While the intended use for Mappalachia while playing is from a second monitor, another device, or by alt-tabbing - it is possible for PC players to replace the in-game map with their own Mappalachia map.
- An installation of Mappalachia
- An installation of Paint.NET
- An installation of Baka File Tool
- Moderate computer literacy - this guide gets a little technical.
In Mappalachia, create the map you want to see in-game. When you're ready, go to 'Map' > 'Export To File...'.
Export the map image file to any location. (Maximum quality settings are advised (PNG)).
Note: Ensure you have not selected 'Extended' legend style, as the final image would be wider than the normal map texture.
If you wish to make any further manual edits to the map image, you should do this now.
In any folder such as your desktop, create a new folder called data. Inside this, create another called textures, then inside that, create another called interface, and finally inside that create another called pip-boy.
Go to the map file you just exported, and open it in Paint.NET.
Go to 'File' > 'Save As...'. Select the target export folder as the pip-boy folder. Set the file type to 'DirectDraw Surface (DDS)'. Set the file name to papermap_city_d.dds and save. Leave the other export settings as default.
You should now have a directory structure which is exactly data\textures\interface\pip-boy\papermap_city_d.dds.
Now open Baka File Tool (BakaFileTool.exe once unzipped).
On the Paths tab, set the 'Fallout 76 Path' as your Fallout 76 install location. This is by default C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout76\.
Back on the Tool tab, change the selected Game Mode to Fallout 76.
Under 'Manual Data Folder' tick the 'Enabled' checkbox, then 'Select Data Folder'. Choose the data folder which you created earlier.
Now press 'Create Archive'. Your mod archive file will be generated beside the exe at BakaOutput\Fallout 76\BakaFile - Textures.ba2.
Rename the ba2 file as you wish.
The process is now the same as installing any mod for Fallout 76
Navigate to the 'Data' directory of your Fallout 76 installation, default C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout76\Data.
Place your .ba2 file in this folder.
Navigate to your Fallout 76 settings directory. By default this is C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\My Games\Fallout 76.
If you already have the file Fallout76Custom.ini here, open it in any text editor (such as notepad or similar). Otherwise, start a new file in a text editor and save it here with that name.
In this file, enter the line sResourceArchive2List=filename.ba2 where 'filename' is the name of your exported ba2.
If you already have this line present, instead append your ba2 to the end of the line, separated by a comma, for example sResourceArchive2List=mod1.ba2,filename.ba2.
Save this file. You can now launch Fallout 76, and find your in-game map replaced.