Command Line Options

MapTool Command Line Usage

You can pass MapTool options when launching from a shell, command prompt, or desktop shortcut. They can be used both when using the MapTool executable launcher (MapTool.exe) [now obsolete] or when launching the jar file (maptool-1.x.x.x.jar) directly.

This functionality is intended for use by advanced users or developers.

If you're not familiar with using your operating system's command line interface, this is not the page you want.

Applies To

MapTool Version: 1.5+
Java Version: MT version 1.5 can only use Java 10 with JavaFX.

In general, each version of Java has a corresponding version of JavaFX. They don't have to always match, but it will likely be easier to get MapTool running if they do.

Launching MapTool via Jar File

When launching MapTool via the jar file you should specify memory settings as in the example below. With no other options specified, the command below will start MapTool with 2GB of memory and a 4MB stack size using the 1.5.0.0 jar file. Note that the jar file name must match exactly.

javaw -Xmx2048M -Xss4M -jar maptool-1.5.0.0.jar

Command Line Options

The following command line options are available. The full option name may be used or just the first letter, as shown.

Boolean Options (on/off)

The following options have no parameters and take the form of:

javaw -jar maptool-x.x.x.x.jar -option

-d/-debug - Turn on enhanced debug output
-m/-macros - Output list of predefined macro functions
-r/-reset - Reset startup options to defaults
-f/-fullscreen - Maximize the MapTool window

Parameterized (require a value)

The following options require a single parameter and take the form of:

javaw -jar maptool-x.x.x.x.jar -option=value

-v/-version - Override MapTool version
-m/-monitor - Sets which monitor to use; first monitor is 0
-F/-file - Load a campaign file automatically after starting MapTool

Screen Display Options

These options require the monitor option be specified on the same command line.

javaw -jar maptool-x.x.x.x.jar -monitor=n -option=value

-w/-width - Override MapTool window width
-h/-height - Override MapTool window height
-x/-xpos - Override MapTool window starting x coordinate
-y/-ypos - Override MapTool window starting y coordinate

High DPI Display Options

There are system properties that can be set to control the scaling of MapTool's UI. These can be passed as command line options (as above) or in the [JavaOptions] section of the MapTool.cfg file. The default scaling of 1.0 assumes a 96 DPI display. (Using this option in combination with Windows High DPI scaling may produce undesirable effects.)

For a 120 DPI display, try one of the following in your MapTool.cfg file:

java-options=-Dsun.java2d.uiScale=1.25
java-options=-Dsun.java2d.uiScale=125%
java-options=-Dsun.java2d.uiScale=120dpi

On Linux under X11, you can adjust MapTool's scaling by passing:

-Dsun.java2d.uiScale=2.0

If you are using a system-wide install, these settings can be added to:

/opt/maptool/lib/app/MapTool.cfg

under the [JavaOptions] section as

java-options=-Dsun.java2d.uiScale=2.0

Note that other Java-specific configurations can be controlled using the same approach. For example, the antialiasing feature of Java Swing (the library MapTool uses for most text displays) can be enabled or disabled by using:

-Djavax.swing.antialiasing=on

or

-Djavax.swing.antialiasing=off

on the command line, or by embedding one of those in the MapTool.cfg file, as described above.

Examples

Here are various examples demonstrating the use of some of the above options.

javaw -Xmx2048M -Xss1M -jar maptool-1.5.0.0.jar -version=1.5.6.7
javaw -Xmx2048M -Xss1M -jar maptool-1.5.0.0.jar -v=1.5.6.7
javaw -Xmx2048M -Xss1M -jar maptool-1.5.0.0.jar -fullscreen
javaw -Xmx2048M -Xss1M -jar maptool-1.5.0.0.jar -f
javaw -Xmx2048M -Xss1M -jar maptool-1.5.0.0.jar -monitor=0 -width=800 -height=800
javaw -Xmx2048M -Xss1M -jar maptool-1.5.0.0.jar -monitor=0 -xpos=20 -ypos=20
javaw -Xmx2048M -Xss1M -jar maptool-1.5.0.0.jar -monitor=0 -x=20 -y=20 -w=800 -h=1200
javaw -Xmx2048M -Xss1M -jar maptool-1.5.0.0.jar -m=0 -xpos=150 -y=150 -width=1000 -height=1200
javaw -Xmx2048M -Xss1M -jar maptool-1.5.0.0.jar -file=mycampaign.cmpgn