Atlas, a World of Warcraft instance map browser
Copyright 2005 - 2010 Dan Gilbert
Copyright 2010 - Lothaer
Copyright 2011 ~ 2013 - Arith, Atlas Team



About Atlas

Atlas is an addon for World of Warcraft that includes detailed maps for every instance in the game. Originally, Blizzard neglected to include maps for instances. However, after a number of years Blizzard began to include official maps for some instances. These official maps are in the same hand-drawn style as the built-in world maps. Conversely, the Atlas maps are based on data used by the minimap, which provides a more detailed, accurate, and colorful representation. You can think of this as the difference between a street map and a satellite image.

The core of Atlas is basically an image viewer. However, it's the images that come with Atlas that make it worthwhile - a map for every instance in the game. Furthermore, while the built-in maps mark the locations of some major bosses, Atlas provides detailed and accurate information about all of the creatures, NPCs, objects, and events you'll encounter in each dungeon. General information about each zone is provided as well, including its location, level range, player limit, attenuation requirement, and associated faction. All entrances, exits, portals, and connections are labelled clearly. Because there are so many instances in the game, you can categorize them by type, level, number of players, continent, or expansion.

With Atlas installed and enabled, you will be able to view the instance maps every where, even you are not inside the instance.

After installing Atlas, you'll notice a new icon on the minimap that looks like part of a little globe (you can right-click the icon to drag it around the minimap's frame). Click this icon to open up the main Atlas window, which displays the maps and legend. You can alternatively use the slash-command "/atlas". The drop-downs at the top of the window enable you to navigate between the maps. You can also drag the Atlas window around the screen. Lock it in place with the little lock button in the upper-right corner.

At the bottom of the legend is a small text-entry field as well as Search and Reset buttons. Type part of a word or name in the box and click the Search button, and the legend's entries are reduced to only those that match your text. Note that the search is performed only on the entries for the current map, not all the entries in the database. While not so useful for instances with only a few entries like Ragefire Chasm, the search comes in handy when there are a ton of entries, like for Blackrock Depths or the AtlasMajorCities plug-in. If you want to get the whole list back, just click Reset.

Atlas also includes maps of scenarios, battlegrounds, dungeon locations, flight points, and outdoor raid bosses.


Before Installing

• Any previous versions of Atlas including Atlas' built-in plugins must be deleted prior to installation.
• Atlas plugins (AtlasLoot, AtlasQuest, etc.) designed for any version of Atlas prior to this one may need to be deleted as they may not be compatible.

How to Install

• Unzip the package into your World of Warcraft folder.
• Your zip software must preserve directory structures.
• If you're having trouble, please visit the Atlas FAQ:
• http://www.atlasmod.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=3

Configuration

Atlas has a few simple options, accessible from the Options button in the upper-right corner of the main window, or with the slash-command /atlas options. A few of the settings aren't very self-explanatory so here's some more information about them.

• "Auto-Select Instance Map" detects the instance that you're in when you open Atlas, and then automatically switches to the appropriate map. This feature doesn't work in instances that have more than one map, like Blackrock Spire, Dire Maul, or many of the Outland instances. In this case, Atlas remembers the last map you had open.
• "Right-Click for World Map" makes the World Map open when you right-click anywhere on the Atlas window. This is useful when you want to quickly switch from Atlas to the World Map.
• "Clamp Window to Screen" makes it so that you can't drag the Atlas window off the edge of the screen. The rest of the options are pretty straightforward. The Reset Position button is useful if the Atlas window ever gets dragged completely off-screen and you can't get it back.

Modules and Plugins

Due to the total size of our addon is increasing bigger and bigger since we are having more and more maps, we have heard many users complaining about the download issue, and suggested us to find some workaround.
We have discussed internally our final decision is to separate our built-in plugins into individual addon packages (also individual addon projects).

Also, we have moved out the old dungeon maps and re-categorized them based on the expansion set. For example, Burning Crusade dungeon maps are now only available in another addon package.

This provide the flexibility of addon downloading. Users who don't need any specific plugin or expansion dungeon maps can decide not to download them. Or, those plugins and old dungeon maps won't get frequently updated, therefore, users who have download all the Atlas addon packages don't need to download all the packages each time when there is a new release.

Links to All Addon Packages

• Atlas Cataclysm
• Atlas Wrath of the Lich King
• Atlas Burning Crusade
• Atlas Classic WoW
• Atlas Scenarios
• Atlas Battlegrounds
• Atlas Dungeon Locations
• Atlas Outdoor Raids
• Atlas Transportation

3rd Parties Atlas Plugins

Atlas has a built-in plugin system allowing for the easy addition of map packs. In fact, Atlas ships with four of these plugins (for battlegrounds, dungeon locations, flight points, and outdoor raid bosses). If you're interested in making your own Atlas map pack, I suggest you start with one of these four as a guide. You can contact me or post on the Atlas forums if you need help, however I suggest you do as much research as possible beforehand. Furthermore, there are several Atlas plugins that do more than simply provide additional maps.

• AtlasLoot provides a loot table for each boss
• AtlasQuest displays the quests associated with each instance.
• AtlasMajorCities displays each major cities and all the NPCs, merchants, vendors, trainers info.
• Atlas World Events - provide maps and quests information for WoW World Events. Maintained by Arith, not part of Atlas team's work.
• Atlas Arenas - provide arenas maps. Maintained by Arith, not part of Atlas team's work.

Integration

• LibDataBroker (LDB)
• Titan Panel
• myAddOns

Website

http://atlasmod.com/phpBB3/



Authors Team

• Arith - Project Manager
• Dynaletik - Co-author
• Deadca7 - Artist
• Resike - Co-author
• Lothaer - Co-author

License

Atlas is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
For the full license text please see: gpl-v2-enUS.txt




Localization

We are looking for volunteers to help on translating Atlas. Many of our previous translators now seldom play WoW. If you are interested in helping translating Atlas, please visit our forum: http://atlasmod.com/phpBB3/ or contact Lothaer to get some more details. Currently Atlas has been translated into following languages:

• German
• Spanish
• French
• Russian
• Simplified Chinese
• Traditional Chinese