Dynamic Minimap

[Elprede]

Implemented a dynamic minimap system that renders terrain, units, destructables, and items around an anchored unit.
Now you can easily track the nearby game world from a fully custom minimap!

 

[Xthreo]

Amazing! How did you do it?

 

[Elprede]

The mini-map is a massive collection of 1,024 individual BACKDROP frames who are children of one main frame. Each BACKDROP frame represents a grid coordinate of 32 x 32 units of the actual map. When the anchor unit moves, the terrain under each grid coordinate is scanned. Then the vertex color of every single one of those 1,024 frames is modified to mimic the terrain.

On top of that, additional frames are created for the white "dots" for units, items, and destructibles.

 

[Xthreo]

Very impressive, do you think this would affect performance at some point?

 

[IronBladeClan]

Whoa...

I've been struggling with trying to find information on how to implement a dynamic minimap of sorts myself. Would you happen to have any tips on how I might be able to make something like this for (or overlapping/replacing) the default minimap?

 

[Elprede]

Very impressive, do you think this would affect performance at some point?

Thanks! I've taken a few precautions to keep it smooth: the terrain updates on a staggered cycle instead of every single frame, and all the loops for scanning units and items are hard-capped so they can't bloat and cause lag if the map gets crowded.

It runs pretty fast, but I'll definitely be doing some heavier stress testing as development goes on!

Whoa...

I've been struggling with trying to find information on how to implement a dynamic minimap of sorts myself. Would you happen to have any tips on how I might be able to make something like this for (or overlapping/replacing) the default minimap?

In object editor, set the following fields for each of your units in the object editor to true.
Stats - Hide Minimap Icon
Stats - Hero - Hide minimap icon

Then when a unit (with all conditions checked) moves within range of the targeted unit, move a dummy unit with locust (ability id is 'Aloc') periodically to the location of the moving unit until it stops moving. You can detect movement with a system like [vJASS] - [System] Motion Sensor.