Install and Use Mapgen as a Standalone Tool

mimir-mapgen is a self-contained procedural map generator that creates Dungeondraft-compatible .dungeondraft_map files. It has no dependency on Mimir’s database, UI, or MCP server — you can build it independently and use it as a command-line tool anywhere.

Note that Mimir itself cannot open .dungeondraft_map files directly — Mimir’s map upload accepts only UVTT (.dd2vtt, .uvtt) and image files. To use a generated map in Mimir, open it in Dungeondraft (a paid tool) and export it as Universal VTT.

Prerequisites

Rust toolchain (1.75+) — install via rustup (only needed when building from source)
Dungeondraft — to open and edit generated maps (or export to UVTT for Mimir, Foundry VTT, or Roll20)

Installation

From GitHub Releases

Pre-built mimir-mapgen binaries for each platform are attached to Mimir’s GitHub releases. Download the binary for your platform and put it on your $PATH.

From Source

Clone the repository and build just the mapgen crate:

git clone https://github.com/mimir-dm/mimir.git
cd mimir
cargo build -p mimir-mapgen --release

The binary is at target/release/mimir-mapgen. Copy it somewhere on your $PATH:

cp target/release/mimir-mapgen /usr/local/bin/

Verify Installation

mimir-mapgen --help

Quick Start

Generate a map from a built-in preset:

mimir-mapgen generate --preset forest -o forest.dungeondraft_map

Open forest.dungeondraft_map in Dungeondraft. Done.

Other useful commands:

mimir-mapgen list-presets             # show all 12 biome presets
mimir-mapgen validate config.yaml     # check a YAML config without generating
mimir-mapgen generate --preset forest --seed 42 -o forest.dungeondraft_map   # reproducible output

See the Mapgen Reference for the full CLI flags, the complete preset table, and every YAML schema field.

Worked Example: Island Fort

A custom YAML config combining island mode, a walled room, water, and trees:

name: "Island Fort"
width: 32
height: 32
seed: 42

noise:
  octaves: 5
  persistence: 0.5
  lacunarity: 2.0
  scale: 0.035

island_mode: 1.0

terrain:
  slots:
    - texture: "res://textures/terrain/terrain_grass.png"
      lower: 0.0
      upper: 0.35
    - texture: "res://textures/terrain/terrain_moss.png"
      lower: 0.3
      upper: 0.55
    - texture: "res://textures/terrain/terrain_dry_grass.png"
      lower: 0.5
      upper: 0.75
    - texture: "res://textures/terrain/terrain_sand.png"
      lower: 0.7
      upper: 1.0
  blend_width: 0.06
  smooth_blending: true

rooms:
  - id: "fort"
    x: 12
    y: 12
    width: 8
    height: 8
    terrain_slot: 0
    portals:
      - wall: south
        position: 3
        type: door

trees:
  - tree:
      textures:
        - "res://textures/objects/more_trees/oak_01.png"
        - "res://textures/objects/more_trees/oak_02.png"
      min_distance: 350.0
      noise_lower: 0.0
      noise_upper: 0.5
      probability: 0.6
      scale_min: 0.8
      scale_max: 1.2
      layer: 300
      random_rotation: true
      random_mirror: true

water:
  threshold: 0.85
  deep_color: "ff1a6b5a"
  shallow_color: "ff30b89a"
  blend_distance: 60.0
  min_contour_points: 6
  smooth_iterations: 5
  pixels_per_cell: 64.0

Generate it:

mimir-mapgen generate island_fort.yaml -o island_fort.dungeondraft_map

How it works:

island_mode applies a radial falloff so the center stays low (land) and edges rise — combined with water.threshold: 0.85, the high-noise edges become ocean.
The four terrain.slots blend grass through sand as noise increases, so beaches appear near the water.
The fort room is placed in grid squares; trees and other outdoor features automatically route around it.
The trees entry is a full object config — all placement fields (min_distance through random_mirror) are required.

For the many other sections you can add (roads, rivers, lakes, lights, polygons, pattern fills, materials, and more), see the Mapgen Reference.

Iterative Workflow

Maps are deterministic — the same seed + config always produces the same result. Use this for rapid iteration:

Generate with a fixed seed
Open in Dungeondraft and review
Tweak config parameters (tree density, road width, room positions)
Regenerate with the same seed to see only your changes
Try different seeds to explore different terrain layouts

Run mimir-mapgen validate config.yaml after each edit to catch schema and layout errors before generating.

Example Configs

The crates/mimir-mapgen/examples/ directory contains YAML configs and pre-generated maps for every biome preset plus multi-feature configs like tavern_river.yaml and island_fort.yaml.

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