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 using the cd command followed by a space and then the path to the directory where you extracted WurmMapGen in step 2, e.g. cd C:/WurmMapGen
• 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