-list as normal)

To do this, type /dynmap hide. To reverse it, type /dynmap show.

Markers[edit]

You can add a marker (icon and text label) to the Dynmap to mark your base or tell people about interesting stuff.

Add a simple marker[edit]

The only way for non-mod players to add a marker is to place a freestanding sign with some easy code on it, and if you destroy the sign the marker will be removed from the Dynmap. We strongly recommend protecting the sign with GriefPrevention, so that other people can't remove your markers.

Place a freestanding sign, and then:

  1. [dynmap] You must type "dynmap" in square brackets on the first/top line of the sign, like this: [dynmap] (If your marker works, that won't be visible once the sign is placed.)
  2. The text label. This will be the visible text next to the marker icon on the Dynmap in browser. Labels can only contain letters A-Z, no spaces or symbols allowed - if you include a space or an apostrophe or something, the marker won't show on the Dynmap at all. Signs can accommodate about 15 characters per line. So something like this would be fine: Cass_JungleVlge.
  3. set:??? (Optional.) By default, Dynmap markers go into the "Markers" set. To put a marker in another set (such as "Portals"), type set:set_name on another line, e.g. set:Portals (More on sets below.)
  4. icon:??? (Optional.) By default, Dynmap icons look like signs on the map. To change that, type icon:icon_name on a third line. E.g. icon:heart (You can see the icons and their names below.)

Which means when you're typing on your sign it should look something like this:

[dynmap]
Cass_JungleVlge

Or:

[dynmap]
Cass_JungleVlge
icon:heart
set:Portals

Add a Nether Network portal marker[edit]

To easily add a Nether Network portal to the Dynmap, place two signs - one next to the portal in the nether, and one next to the portal in the overworld. Remember - no spaces or numbers or symbols, letters only, and it's case sensitive. You should use the icon "portal" and put it in the set "Portals", so your four rows on the sign should look like this:

[dynmap]
CassiansBase
icon:portal
set:Portals

Remove a marker[edit]

To delete a marker from the in-browser Dynmap, break the corresponding sign in-game.

Sets[edit]

  • Markers - default
  • Portals - icon:portal is recommended when adding to this set!

If you don't specify a set when creating a marker it is added to "Markers".

If you'd like a set to be added, contact Cassolotl and ask them to do it. Please note that sets cannot contain spaces and are case-sensitive. Tell Cassolotl whether you'd like the set to be visible or invisible by default.

Icons[edit]

Default icons:

  • Command: Cute house
  • Sign: Wooden signpost

You can change the icon associated with a marker by typing icon:[icon] on your sign or in your command, e.g. icon:skull

Here are the available icons and their labels:

To see the most up-to-date information about using icons in Dynmap, click here.

Commands (mods only)[edit]

Mods and the Admin can use commands to add Dynmap markers without signs.

See names for icons here (scroll down a bit). See a full list of commands (some of which appear to not work) here.

  • /dmarker add <label> icon:<icon> set:<set-id> (If you omit set:<set-id>, it defaults it to the "markers" set.)
  • /dmarker addset <label>

Please note that the label cannot contain spaces! If you put spaces in, it will only use the first word in your label. Labels are also case-sensitive.

To remove a marker:

  • /dmarker delete <marker-label> set:<markerset-id>
  • /dmarker delete id:<marker-id> set:<markerset-id>

See all commands here.

External links[edit]