Automap

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An Automap is both a term used in 'Gaming' and also in music software control.

In music software control, Automap was the first version of a unique software that enabled Novation controllers to automatically map the parameters of various music software to each of its controls. Now known as Automap universal, this unique sequencer and plug-in control protocol provides both automatic mixer control, as well as automatic control of any automatable plug-in within any sequencer. Automap Universal removes the pain inherent in old school MIDI control. Every plug-in is given a 'learn' mode for easy and instantaneous mapping of controls. In addition, open up any major sequencer and the mixer controls, as well as many other session parameters, are instantly mapped to the Novation controller.

The computer game Freeciv uses a minimap, it is the bottom left corner. On this minimap the white rectangle represents the area of the map currently visible on the main screen. The different colors represent land and ocean and the territories of the different players. The white dots are the position of cities and the blackness is the unexplored areas, the fog of war.

In gaming, an Automap is an abbreviation for "automatic map", a navigational aid featured in many video games and computer games, also known as a minimap or mini-map. The automap is a small, abstract, top-down map of nearby areas of the game world, usually centered on the player's character or view, and updated in real time. This functionality is equivalent to the real world's GPS-based automotive navigation system, except that a video game's automap typically fills in "black", unexplored areas of the map as the player explores it.

Automaps usually display traversable terrain, allies, enemies, and important locations or items. In most games, the automap begins as a solid field of black, and the map is automatically drawn as the player discovers new areas of the game world. Some team-oriented multi-player games, such as Age of Empires II or Empire Earth, allow players to draw temporary lines, signals or markings on the automap for others to see. Things in a fog of war portion of an automap may not be updated until they are rediscovered.

Automapping was a particularly desirable feature in computer role-playing games, which typically featured a dungeon with many levels for players to explore. Before automapping, players were expected to draw maps by hand as they played the game, so they could navigate through the dungeon levels later (game boxes for early 1980s Wizardrys, for example, included graph paper). Other games came packaged with one or more maps in a guide book or on separate fold out map. Phantasy Star II was released with a guide book complete with world map and dungeon maps.

The term automap was originally coined in 1988 by Jon Van Caneghem and Mark Caldwell when they designed Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World. In Might and Magic: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum users were required to manually draw, with pen and paper, the maps of the regions in order to finish the game.

In the 1993 first-person shooter game Doom the "Automap" is an item the player can pick up, which divulges the entire map of the current level, with red walls indicating places already seen and gray walls indicating places which the player has yet to explore. The 2006 release Oblivion, a more recent example, includes an automap with quest markers, notes, and the ability to "fast travel" to any known point on the world map.

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