Atlas, a World of Warcraft instance map browser
Copyright 2005 ~ 2010 - Dan Gilbert <dan.b.gilbert@gmail.com>
Copyright 2010 - Lothaer <lothayer@gmail.com>, Atlas Team
Copyright 2011 ~ 2012 - Arith Hsu, Atlas Team <atlas.addon@gmail.com>


===============
= About Atlas =
===============

Atlas is an addon for World of Warcraft that includes detailed maps for every 
instance in the game. Originally, Blizzard neglected to include maps for 
instances. However, after a number of years Blizzard began to include official 
maps for some instances. These official maps are in the same hand-drawn style 
as the built-in world maps. Conversely, the Atlas maps are based on data used 
by the minimap, which provides a more detailed, accurate, and colorful 
representation. You can think of this as the difference between a street map 
and a satellite image.

Furthermore, while the built-in maps mark the locations of some major bosses, 
Atlas provides detailed and accurate information about all of the creatures, 
NPCs, objects, and events you'll encounter in each dungeon. General information 
about each zone is provided as well, including its location, level range, 
player limit, attenuation requirement, and associated faction. All entrances, 
exits, portals, and connections are labelled clearly. Because there are so many 
instances in the game, you can categorize them by type, level, number of 
players, continent, or expansion.

Finally, in addition to instances, Atlas comes with a handful of optional 
components that add even more maps. These include outdoor encounter maps, 
global transportation maps, dungeon location maps, and battleground maps. Each 
optional component can be enabled, disabled or removed individually. A number 
of third-party Atlas extensions are available as well, which further augment 
the functionality of Atlas. AtlasLoot is the most popular of these, providing 
detailed drop and item information for every encounter, but there are also 
packages for quest information and major city maps as well.


==================
= Recent Changes =
==================

You should always check our change logs to see the list of changes in each 
release, although in most of cases we are only list it briefly.

Note that started from v1.21.0, due to the total size of our addon is 
increasing bigger and bigger since we are having more and more maps, we have 
heard many users complaining about the download issue, and suggested us to 
find some workaround.

We have discussed internally and also discuss with Curse team, our final 
decision is to separate our built-in plugins into individual addon packages 
(also individual addon projects).

Also, we have moved out the old dungeon maps and re-categorized them based on 
the expansion set. For example, Burning Crusade dungeon maps are now only 
available in another addon package.

This provide the flexibility of addon downloading. Users who don't need any 
specific plugin or expansion dungeon maps can decide not to download them. 
Or, those plugins and old dungeon maps won't get frequently updated, therefore, 
users who have download all the Atlas addon packages don't need to download 
all the packages each time when there is a new release. 

Please read below our forum post for the core addon, modules, and plugins' 
download path:
http://www.atlasmod.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=1522


==================
= How to Install =
==================

Unzip the package into your World of Warcraft folder. Your zip software must 
preserve directory structures. 

For example, assuming your WoW was installed on your C:\Games\WoW, then you
should extract the ZIP into C:\Games\WoW\Interface\Addons.

So you should have below folder after extracted:
C:\Games\WoW\Interface\Addons\Atlas

If you're having trouble, please visit the Atlas FAQ:
http://www.atlasmod.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=3 


=============
= Resources =
=============

The official Atlas website is:
http://www.atlasmod.com/

For questions or support, please visit the forums:
http://www.atlasmod.com/phpBB3/


===========
= Contact =
===========

You may contact the project owner in below address:
atlas.addon@gmail.com
Or visit our forum and leave your message.


===========
= License =
===========

Atlas is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
For the full license text please see: gpl-v2-enUS.txt

We also included several languages' translation of GNU GPL license document in 
our addon, so that you will be easier to understand it in your preferred 
language. 
You can use this addon without any charge. If you would like to make some 
donation, you are welcome to do so.
You can also distribute this addon but only with no charge to your users. 
If you are going to include part of the codes, graphics, or any file(s) from 
this addon in your own product(s), please write us an email to inform us, and 
please also to include our team members¡¦ name as part of your product credits.
