Minimap Generator

[martyj]

I am thinking of creating a minimap generator.

 

I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on how to place the camera?

 

You have a map of X by X size (512, 1024, 2048)

 

You need to generate an image of Y b Y size (probably 2048)

 

Position of the camera would be at Vec3(0.0, Q, 0.0)

 

Where Q is the height of the camera.

 

To have the projection where the map bounds end at the same bounds of the context, what height would you have to set your camera at?

 

Is this just simple trigonometry?

 

Q = X/Math::tan(camera->GetFOV()); ?

[macklebee]

I had played around with this at one time and don't quite remember everything i tried and why I ended up with the code i did, but this was the example code I had left it at:

 

mm_pos = math.tan((90-camera:GetFOV()/2)*math.pi/180) * (mm_size/2)

 

example script:

window = Window:Create("example",0,0,800,600,Window.Titlebar+Window.Center)
context = Context:Create(window)
world = World:Create()
skybox = Texture:Load("Materials/Sky/skybox_texture.tex")
world:SetSkybox(skybox)
light = DirectionalLight:Create()
light:SetRotation(45,45,0)
window:HideMouse()

player = Prefab:Load("Prefabs/player/fpsplayer.pfb")
player:SetPosition(0,6,0)
camera = tolua.cast(player.script.camera, "Camera")
camera:SetMultisampleMode(8)

mm_size = 64.0 -- size of map
mm_zoom = 0.1
mm_toggle = 0
mm_shader = Shader:Load("Shaders/Drawing/drawing_minimap.shader")
mm_mask = Texture:Load("Materials/developer/mask.tex")
mm_shader:SetVec2("terrain_size", Vec2(mm_size,mm_size)) --send terrain size to shader uniform
cur_buffer = Buffer:GetCurrent()
mm_buffer = Buffer:Create(1024,1024,1,0) -- can be any size but higher = better resolution

terrain = Model:Box()
terrain:SetScale(mm_size,1,mm_size)
terrain:SetPosition(0,-0.5,0)
terrainmat = Material:Load("Materials/developer/ash_uvgrid03.mat")
terrain:SetMaterial(terrainmat)
shape = Shape:Box(0,0,0, 0,0,0, mm_size,1,mm_size)
terrain:SetShape(shape)
shape:Release()

while not window:KeyHit(Key.Escape) do
	if window:Closed() then return false end

	Time:Update()
	world:Update()
	world:Render()

	if mm_toggle==0 then
		mm_toggle = 1
		camera_prev_mat = camera:GetMatrix()
		--calculate proper height based on camera's FOV
		mm_pos = math.tan((90-camera:GetFOV()/2)*math.pi/180) * (mm_size/2)
		camera:SetPosition(0,mm_pos,0)
		camera:SetRotation(90,0,0)
		mm_buffer:Enable()
		world:Render()
		minimap = mm_buffer:GetColorTexture(0)
		camera:SetMatrix(camera_prev_mat)
		cur_buffer:Enable()
	end

	if window:KeyHit(Key.Right) then mm_zoom = mm_zoom + 0.1 end
	if window:KeyHit(Key.Left) then mm_zoom = mm_zoom - 0.1 end
	mm_zoom = math.max(mm_zoom, 0.1)
	mm_zoom = math.min(mm_zoom, 1.0)
	
	context:SetBlendMode(1)
	context:SetColor(1,1,1,0.55)
	cur_shader = context:GetShader()
	context:SetShader(mm_shader)
	pos = player:GetPosition(true)
	mm_shader:SetVec2("player_pos", Vec2(pos.x,pos.z)) --send player's position to shader uniform
	mm_shader:SetVec2("zoom", Vec2(mm_zoom)) --send current zoom to shader uniform
	minimap:Bind(1)
	context:DrawImage(mm_mask,600,10,180,180)
	context:SetShader(cur_shader)
	context:SetColor(1,0,0,1)
	context:DrawRect(686,96,8,8,0,0)
	context:SetColor(1,1,1,1)
	context:DrawText(string.format("FPS: %.2f", Time:UPS()),2,2)
	context:DrawText("Player Position: "..player:GetPosition():ToString(),2,22)
	context:DrawText("Press LEFT/RIGHT Arrow Keys To Change Zoom",2,42)
	context:DrawText("Zoom: "..mm_zoom,2,62)
	context:SetBlendMode(0)
	context:Sync(true)
end

 

drawing_minimap.shader

[Ma-Shell]

For a minimap I would actually use an orthographic projection mode. I guess, in an orthographic projection, you can simply set the width and the height of the camera to exactly your map's dimensions.

 

If you want to use a perspective projection:

macklebee's formula surely looks nice but the map doesn't include the whole map (which I suppose, you want to have).

Is this just simple trigonometry?

 

Q = X/Math::tan(camera->GetFOV()); ?

Doing the math I arrive at

Q = X/(2*Math::tan(camera->GetFOV()/2.0f))

 

(though I didn't test it)

[martyj]

Thanks everyone. Just making sure my math is on the right track.

 

@Ma-Shell I guess the angle would be camera->GetFOV()/2 for the triangle. Thanks.

[macklebee]

If you want to use a perspective projection:

macklebee's formula surely looks nice but the map doesn't include the whole map (which I suppose, you want to have).

 

Actually it does give the whole map. You do not see the whole map in the minimap because I implemented in the minimap's shader the ability to zoom in/out and a masked circle. Also, if you look at the code i posted you will see that the minimap is only rendered once - so yes, it does render the entire map or I would not be able to see the edges at all.

[Ma-Shell]

Oh, my apologies then.

I've been trying to make sense of the math you used, but I actually don't get how that's supposed to work or what my formula does wrong then. I get that "math.pi/180" term is only for deg->rad, as the standard math.tan-function works with rad, whereas the leadwerks-Math::rad-function works with deg, but for the rest, you have "tan(90-fov/2)", where I have "1/tan(fov/2)", and these terms are surely not identical...

 

No matter how I draw things out, I always end up with the term I wrote above.

[macklebee]

[Ma-Shell]

Thanks for actually drawing that thing out. So you're calculating with theta, while I'm calculating directly with the angle fov/2.0. So that's where that difference comes from. I actually checked back with wolfram-alpha and actually both of our terms are equal. When I first checked it, I forgot that wolfram-alpha uses rad and I had to transform the 90 before checking...

So... now at least I can sleep in peace

[tumira]

Where is this shader "drawing_minimap.shader" ? Please forgive my noobiness.

[Marcousik]

@macklebee

That's so nice to share this thx

Just a question: How do you get the minimap to be round ???

and what is exactly mm_mask.tex (did not find it)

many thx 

 

[gamecreator]

On 9/15/2019 at 6:40 AM, Marcousik said:

Just a question: How do you get the minimap to be round ???

and what is exactly mm_mask.tex (did not find it)

He mentions a "masked circle" in his second post.  I suspect that's the answer, that mask.tex is the circle mask for the mini map.

If you look at the shader code, you see this:

	if (mask.r > 0.0) {
		fragData0 = drawcolor * texture(texture1, (vTexCoords0 * zoom) + UV - zoom * 0.5);
	}
	else {
		discard;
	}

which looks like it discards (doesn't draw) pixels that have a red value of 0, if I understand it right.

[Marcousik]

On 2/5/2017 at 12:18 AM, macklebee said:

I implemented in the minimap's shader the ability to zoom in/out and a masked circle

He is speaking about implemented thing... So I don't know, and no idea how  mask.tex looks like...

this is very complicated for me, I find this a total genius code, it would be worse making a tutorial on this, on how you have to use buffer...

maybe can macklabee throw a bit light on this ?

I do not understand why should a red value of o be discarded.

Anyway thx for the help

[gamecreator]

A lot of it is above my head too (since I don't know shaders) but it seems like he uses black as a transparent value (that's why the value of red is 0), anything else as drawable.  So your mask could look something like this:

 

[havenphillip]

Yeah Macklebee is pretty good. I fiddled with this script for a long time. Here's this as a circular minimap. You can just drop the prefab in your scene to see it working.

 

basic minimap.zip