I used to play on a server that had an active map of the explored areas. It would show you top down, or topographical as well as player locations. It would give you a link you could post so you can access said map from the web. It also let you chat with people in game. I was wondering if anyone knows the mod I'm talking about and if we could add it.
I've been looking at Dynmap myself, because I think it can allow you to pre-gen chunks. Several of our mods (most notably ARS Magica) add a lot of overhead to chunk gen, so it would be nice to have them pre-genned to reduce lag when folks are exploring. A mapping program - Dynamp or not - is on our list for the next server update, pending compatibility and good performance. (We genn'd a google-maps-style map two weeks ago... it took all night, and the resulting map was like, 9 gigs, haha. I don't know how well we could serve high-res maps, we'll have to test it.)
I use a mod called MC automap, it is local and saves an image on your machine. It also has a live window that I have on my other monitor while exploring so I can see where I am and where I need to go. MCAM will show you near by objects, people, and mobs. I think it has an x-ray vision to see ores and stuff but I do not use that feature.
