u/numma_cway — reddlx

▲ 32 r/GuildWars

Update - 19 August 2026

Fixed a client crash related to playing certain cinematics. -> No, they did not fix this. Both Sunjiang and Kodonur (if pressing a button before the start) crash with the same assertion.
Fixed an issue where some parts of the map just past the edge of mission boundaries were not revealable. -> This works.

/Edit: As expected, the end-of-the-world cartography fix does not apply to BEC range (same as man-made object):

The tiles to the right of the character do not reveal from BEC range. They do reveal from normal range.

Just in case anyone asks: Yes, man-made object discoveries are still not subject to BEC range.

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u/numma_cway — 18 hours ago

▲ 176 r/GuildWars

Cartography Explained: Where to Stand for Any Sliver You Are Missing

Today at lunch break at work, I came up with a theory how to find out exactly where to stand for every sliver in the game. I told it to a few people and noone believed it was that simple. But it is.

tl;dr/how to:

Download this Texmod. It is proof-of-concept and only works in Elona. (The mod is just CME 2015 1.3 with a grid. It does not reflect that areas beyond the end of the world are not currently uncoverable.) I hope that Toolbox people will implement grid, which would be way more accurate than a Texmod could be.
Run the game with that Texmod.
(Recommended but optional:) Check "Show walkable terrain" in Toolbox's "Mission Map" settings. Adjust colors to your preference.
Identify a tile you want to uncover (and, as of now, is within the map's limits). If the dot in the center is in the blue-shaded non-black area, this is usually an undiscovered tile. There are some special cases due to GW's smoothing where it's a bit more complicated, but you'll find that out.
Identify a directly-adjacent tile that looks like it has walkable terrain (pathfinding). Said Toolbox feature helps with that.
Go to that tile and stand anywhere in the tile. If it doesn't work right away, try click-walking. I think that you might have to do an action that also resets UA bug.

Sadly, the Texmod isn't a 100% accurate as you can see two images further down: Sometimes it's okay to be one pixel off (to the North) but still get credit. But you should be able to identify the tile that looks "most probable", e.g. by process of elimination.

The theory behind this:

Cartography has a grid of 32x32 map units. A map unit is equivalent to a pixel in the texture files and at "normal" font size in world map and mission map at minimum zoom level. Without Bird's Eye Compass, you uncover the tile you're in plus the surrounding 8 tiles (1 tile in Chebyshev's distance). With BEC, also you uncover 2 more tiles in each direction (3 tiles in each direction in Chebyshev's distance). It does not matter where exactly in your current tile you are. The game applies some smoothing on what you uncovered, which makes it a bit harder.

Here's an image of what I mean by tile distance:

Uncover ranges explained; in-game, the display (not the actual data) is subject to smoothing! Note that the character is not in the center of its tile (the dot) but ranges are still centered around the tile (and its center).

Naturally, people think of distance as Euclidean distance, but ANet used Chebyshev's distance, which is why it often doesn't seem make any sense from where a tile is uncovered. If ANet used Euclidean distance, above image would show two circles rather than two squares. Chebyshev's distance is simply whichever of X distance and Y distance is greater.

Comparing Euclidean distance, Chebyshev distance and GW's tile distance. In the second image, I'm just barely in the adjacent tile (the tile with most of the green line in it), but the game registered it.

Currently, both ranges are subject to not revealing anything beyond the end of the world. BEC range also doesn't uncover the few slivers for which you have to be in normal range. See here for details. The use of normal range for some tiles makes it even more important to know where exactly you have to stand to uncover these.

A few more examples (not using BEC):

Trying to uncover the two tiles with the red circles. You can see what smoothing does to these. You can also see that in the first image, this isn't the correct place to stand, although it is much closer (in Euclidean distance) to the tile in question than where I'm standing in the second image. The colors were added manually, not by the Texmod.

Again, the colors were added manually, not by the Texmod.

For continents other than Elona, you can just take a screenshot of your map with CME enabled, paste it in an image editing program, enable the grid (29 pixels at small, 32 pixels at normal interface size) and align CME's blue lines to the grid. It will look like this (note that the grid in the image has one subdivision):

Manually adding a grid to the map of Crystal Overlook

Looking forward to comments, questions and possible counterexamples. Before submitting counterexamples, please note that exploration beyond the end of the world is currently not possible but will probably be fixed soon.

Now it's time for memes:

ANetposting

Reactions from Twitter are in: Cartography just became accessible

u/numma_cway — 1 day ago

▲ 79 r/GuildWars

Bird's Eye Compass does NOT uncover everything you uncover by scraping

In the most recent update, ANet fixed being unable to uncover slivers for which you previously had to stand on man-made objects (cyan in the post image), as well as some other random slivers.

Uncovering seems to work like this now:

BEC uncovering (if active) + "classic" (pre-July 29th) uncovering – anything beyond the end of the world = actual uncovering

This means that any slivers undiscoverable between July 29th and August 13th can only be uncovered by scraping. This applies to both, the "man-made object" (see post image) and the "random slivers" category! Note that the character in that image has never been north of the island in the lagoon, so you can see how large the BEC range is (see footnote for numbers).

For the "random slivers" category, take the sliver missing on the following image as an example:

The missing sliver in this image can only be uncovered by standing on a tiny spot in the pink circle, no matter if you're on BEC or not.

BEC range seems to be 9216~12288 gwinches (96~128 map coordinate units in GWToolbox++) depending where you are in the 3072-gwinch fog resolution (32 map units); for comparison, non-BEC range is 3072~6144 gwinches (32~64 map units) and the compass range is 5020 gwinches, meaning BEC range is 1.836~2.448-times compass range. Uncover range appears to be measured in Chebychev distance (aka infinity metric), in other words, raw uncover range is a square (but smoothed on a 1536-gwinch grid when displayed), no matter if you have BEC or not. The ranges given above are the ranges parallel to the X and Y axis, while the diagonal range is 1.41-times as big.

Devs are aware that you cannot reveal anything beyond the map boundaries and they seem to be willing to fix this. (Source - 2weeks Discord) It would be interesting to know if these require scraping or not.

https://preview.redd.it/4xgb565j6zjh1.png?width=432&format=png&auto=webp&s=88d4be8f0d095fae5eb50f47485331147016c49f

If they do this and fix cinematic cartography (probably only crashes?), everything is back to normal, plus there are a few things to make it easier than before:

Proph (and probably Factions) apparently have a higher margin/tolerance/overlap.
You can use BEC.
You can use BEC to discover many new areas (in German).

Sorry for posting so many things on cartography, just found that some users had the misconception that if BEC can't reveal it from its distance, you can't by walking closer. If you have any spots that are not beyond the end of the world but just won't uncover, please let me know. Same if you have research results on the overlap percentage change.

BTW: If anyone's doing a new CME, please let me know. :)

u/numma_cway — 3 days ago

▲ 96 r/GuildWars

How Cartography/Uncovering Changed in the August 13th Update [Updated!]

I'm posting this correction on my last post as a new post because I don't want people to unnecessary put hate on ANet. Both of my previous posts were not meant as criticism and I'm not happy with the hate on ANet that resulted from them. This wasn't my intention.

Anyway.

3. Random slivers (not related to standing on man-made objects (fixed) and not beyond the end of the world (not fixed)) no longer discoverable after July 29th update: In fact fixed.

The example from The Falls that I used in the original post was probably bad. It more likely resulted from:

Being unable to uncover the adjacent tiles because they're beyond the end of the world (of Reed Bog).
The game using some kind of smoothing that makes uncoverings hard to compare. (This is a general issue with the cartography titles - it's not always clear why a sliver didn't uncover.)
The BEC image used for comparison having additional discoveries that weren't possible before (black sliver). Due to bullet 1 and 2, this has probably caused the sliver in question to look like the pre-July-29th state by conincidence.

I did a few more tests, all of which were fixed. The following two were locations that I specifically tried to uncover after the July 29th update but before the August 13th update. I really tried hard but gave up after 10 minutes. Now both worked instantly:

This area in Kaineng Docks couldn't be explored after the July 29th update. It can be uncovered again after the August 13th update.

This area in Gyala Hatchery couldn't be explored after the July 29th update. It can be uncovered again after the August 13th update.

There were several reports about the south of Lahtenda Bog, which I didn't test myself, but they too got fixed. However, I did not test these myself before the August 13th update. What I can say this part works now.

This area in Lahtenda Bog couldn't be explored after the July 29th update. It can be uncovered again after the August 13th update.

5. Cinematics: Weird.

People reported that mapping during cinematics still doesn't work. This is not entirely correct. I did a test with Kodonur Crossroads. Although CME doesn't say what to do here, the cutscene requires you to press W right from the start. Since the July 29th update, this makes the game crash due to a failed assertion (but you shouldn't kill the program if a non-serious assertion fails). Since the same update, the very same errors occurs regularily in the Sunjiang Distrinct cutscene. Even if the game crashes, this might still uncover a bit, but not the full area:

Parts of Kodonur Crossroads cinematic can still be uncovered.

More testing is required with more cinematics.

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u/numma_cway — 5 days ago

▲ 120 r/GuildWars

How Cartography/Uncovering Changed in the August 13th Update

Updating my last post. Note: Apparently Prophecies overlap/tolerance has increased in July 29th update (makes it easier), but Nightfall has not. More research is needed/welcome.

1. Being unable to discover stuff that required you to stand on man-made objects: Fixed.

(Note that this also applies to some kinds of rock, which are not really man-made. But most affected objects are man-made.)

Standing in Kodlonu Hamlet, being able to uncover from the pier.

2. Being unable to uncover things beyond the end of the world: Not fixed.

Eredon Terrace bug not unveiling everything it did in the past.

This is not solely a case of bug abuse but also happens in several areas like this:

Zen Daijun still not being fixed.

And the west of Reed Bog in the next image also doesn't work.

3. Random slivers no longer discoverable: Not fixed.

Northeast corner of The Falls still no longer reveiling without BEC. Note that the blue bar was uncoverable before the July 29th update.

How this looks with BEC (thanks to u/Euphoric-Judge-1926):

Northeast corner of The Falls reveiling with BEC (image from before yesterday's update)

4. Being able to discover unreachable areas: Expanded.

The following image also shows that the range of BEC has extended to around 1.3 to 1.5 times the compass range. The character is standing roughly at the maximum distance possible for the second layer to uncover (the area that is not uncovered in the second image).

Discovering Kodlonu peninsula from Churrhir Fields

For comparison, this was before yesterday's update (thanks to u/DerSamo):

Discovering Kodlonu peninsula from Churrhir Fields before this update

/Edit: 5. No longer being able to map while in a cinematic: Not fixed.

Thanks to u/Riotranz for pointing this out.

I have to go to work now. But doing ANet's QA > doing my own work.

inb4: Missionskarte.

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u/numma_cway — 6 days ago

▲ 188 r/GuildWars

How Cartography/Uncovering Changed in Yesterday's Update

Yesterday's update has changed a few things.

tl;dr: Cartography titles without Bird's Eye Compass have become harder than ever.

/Edit: According to this post, at least Prophecies had its margin (tolerance) increased: Of the area that can still be uncovered after the update, you have to uncover ~98.6%, so ~1.4% are not required for 100%.

Also added a few clarifications, especially in section 1.

Let's have a detailed look at what changed:

1. You can no longer uncover the map while standing on (man-made) objects.

To define what can be uncovered with the Bird's Eye Compass, ANet seems to have evaluated what's uncoverable within non-Compass range in every possible location with "standard pathfinding" (basically any place where you stand on "normal ground" like soil). The area retrieved this way can be discovered with and without the Compass (but see section 2!), but with the Compass, you can still be further away from a given spot on the map for it uncover.

For example, the pier in the Northeast of Haiju Lagoon has object pathfinding instead. The same should apply to most stairs, bridges, rezz shrines, etc. Another example is the pier in the Southeast of Zen Daijun (explorable). This means that you can only uncover as much as you could without entering the pier (no matter if you are using the Compass or not).

https://preview.redd.it/jfaruzj81fgh1.png?width=399&format=png&auto=webp&s=b94dc8c50750050252db9fb3c7028eaf1f1866c2

You can easily check what's "standard pathfinding" in GW Map Browser: Everything that's red if you enable the pathfinding layer (do not mind that this layer is sometimes underground or floating in the air). In this case, the pier is pink (hard to distinguish), so no uncovering here after the update.

https://preview.redd.it/pqx59u7i1fgh1.png?width=1688&format=png&auto=webp&s=172cba26bdfdb54a897385d1da0f6558d13e6f72

2. Some unreachable places still have standard pathfinding and can be uncovered with Bird's Eye Compass only.

One example is Jaya Bluffs, where the harbor village has standard pathfinding, meaning parts of it can be uncovered from the top while under the effect of Bird's Eye Perspective.

https://preview.redd.it/c14m2crrzegh1.png?width=664&format=png&auto=webp&s=05768c11f84b957f34ad031017026357d3723bae

Funnily, that village's pier even has standard pathfinding.

https://preview.redd.it/v4e52gczyegh1.png?width=1502&format=png&auto=webp&s=f2f2271684d6a6028a501cce9e8b40463eab6b4d

I'd be interested to learn about more places that can be uncovered with Bird's Eye Compass but couldn't before the July 21st update. Here's one more:

https://preview.redd.it/5m7n98ml0fgh1.png?width=502&format=png&auto=webp&s=45ff289c6dd9830ff68e800eb10d0c205a560f3d

A few more examples affected by section 1 and 2.

3. There seems to be an imaginary rectangle (or other kind of border) defining what can be mapped at all, meaning you can no longer uncover certain areas even if standing on "standard pathfinding".

For example, you can no longer uncover the area east of the rezz shrine outside of Zen Daijun (outpost) or the portal jump south of Grothmar Wardowns. When gate-glitching Jahai Fortress, you cannot explore anything south of its label on the map.

https://preview.redd.it/d9a5hoq6zegh1.png?width=326&format=png&auto=webp&s=c091a59e1ef8e75ab71c22b00495b95dc2522a62

https://preview.redd.it/abj8b9u40fgh1.png?width=627&format=png&auto=webp&s=c52010808cf1e8af227c52a575b42491cce68198

Thanks to TheChosen (u/DerSamo) for his help.

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u/numma_cway — 21 days ago