Understanding Usage Limits

I recently looked at the Usage page from the perspective of someone who did not build it, and I realized that words like “Task Units” and “storage limits” can sound much worse than the reality. They can sound like mobile-game currency: spend them once, lose them forever, then pay if you want to continue.

That is not how MapToPlay works, and I do not want anyone to hesitate before starting a project because I failed to explain it clearly.

Basic is not a demo and it is not a tour of features you can only really use after paying. It includes the complete core map-making workflow: all supported games, real-world data imports, the editor, and playable exports. Its limits control how quickly you can process heavy work and how much data you keep on the platform at once. They do not remove the actual workflow.

Task Units Come Back

Task Units are reusable hourly processing capacity. Basic includes 10 Units, and every used Unit returns one hour after it was used, up to that 10-Unit maximum. This is a rolling window, not a reset at the start of a calendar hour.

For example, if one Unit is used at 14:10, that Unit becomes available again at about 15:10. It is not gone for the day, it is not deducted from a monthly allowance, and you do not need to buy it back.

When you process several large maps, you may need to wait for enough Units to return before the next heavy task can start. I will not pretend waiting is exciting, but there is an important difference between waiting for shared capacity and hitting a paywall. You are never required to pay just to regain the Units included with your tier.

What Actually Costs Units?

A normal real-world project can start with three separate import tasks: DTM for terrain elevation, vectors for roads, water, fields, buildings, and other features, and imagery for a visual ground reference. Each selected source is one task. An export is another task.

The Unit cost of each task depends on the game and map size. The examples below assume all three imports plus one export, so the complete example contains four tasks. If you skip imagery or another optional source, you simply remove that task from the total.

MapToPlay shows the planned import cost in the project wizard and the export cost before you start it. The number should never be a surprise after you click the button.

Farming Simulator 25: Real Numbers

FS25 has a playable area inside a larger overall source area. The larger area gives the platform the surroundings it needs while the playable square remains the actual game map.

The 3-part import means DTM + vectors + imagery. The complete cycle adds one export.

The standard 2,048 m FS25 map is the easiest practical example. DTM, vectors, and imagery cost 1 Unit each, then one export costs 1 more. That is 4 Units for a complete import-and-export cycle. With 10 Units on Basic, there is enough hourly capacity for two complete standard-size cycles with 2 Units still available.

A 4,096 m playable map uses 8 Units for the same complete cycle, so it also fits inside one fresh Basic window. The 8,192 m and 16,384 m workflows use more than 10 Units in total, but that does not make those map sizes unavailable. Their individual tasks still fit; the workflow simply continues as Units replenish.

SnowRunner: Real Numbers

SnowRunner uses its terrain area directly rather than a separate FS25-style playable and overall pair. To keep the comparison consistent, this table uses the same three imports plus one export.

The 3-part import means DTM + vectors + imagery. Optional sources can be skipped.

A 480 m SnowRunner map therefore behaves like the standard FS25 example: 4 Units for three imports and one export. A 960 m map uses 8 Units for that cycle. The larger 1,440 m and 2,016 m maps span more than one replenishment window when you run the complete workflow on Basic.

The important detail is that the largest single task for either FS25 or SnowRunner costs 8 Units. Basic provides 10. That means every supported size can start on Basic. A very large task may leave only 2 Units available until its 8 Units return, but the map itself is not sitting behind an upgrade button.

What A Very Large Map Feels Like On Basic

Imagine a 16,384 m FS25 project. Its DTM import costs 8 Units. Once that starts, 2 of the 10 Basic Units remain. The vector import also needs 8, so it waits until enough capacity returns. Then imagery follows the same rule, and the export does too.

The complete workflow totals 32 Units, but that does not mean you need to own or purchase 32 Units. You reuse the same 10. A project of that size takes longer and may cross several hourly windows, which is fair because it processes an enormous amount of data, but every part of it remains available.

Basic also includes 60 minutes of actual processing runtime in a rolling 24-hour window. Task Units control how much work can start; processing time measures how long workers actually spend running it. If a very heavy workload reaches that runtime limit, tasks and exports pause until runtime rolls out of the window. Again, the result is waiting—not being forced to pay to recover your work.

Storage Is A Live Footprint, Not A Lifetime Allowance

Basic includes 1 GB of team storage and supports individual uploads up to 250 MB. That storage is not “1 GB ever.” It is the amount of project data, generated datasets, uploads, and other stored team assets you are keeping on MapToPlay right now.

Basic also allows one active project at a time. That does not mean one project for the life of your account. You can complete a project, download or export what you need, delete the project, and immediately create a new one. Deleting it releases the active-project slot and removes its stored project data from your usage.

Archiving is different: an archived project no longer occupies an active-project slot, but its data still exists and still uses storage. If your goal is to reclaim space, download what you need and delete the project rather than only archiving it.

Basic project retention is 15 days, so I would not treat the free tier as permanent cloud archival. The platform warns before retention cleanup, and completed work should always be downloaded. Supporter tiers add more storage, more simultaneous projects, and unlimited retention for people who want to keep a larger working history online.

Why Have Limits At All?

I did not add these limits because I wanted to invent friction and place an upgrade button beside it. Processing elevation rasters, satellite imagery, vector datasets, terrain layers, game-specific rasters, and final exports requires real CPU time, memory, bandwidth, worker capacity, and storage.

Map size matters much more than it may appear from one number. When the width and height both double, the area becomes roughly four times larger. There are more pixels, more terrain samples, more vector features, more tiles, larger intermediate files, and a larger export to build and store.

MapToPlay runs on shared resources. Without reasonable limits, a few enormous or automated workloads could consume the workers and storage everyone else depends on. My goal is fair usage: let someone on Basic use every core feature and every supported map size, while asking heavier users either to work at a slower pace or support the infrastructure that gives them more headroom.

To Everyone Supporting MapToPlay: Thank You

I want to say this very clearly and very sincerely: thank you to every person supporting MapToPlay.

Your support does more than make your own account faster or more comfortable. It pays for the workers that process maps, the storage that holds project data, the bandwidth that moves huge files, and the servers that keep the whole platform alive. It allows another person to arrive with no subscription, create a real project, use the full core workflow, and export a playable map for free.

That matters to me a lot. MapToPlay started from the simple wish to play on a map that meant something personally, and I never want money to be the first wall between someone else and that same feeling. Every time a Basic user completes a map without paying, the supporters helped make that possible. I see that, I appreciate it, and I am genuinely grateful.

The Pricing Page Is Updated Too

I have updated the Pricing page with a clearer Task Units explanation, the standard FS25 example, and the reason these limits exist. It also shows the current limits for every tier so you can compare them without guessing.

If anything about usage still feels unclear after reading this, please tell me. Limits should be predictable, honest, and understandable before you start—not discovered in the middle of a project.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for building things with MapToPlay.

Stan, Developer of MapToPlay