Guides/Crowdsourced Mapmaker FAQ

1.) Need to be HTTPS

2.) Some specific websites block being embedded in iframes. You can test if it's the case here: https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml\_iframe . If it is blocked, it's just a flag that the website administrator needs to set to be allowed to embed.

3) Some sites require that you allow 3rd party cookies to display properly.

Use the Embed Checker to see if a website works in Gather!

#### **Why can't I embed this Google folder?**

Google only allows individual documents to be embedded. Due to security issues they won't let you embed an entire folder.

#### **How to Embed PPT slides?**

If you have the presentation on Google Slides, you can embed it after clicking “publishing  to the web” from the Files drop down menu. You may need to click over to the "Embed" tab and pull the link from that side

#### **How to Embed PDF?**

To embed a pdf, you first need to have it uploaded on a site that will allow embedment, such as Google Drive. For Google Drive, you have to alter the link itself before you can embed it.For instance:

Original Link:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RlIH-FVz0BO\_4G6ktrsbCTiBrqbaTEx2/view

Embeddable link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RlIH-FVz0BO\_4G6ktrsbCTiBrqbaTEx2/preview

#### **Help! I accidentally deleted the bar when I was trying to delete a TV!**

The erase tool deletes everything in the stack. In the map mapmaker, you should be able to click on the square with the TV and select it from the stack to edit the video it is linked to. similarly, you should be able to select it to move it away from everything else to delete individual objects.

#### **How do I move things up and down in the Object stack?**

You can drag and drop order up and down on right sidebar!

#### **TV syncing - Can you do a sync’d video “on demand?”  (i.e. One person plays the video and everyone sees it)**

Currently the only way to do this is using a live youtube stream in conjunction with a sync'd tv object

**Poster Requirements**

      -     .png or .jpg format

* at least 1000px for the width
* at least 600px for the height
* max 3MB
* No transparent background

Great resource on how to properly and easily size your poster (scroll way down) can be found here.

#### **Why won't this video work?**

Only Vimeo and YouTube currently work for embedment.

#### **Can you extract objects from an existing map?**

As long as it’s not in the background, if you select it, you can right click the image under “Appearance Image” and save it as a gif.

#### **Difference between Basic and Advanced objects ?**

A generalized understanding between basic and advanced:

-Basic objects are uploaded files like png images

-Advanced objects are typically embedded websites or videos. Spotlight tiles are also advanced objects.

You can find more detailed lists of basic and advanced objects by hovering over the question marks on The Pricing Page.

#### **Help! I’m trying to create a portal into a different room/space, but the whole screen is blank!**

Zoom all the way out and all the way back in to the actual room location. The MM is a little dumb and puts you in the same coordinates as the other map (e.g if the origin portal location is much larger than the destination, it’s very likely those coordinates don’t exist on your destination map.)

## Background & Foreground

#### **What if I want to expand my room without redrawing all the impassable tiles?**

the background image is anchored in the upper left. As long as you use the same image and add on to the right and downward, you'll be able to save all the tiles you've laid when you replace the background

## Interface things

#### **How many people can I have in one private space?**

Recommended to have much less than 30. The more users you are personally connected to, the larger the strain on your personal computer

#### **Is there a limit to the number of people who can hear/see a spotlight?**

Recommend less then 100. See above on private spaces. Limit is higher since only one person is connecting to everyone as opposed to everyone being interconnected. Also, person who is spotlighting does not receive audio.

#### **Custom Avatars???**

No. Unfortunately not in the foreseeable future either.

#### **The known issues for mobile/tablet beta experience currently include:**

* No way to interact with objects
* Video does not work
* Portals into other spaces or external calls cannot be activated (no enter key)

#### **Is there any way to have a DJ / Jukebox / Background Music?**

1. Low-tech: Use a separate computer and sign in as a "DJ" to pipe music into the room by playing the DJ's avatar on a spotlight space.
2. Semi- Low-tech: Use the Sync'd TV option to broadcast a very long youtube video.
3. Technical: Following this tutorial (Just make sure you follow every single instruction up to the very end):
4. Technical, but for Macs: there's an app called Soundflower that allows you to redirect your outputs to your inputs. It's a fairly old program old, so it might be a bit clunky to use, Steps:
5. Download the system extension (do read the "Please Read" section): https://github.com/mattingalls/Soundflower/releases/tag/2.0b2
6. Download the latest SoundFlowerBed (an app for the menu bar that allows you to quickly choose input/output redirect): https://github.com/mLupine/SoundflowerBed/releases
7. To redirect output to Soundflower, open SoundFlowerBed, and under "Soundflower (2ch"), choose your output device. (For me it's just "Built-In Output.")
8. To make your mic play from Soundflower (which is now taking your audio out as its input), just choose "Soundflower (2ch)"as the source in your mic setup on Gather.

This setup assumes you have a dedicated device acting as the avatar and running the background music. In this scenario your only fidelity loss would be due to the connection, not due to the quality of your device mic.

Another way of doing this is using **VB Cable** (https://vb-audio.com/Cable/)". It's free, it's very simple, and it works for PC & Mac.

#### **Can you screenshare with audio?**

You can send your Computer sound through your mic (but the quality is medium) by using something like VB Cable and changing  the audio settings from Microsoft. Might take a while to understand but there are some youtube tutorials who help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUFbKww5-Vg

## Space Management

#### **Can you add/change/remove a password after a space is created?**

When inside the space, click the “Gear” icon, then to into the “Room Access” tab.

#### **Help!! I lost access to my space!!**

When you are on the app start page (https://gather.town/app/) is the space listed on the left?

If not, it is likely that the space was created on an anonymous account and lost when your cache was cleared. If you still have a browser open that contains the same cache/cookies as the anonymous account, you might be able to still associate it with your e-mail. You can do this inside of the space while using the aforementioned browser by clicking on your name at the bottom and selecting "sign in". Otherwise, you’re out of luck. Create an account and rebuild.

## My Account

#### **How do I sign out and then sign into another account?**

You have to enter a space first (any space), then click your name on the bottom status bar, then click Sign Out.

## General Map Maker Questions

#### **How do I zoom?**

Hold CTRL and use the mouse scroll wheel. Be careful because this automatically puts you in erase mode.

If you are on a laptop, you can pinch to zoom.

#### **How do I move around the space**?

You can scroll vertically with the scroll wheel.  Hold SHIFT while scrolling to move horizontally. Alternatively, there's a pan tool in the upper left

#### **Is there an API???**

Yes, there’s an http API in beta (Websocket one in development).

## Tiles

#### **I created a portal to another room and now I’m in the middle of nowhere!**

Use the scroll wheel and shift scroll to pan around the new room until you find what you’re looking for.  Everything is most likely to the upper left.

## Reservations/ Premium Spaces

#### **It costs to go from" free for 25" users to having 26??**

Well, you’re actually paying for a dedicated server with higher reliability.

#### **How can I check how many advanced/ basic objects are in my space?**

From the premium dashboard - same place you reserve a time for your event.

#### **Upgrading to a paid/premium space in the middle of an event?**

Unfortunately, switching from a free space to a paid space in the middle of an event will cause connection issues since all paid events are on a separate server that provides increased reliability.

#### **Decrease capacity in the middle of an event?**

If you already have a reservation for a paid event, decreasing the capacity will cancel the event and cause a new reservation to be created. This can cause parallel universe issues as your space gets dropped to free servers, people will join that instance, and then your space will be placed on premium servers with a separate instance.

#### **Increasing Capacity in the middle of an event?**

It is possible increase your capacity during an event, but note that it will take roughly 15 minutes for the change to work it's way through our system and reallocate resources to increase your event's capacity.

Originally from: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TfQZmuT6Fh8seSgrvFpb7Tm0ViHkB6M92hl5XsY-Prw/edit#heading=h.uwcr4b3hmf1c