FAQ and troubleshooting

Answers to the questions and problems that come up most often with Atlas.

These are the questions people ask most on the Atlas Discord. If yours is missing, ask on Discord or see Report an issue.

Statblocks

The Link Statblock list is empty, or my creature is not in it

The list shows only creatures that have a note of their own, with the stats in the frontmatter of that note. Frontmatter is the block between two --- lines at the top of a note, which Obsidian shows as Properties.

When the list is empty, Atlas says "No note-based creatures found", even if frontmatter parsing is already on. Then one of these is the reason:

The stats are in a statblock code block. Move them into the frontmatter and add statblock: true.
The creature came with Fantasy Statblocks, like the 5e SRD monsters, so it has no note. Write a note for it.
Automatically Parse Frontmatter for Creatures is off. You find it in the settings of Fantasy Statblocks under Note Parsing, and it is off until you turn it on.
The note is outside the folders listed under Bestiary Folder in the same settings. / means your whole vault.

This note works:

---
statblock: true
name: Goblin
hp: 7
image: "[[goblin.webp]]"
---

If the creature is still missing, run Fantasy Statblocks: Parse Frontmatter for Creatures from Obsidian's command palette. See Use Fantasy Statblocks with Atlas.

Holding Ctrl or Cmd over a token shows the note, not a statblock card

Fantasy Statblocks does not know the token's note as a creature. Give the note statblock: true and its stats in the frontmatter, and check the two settings from the answer above.

The import says Missing image or Remote image

The import makes a token only for a creature that has art. Put the picture in your vault and name it in the note's image field, for example image: "[[goblin.webp]]".

Remote image means the field holds a web address. Save that picture in your vault and link the file. Then click Scan again.

My token has no HP bar

A linked token takes its hit points from the hp field of its note. For a token without a statblock, right-click it, click Edit Token and type a number in Max HP.

If no token on the map shows a bar, click Token settings in the command palette and turn on Show HP bars. See Tokens in detail.

Tokens

Spawn on Map does nothing

A token goes into the scene that is open. Open a scene first, then open the Asset Manager from that scene with A and double-click the token.

From the dashboard, the Asset Manager has no scene to put the token in, and nothing happens.

Tokens are too big or too small for the map

A Medium token fills one grid cell, and the larger sizes fill 2×2, 3×3 or 4×4 cells. Tokens that look wrong for the map mean that the grid cells do not match the squares of the map. See Line up the grid.

On a map without grid lines, the Freehand tab sets the cell size, and with it the size of every token.

The tokens I placed all move together

Tokens you place together stay selected, so a drag moves all of them. Click an empty part of the map or press Esc to clear the selection.

Scenes and maps

There is no button to create a scene

You make a scene from a map. Open the Maps tab of the Asset Manager and double-click the map. See Make a scene from a map image.

The map stays black

Update Atlas first: open Obsidian Settings, then Community plugins, and click Check for updates. Older versions showed a black map after some imports.

If the map is still black, turn on hardware acceleration in Obsidian's general settings and check the drivers of your graphics card.

The grid does not line up with the map

Press Space to open the command palette. Click Grid settings, then Enter Alignment Mode, and try Auto-detect from map image first. If the result is not right, open the Intersections tab and click grid crossings in the four areas of the map. For a map without grid lines, place the grid on the Freehand tab.

Also check that Grid type matches the map: square, or hex with a point or a flat edge at the top. See Line up the grid.

My map looks blurry after the import

Atlas shrinks a map image that is more than 8192 pixels on its long side, and saves every map in the smaller WebP format. A very large world map loses detail this way.

Map images I copied into the atlas-vtt folder do not show

Add map images through the Asset Manager: click the + button and choose Add Map. Atlas does not pick up images that you put into its folder by hand.

Big maps are slow

Atlas draws maps with your graphics card. If it cannot use it, Atlas shows a message, and maps are slower and some effects are missing. Turn on hardware acceleration in Obsidian's general settings, and check the drivers of your graphics card.

Player view

I cannot find the player view

Point at the tab of the scene at the top of the map and click the eye. A second window opens for your players. You can also press Space, type "player" and click Send Current Map to Player View. See Show the map to your players.

The player view is black or empty

Open a scene in Atlas first. Then click the eye on the scene's tab, or run Send current map to player view from Obsidian's command palette.

After Obsidian restarts, the player view can show "Open the presented scene and send it to the player view to reconnect." Open that scene in Atlas and send it to the player view again.

If the player view shows an image in place of the map, run Dismiss image from player view.

Can my players join online?

For now, you share the player view with your players over a stream, for example with the screen share of Discord, and you move the tokens for them. An online multiplayer update is planned. It will be optional, and it will let players control their own characters and tokens.

Files

Where does Atlas keep my files?

Atlas keeps its files in the atlas-vtt folder of your vault. Each collection has a folder in atlas-vtt/collections, with the same name as the collection, and inside are folders for scenes, maps, encounters and tokens. Map images are in atlas-vtt/assets.

Inside atlas-vtt you can rename and move files in Obsidian's file explorer, and Atlas follows the change. See Move and copy between collections.