Step by step guide to set up WurmMapGen

This guide focuses on Windows, but should be similar for other platforms.

Preparations

Download and install the Java runtime if you don't have Java installed yet

Step 1: The server

To view the generated map files, you need a web server to serve them. The most widely used web server software is Apache.

For desktop systems, the easiest way to get an Apache server is to install XAMPP.

• Download and install XAMPP
• Start the XAMPP Control Panel from the start menu and click on the button "Explorer" to the right, this will open the XAMPP install directory
• Go to the htdocs directory
• Create a new directory for your map files (e.g. wurmmapgen)
• Make note of the path to this directory, you'll need this later to configure the save location for WurmMapGen
  • Example:
    • If you installed XAMPP at C:/Program Files/xampp
    • And you created the directory wurmmapgen
    • Then your save location will be C:/Program Files/xampp/htdocs/wurmmapgen

Notes

You're free to use any other server software, the only thing it needs to be able to do is serve static HTML files. Our favourite server software is Caddy, although it is somewhat more difficult to set up for non-technical users, so use XAMPP if you're unsure.

Exception: If you use WurmWebRMI you'll also need to be able to run PHP, and so an Apache+PHP server is probably the easiest to get up and running.

Step 2: The JAR

Now we're ready to actually configure the map generator

• Get the latest version from the releases page
• Extract the downloaded zip archive to a directory of your choice. It doesn't actually matter to the program where it's located on your hard drive, so place it somewhere that makes sense to you (e.g. C:/WurmMapGen). It should not go inside your XAMPP directory or inside your Wurm Unlimited server directory. Make note of the directory where you extracted it to, because you'll need to refer back to it later.
  • On Windows 10, you can extract the archive by right-clicking it and selecting "Extract all..."
• In this directory, you should now have the files WurmMapGen.jar, WurmMapGen.properties and a directory template.
  • If you don't see the file extensions (.jar, .properties) disable hiding extensions in the settings
    • File > Change folder and search options > tab View > disable hide extensions for known file types
• Open WurmMapGen.properties in a text editor (e.g. notepad). Don't open it in Word or any "rich text" editor.
• In this file, you'll find blocks of explanation about each setting (lines starting with #), followed by the actual settings. Most settings can be left on the default value (and can be experimented with later), but there are a few that you need to change in order for the application to work.
  • Find the setting wurmMapLocation and change it to the directory of your Wurm Unlimited map.
    • Example:
      • If your WU server is installed at C:/Program Files/steamapps/common/Wurm Unlimited Dedicated Server
      • And you're using the standard Creative map
      • Then you would set this setting to wurmMapLocation=C:/Program Files/steamapps/common/Wurm Unlimited Dedicated Server/Creative
  • Next, find the setting saveLocation and change it to the directory you created in step 1 (e.g. saveLocation=C:/Program Files/xampp/htdocs/wurmmapgen)

Notes

When you copy the path to a directory in Windows, it will use backslashes (\) between directories. The Java config files expect you to use forward slashes (/) in your paths, so you should make sure to replace all \ in your paths with /.

Step 3: Running the map generator

To run a .jar file with Java, you need to start it from the command prompt.

• Open command prompt (also called terminal on some operating systems)
• Navigate to the WurmMapGen directory by entering cd followed by a space and the path to the directory where you extracted WurmMapGen in step 2 (e.g. cd C:/WurmMapGen), and then pressing enter,
• Tell Java to run the .jar file with the following command: java -jar WurmMapGen.jar
• It will display a bunch of output telling you what is happening. Once the application says something like "Map generated in __ms", it means your map has been generated.
  • I've tried to make error messages clear and simple, if something is wrong it will often tell you what the problem is. If it's not clear or you still can't get it working, ask for help in the thread on the Wurm forums, or create an issue on Github.

Step 4: Viewing the map

After the map has been generated, you should be able to view it.

• Check the directory you created in step 1 in your XAMPP htdocs, to verify that the map generator created a bunch of directories and an index.html file there
• Start the XAMPP server by opening the XAMPP control panel from the start menu, and clicking "start" next to the Apache module (it is possible that it will start automatically when you open the XAMPP control panel)
• Open your webbrowser and navigate to http://localhost/[directory] (replace [directory] with the name of your directory in htdocs, e.g. http://localhost/wurmmapgen)
• You should be able to see and use the interactive map

Step 5: Sharing the map

If you're playing solo, you're already done! But you probably play together with others, and you want to give them access to your interactive map.

Local server (LAN)

If you're just playing locally, and the other players are all on the same network as you, they can simply load the files served by your XAMPP server via your IP.

• Open the command prompt from the start menu
• Type ipconfig and press enter
• You'll see some output about your internet connection. Find the line that starts with IPv4 Address
• At the end of the dots there should be an IP address listed, formatted something like 192.168.x.xxx (IP addresses on LAN normally always start with 192.168).
• Copy this IP address and send it to your friends
• They can now visit your XAMPP server by opening their browser and navigating to http://[your IP address]/[directory] (the same address as before, but with your IP address instead of localhost).

Public server

If you run a local WU server that's exposed to the internet, I'll assume you know about port forwarding etc. Simply expose your XAMPP server (port 80 by default) in the same way.

If you run a dedicated server (i.e. you don't run the server on your own computer), things get a bit more complicated, and that's beyond the scope of this guide as there are just too many variables to account for. High-level: either you can install Apache server on your vps and run the map generator directly on that machine, or you'll have to use something like rsync to copy the map files to a different machine and run Apache & the map generator there. However, this is not advised for non-technical users.