xaero96

Sneak-peek: World Map Displaying Claimed Chunks WIP

Added 2022-05-06 17:40:32 +0000 UTC

Hello everyone!

I've been very hard at work since I posted the last preview, mostly working on the overlay/highlight system for the world map mod. In fact, the world map now supports multiple layers of colored overlays, in case I want to use it for multiple future features, which is very likely to happen. The overlays can cover the discovered map or even go beyond it. The system supports chunk overlays and even block-specific ones. The overlays are baked into the regular map textures, so the effect on the rendering performance is almost nonexistent. As of now, I have started using it to display claimed chunks from the upcoming Parties and Claims mod. Keep in mind that the claim controls in the right click menu are not implemented yet.

Each map instance in the world map mod is essentially multiple maps of different levels of detail which are displayed at different times based on your zoom level. This plays a significant role in how the map looks and performs. Turns out it also makes adding any type of dynamic overlays 100 times more difficult. Simply adding colors to the existing map textures was not too complicated, but I had to redesign and rewrite quite a few of existing mechanisms. It had to be done in order to get the map to quickly update with new overlay changes when necessary and also for the changes to be properly reflected on all levels of detail. An even bigger technical challenge was handling overlays outside of the discovered map. Such map textures can appear and disappear at any moment. There were quite a few moments where I felt like I would simply not be able to do it because of the complications that the level of detail map system brought. I kept going though. I am very glad to have been able to get everything to work at the end! I can't wait to finally release the new mod and all that comes with it.

Thank you for your support throughout this!