Overlay limits?

[MrFreeze]

Hi,
I started to play with the overlay system (btw it's so easy to do!) and I have a question, what are the limits (size, dimension etc) of 1 overlay? thank you

[ColonelMolerat]

Hi,
I've been experimenting with overlays too. So far, I've made an overlay the size of the entire United Kingdom, right down to one as detailed as a single street. You just have to lower the detail level as you zoom out.

I *think* I usually use between detail level 8 (minimum zoom) and 20 (maximum zoom).

As a rule of thumb - when you generate the map from GMap, there's a progress bar showing how many tiles(?) done out of how many total. The higher detail and lower zoom, the higher the total number. I usually try to stick with a limit of about 150. (Eg the bar will show a progress of x/150). This is a nice compromise of rendering speed and detail, but I have gone higher and lower with no problems.

If an overlay doesn't appear on the map (you'll notice there is no pause when it loads into CMANO, either), lower the detail if you want an area of that size and try again.

One final thing - the larger the area, the less accurate a fit you'll get at the edges (an artefact, I believe, of putting a flattened map onto a globe). You can tweak its exact position by changing lines 5 and 6 (the latitude/longitude) in the .pgw file, but if you want a perfect fit it's usually better to split the area into smaller sections, and import those as separate overlays.

I've been rambling, so if you need clarification on anything, just ask!