Scene Management & The Hexmap Directory
Lidarion Hexmap Studio introduces a dedicated workspace for your campaign world maps, keeping your overland hexmaps completely organized and separated from tactical battlemaps and dungeon scenes.
1. The Hexmaps Sidebar Tab
In Foundry VTT’s right sidebar, Lidarion adds a dedicated Hexmaps tab with a hexagon icon ().
- Independent Directory: Your working hexmaps are managed here instead of cluttering the standard Scenes directory.
- Search & Filter: Use the search input at the top of the directory to instantly filter maps by name.
- Favorites System: Click the star icon on any hexmap card to mark it as a favorite for quick access.
- Quick Action Header:
- New Hexmap (+): Launches the creation dialog for a new hexmap scene.
- Open Studio: Directly launches the full-screen Hexmap Studio on the currently viewed map.
2. Creating a New Hexmap Scene
Clicking the “New Hexmap” button opens the creation dialog with the following configurable options:
| Setting | Recommended Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scene Name | Hexmap Region | The descriptive name of your campaign region, continent, or kingdom. |
| Columns (Width) | 30 | The horizontal width of the map measured in hex columns. |
| Rows (Height) | 20 | The vertical height of the map measured in hex rows. |
Automatic Grid Alignment
Lidarion automatically configures the scene’s grid type to Hexagonal Column – Even (GridType: 4). This ensures that hextiles, paths, tokens, and hover highlights align with mathematical precision.
Large Map Advisory
If you configure a map exceeding 7,500 hex tiles, a warning notice will appear:
While Hexmap Studio supports massive maps, editing maps with tens of thousands of individual live tile documents can cause browser performance impacts during authoring. However, once you Bake the scene (see Chapter 5), performance remains silky smooth at 60 FPS even with over 250,000 hex tiles!
3. Hexmap Cards & Context Actions
Each hexmap in the directory is represented by an informative card:
- Tile Counter: Displays the exact number of placed terrain tiles and object props.
- Hover Controls & Right-Click Menu:
- View & Edit (Left-Click): Switches your canvas to this map and opens Hexmap Studio.
- Activate: Activates the scene for your connected players.
- Configure: Opens Foundry’s standard Scene Configuration sheet.
- Duplicate: Creates an exact clone of the hexmap, including all tiles, paths, regions, and lore.
- Delete: Permanently removes the hexmap scene after a confirmation prompt.
4. Studio Scenes vs. Baked Scenes
Understanding the dual-scene architecture is key to getting the best performance in Lidarion:
- Hexmap Studio Scene (Authoring Mode):
- Accessible in the Hexmaps Sidebar.
- Contains individual, live, editable tiles, vector paths, regions, and objects.
- Features dynamic Viewport Culling so you can paint massive worlds without lag.
- Baked Scene (Campaign Gameplay Mode):
- Generated automatically when you click “Bake Scene”.
- Merges all visual tiles, roads, rivers, and props into a single ultra-high-resolution WebP background.
- Appear in Foundry’s standard Scenes Sidebar ready for your players.
- You can return to the Studio scene to make edits and re-bake at any time!