Working In Game Map | With Video Showcase [93.4%, 46 Votes]

About a month ago I saw this fantasic thread by @JaydonTheWarrior which made me think of how an in game map could be implemented without it being too difficult to do. The map had to also have the expected features of an in game map. In other words, it had to be somewhat like the map in Wynntils. And I wanted the map to have some rank-only features. So without further ado, here is a video showcasing the idea.



Now before I go into further detail about the suggestion I need to clarify some things. That showcase was done with commandblocks because, well... I can not code. Because of that every thing I did in the showcase was pre-programmed so that I did not have to write thousands of commands. Also, I used some cuts in the editing to make this work, mainly with the sign.

Opening the map
To open the map you could either use your Quest Book (which should maybe be renamed to Journal) where the map would be added as one of the tabs on the right side with the map as the default, or you could use F, your off-hand key.

Features
Panning and zooming
As could be seen in the video, left-clicking a chunk of the map would place it in the middle and right-clicking would recenter the map on the players position.

I chose a window of 6x6 to use for the map because 6 is divisible by 1, 2, 3, and 6 making it perfect to use when zooming. The only problem is that the map does not have a center meaning the players position can never be exactly in the middle.

Waypoints
Every player would be able to choose from a list of premade waypoints of all the major cities (Ragni, Cinfras, Ahmsord, etc.). VIP and above would also be able to choose between minor towns (Bremminglar, Bucie, Maltic, etc.). [|CHAMPION|], being the ultimate rank, would be able to create waypoints. The reason for this is to give the rank some more quality of life features and thus maybe make it more reasonable to remove/rework the bomb bell.

Having a waypoint selected will make it show up on the map as well as pointing the compass towards the coordinates and add a beacon beam at the waypoint.

Player Visibility
Would work just as you see in the video. Only 5 names in each category (friends, guild, [|CHAMPION|]) shows up with the 5 people who have been in the territory the longest coming up on top meaning if you are in the same guild as another person whom you have as a friend and is also a [|CHAMPION|] their name could appear thrice.

Map Themes
This is the main cosmetical aspect of the map. The texture of the GUI could be changed by using different unlocked themes. These themes would be able to get from crates as Epic or higher as these themes should be somewhat rare. VIP+ and above would recieve a base set of themes each corresponding to a different area of the map (ocean, plains, lava). [|CHAMPION|] would then have the ability to have the theme change dynamically depending on what area the player is in.

Questions
How does it work?
The map works by using 256x256 chunks of the map seen from above as individual textures. I then used different models to rezise the textures in the chest inventory. These models I then put on tools and gave each model its unique CustomModelData. By doing this, one texture, i.e. one chunk of the map, could be used in different levels of zoom using up only one item. (To make it a bit easier to work with I used different tools for different levels of zoom.)

How much extra space would the resourcepack take up?
By some rough calculations based on the textures I used, the pack would become about 3x bigger. Because of this it would be best to make the in game map optional, as in you can choose to not download the extra large resourcepack and thus not being able to use the map.

 

nice

but champion exclusive waypoints

ouch

 

Amazing!
You get my proof of concept, and then actually make it.
A lot of these features are things I intended to make with mine but simply gave up on, because I can't code.
One thing I didn't think about, but love, is the Champion themes! It adds a new perk, that is purely visual, and frankly, the rank really needs that.
I love it alot! Good work.

________________________________

Though, I'm not sure about this...
Other wise, good suggestion.

 

I think it would be helpful to give champion rank better rewards, because right now it's pretty underwhelming, or atleast give the waypoints to hero.

 

Idk, I'm fine with the theme thing, its a cool idea.

Heres something you haven't thought about likely,
The waypoint feature in the Wynntils map would have to be removed, as they aren't allowed to put in features that are locked behind ranks.

 

Very impressing, love it ! +1

 

I quite like it, but as stated above, the champion-exclusive waypoints are a bit too far, a good idea, but no.
This would probably just encourage people to get Wynntils.

 

Overall, +1.

I kind of have a suggestion to improve this, although it would be pretty hard to implement, and could be inconvenient at times, make regions of the map unlockable since a new player isn't really supposed to know of the Silent Expanse, Sky Islands, Corkus, Fruma Gate, etc. Basically, in order to unlock a region, you first must reach a certain level and then go into the area.

Spoiler: List of Lv Requirements

Ragni Outskirts - 1
Ragni Plains - 1
Maltic Coast - 1
Nivla Woods - 5
Detlas Suburbs - 5
Elkurn Fields - 10
Nemract Swamp - 20
Roots of Corruption - 20
Ternaves Mines(Black Road and everything south of there) - 20
Bremminglar Savanna - 25

Almuj Desert - 30
Rymek Mesa - 35

Nesaak Tundra - 40
Lusuco Canyon - 45
Twain Valley - 45

Troms Jungle - 50
Dernel Jungle - 60

Everything in the SE - 100

Llevigar Plains - 40
Olux Swamp - 50
Dark Forest - 60
Kander Forest - 70
Light Forest - 70
Gylia Plains - 75
Realm of Light - 75
Canyon of the Lost - 80
Molten Heights - 90
Sky Islands - 95

Bear Zoo - 15
Durum Isles - 20
Rooster Island - 20
Underwater Route - 25
Selchar - 25
Seavale Reef - 25
Troll Island - 25
Kraken Island - 25
Mage Island - 30
Half Moon Island - 30
Ice Islands - 40
Regular Island - 40
Tree Island - 40
Ghost Ship - 40
Skien's Island - 50
Zhight Island - 50
Maro Peaks - 55
Volcanic Isles - 55
Pirate Cove - 60
Lost Atoll - 60
Dead Island - 65
Jofash Docks - 70
Corkus Plains - 80
Avos Plateaus - 85
Relos Highlands - 85
Legendary Island - 90
Imperial Gate - 100

Lv requirements for regions might be a bad idea due to the hassle of it, and I kinda think it would work the best with the Silent Expanse since that is meant to be a mysterious and dark land and something the player is supposed to find as their journey advances throughout the region, not see on the map as soon as they start their adventure.

Anyway, those are my two cents.

 

it would mean waypoints would be removed from wynntils

 

It would probably mean quite a backfire on Salted

 

i mean I would rather features be in vanilla then wynntils

 

Locked behind a rank?

It would still backfire, since Wynntils are just too spread and (quite surely) better in this case

 

The most expensive rank

 

true but I’d rather something like this locked behind a rank then champion slots or bomb bell.

 

I am not say this point is not valid.

I am saying just saying that too many players use it to not to include that in the calculations

 

Love the idea, though if the size of the pack increasing is actually an issue (the pack is tiny as is, a 3x increase isn't a big deal, would take a second more at launch), you could easily lower the resolution of the textures since realistically the map doesn't need to be that accurate, just close enough, and make the entire map a series of split texture and make it a background (think the tome UI or some shop UI's) where each map is only two big and scaled textures. Doing that would make the map a little less functional since you couldn't have it scroll as you move, it would be a fixed view at all times (can change but not move dynamically), but realistically you only need a map of the area you're currently in so I think it would be more useful that way anyways. It would also make waypoints a little more difficult, but there are solutions for that too like a search UI for locations to set a waypoint to, there's no real reason as to why it would need to be part of a map so I think that would work just as well.

The reason why I brought all that up though is because optional resource packs on servers are essentially impossible to do fully in-game. Every server can only have one default resource pack so the only way to make it work would be to have map servers and nonmap servers which I think is kinda dumb. It would be better to optimize it rather then worry about needing to download and maintain a separate thing every time the server updates texture stuff.

Not a fan of the rank waypoint stuff, though I think the map theme is a cool idea. Cosmetic customization is always nice to see.

Either way, nice work, something like this would have been great when I first started playing so it's nice to see somebody actually making it work. Good stuff!

 

While I do agree that it isn't the best way to make it there is actually another reason for it being champion exclusive. I'm sort of exploring the idea of how to implement a minimap to Wynncraft using vanilla maps and the different waypointmarkers on those maps. However a server can only save about 30 000 maps before som weird stuff happens. So if only champion could create custom waypoints that limit wouldn't be reached as easy. But still, 30 000 is very small even for only a limited amount of people. It might be possible to save the NBT-data of the map somewhere else and then just add it to a map as needed to circumvent the map-limit, however I'm not sure.

That is something I did not consider. The more I think about it it does seem like exclusive waypoints might be bit too far.

 

That's specifically why you don't use actual maps in the first place, they're a lot more difficult to work with compared to textures and take up way more space. Custom waypoints are a cool idea, but they could easily be integrated into a UI along with all the preset waypoints you would want to have access to (every town, every seaskipper, every dungeon/raid/forgery, ect) with a limit based on rank, that way every rank can store custom waypoints, champions can just store more, though again storing a set of 3 numbers really isn't that tough and it would be best if map mods were still allowed.

 

But the reason you would want Minecraft maps as minimaps in your offhand is because of the playermarker and the possibility to add waypoints with banners or even other symbols such as ocean monument symbol etc. If you were to use custom textures for the mini-map that would mean no customization with custom waypoints or different symbol for each waypoint. It would be much bitter if the waypoints appeared on the mini-map in exactly the correct spot.

 

I agree that's what it would mean, but none of those features are actually useful when they can be done in other simpler and more reliable ways. Waypoints don't need to be shown on the map, having them show adds almost nothing because why would you ever check a map when you have a beacon beam which you can just walk towards?

Maps are serverside so every single time somebody makes a waypoint, the server would need to generate and store at least 8 (4 with orange border, 4 without) new maps, even more if you put two waypoints onto one map. It literally becomes an exponential function as you add more markers per map since you need to generate every combination of markers, then anytime somebody opens their map the server would need to do a search for their name and look for the associated waypoints to generate a unique map each and every time. That's insanely inefficient and a complete waste of server resources, especially when a small compromise would make everything so much easier and faster. You might be thinking, why not limit it to one marker per map then? Well, if you're going to do that, you could do the exact same with textures since you could just use items as markers, plus you could have a limitless number of icons if you took that route.

An in-game map doesn't need to be as functional as a mod which is what you're aiming for, it just needs to have the minimum functionality to make it useful. A built in map only needs 3 things; the ability to see the map(s) (different scales are a plus, probably a global, a provincial and a local), the ability to see where you are on the map with some accuracy (though not a lot) and the ability to set waypoint beacons for navigation. Using maps to get these features is pointless because it could be done much more efficiently with textures, you could mark the player location using a single orange box texture there wouldn't ever need to be a limit on the number of waypoints since instead of needing 8 maps per, the server would be storing a set of 3 coordinates and maybe a name.

Banners on maps was also added in 1.13, so that wouldn't be able to exist on the server anyways, the only icons would be the mansion and the monument icons which is kind of useless.