I posted a question about mapping some months back. Now I'm getting to the stage where I need to make a decision, so would value any input before I start down a particular path.

What I want to achieve is something akin to Skyrim/Fallout: an initially empty map with locations being added when you discover/hear about them. Clicking on a discovered location teleports you there.

There seem to be numerous ways of achieving this, all with pros and cons. Here are the ones I've thought of so far:

1) Buy a 3rd party mapping system
This would be the ideal solution but I don't know of a mapmaker that does what I want and integrates with ORK.

2) Use separate Map scenes. Locations are text objects that you can click on
Should be relatively straightforward but I'm worried about (re)load time; if someone hits the Map button but doesn't go anywhere I don't want them to have to wait for a large scene to reload. (And how do I return the player to the correct position?)

3) Have a map in the main scene
The map could be elsewhere in the main scene with its own static camera. This would avoid load issues but would require fiddling with cameras and possibly more. It just feels like it's asking for trouble with unexpected interactions.

4) Make it a menu
The map menu would have a button positioned appropriately for each location, enabled if the relevant 'Location found' variable is set. Messy but might work. The problem is that I can't see any way of placing a 'You are here' marker according to current player position.

5) Write it in C#
This would be the most flexible and run-time efficient approach. But it would take time to code plus I'd have to learn (and not mess up) the ORK API.


So, what do people think? How do you generate your map? Which of these work for you - or have you got some other method I've missed?

Thanks in advance.
  • There's another option - set up the map with the new UI and use ORK's Variable Event components to remove them through variable conditions :)
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  • Hello Trevinburgh,

    IMHO, Maps, Minimaps is a huge topic when it comes to want to achieve something. I bought most of the offerings in the assets store (except for the KGFMapSystem which to me seems it has no more support last release 2013?).
    I went using DMMap since I like the vector like approach to draw your map and it also supports what you want about undiscovered locations and interaction with the Map icons (code required) and multi layer map like dungeons. A couple of Cons though,
    1) It takes time to draw the map if complex.
    2) The developer stated that this product is a weekend (spare) time project, so if you want to solve something or ask for a specific functionality you´ll need to write him directly and wait a bit. But you always will get an answer (like I did, 3 times) ;)

    Finally, again in my imho and my specific game requirements, all third party minimaps works and offers almost the same, buy they all lack in provide a Full Map feature like seen in most AAA which leads me grab the code and start modifying it to achieve what I want. If you track the origin of the map asset products you´ll see they started developing for their own games and then placed to be sell.


  • I looked at DMMap but the pre-sales documentation is sparse so I didn't take it further. Sounds like it might be worth a punt. Thanks.
  • Have you tried saving the player's progress through the level when you exit the level and it shows up in the mini map if you return to the scene? This is the one thing I haven't found in any minimap in the asset store.


  • UGUI Minimap is the new craze, it's newer and better updated than DMMAP.

    https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/32874
  • @Catacomber: I haven't got that far yet. It's something I'd like to do but suspect I'd need to do some coding

    @Gregorik: UGUI looks interesting but again has no pre-sales documentation *sigh* Developers really need to make their manuals public.
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