The why of rabbitMap and some tips for using it

The why of rabbitMap and some tips for using it

First, I'll explain why rabbitMap was built. In developing my current project, I was super excited to add VisuStella's Proximity Compass to my project.  The problem with the proximity compass is that it's basically a big black circle until you're close enough to trigger an event showing up on it. So, I decided that the best thing to do would be to fill that space with a minimap.

I tried a couple of different minimap plugins, but found them all to be lacking in my specific needs. So, over a couple of days, I prototyped one as a parallel common event. Once I had that working, I went on to learning how to turn it into a plugin. And the results looks like this:

It's not a great picture, but it gets the point across. The purple gem is the player. The Candle is a nearby Inn.  As the player moves away, the candle sticks to it's location above the Inn, until the Inn is off the minimap, then it sticks to the side of the compass until it's too far away.

This means appropriately scaling the minimap and making sure the proximity compass has the right settings (which are outlined in the main project description).

So, here's a couple of things to keep in mind when using a minimap, especially rabbitMap:

• Scaling is important
  • In my project, the main map zoom of the game is set between 1.5 and 1.8. This brings the player closer to the world and means that they can't see as much of the main map. So, a minimap is required for them to have map awareness.
  • You need to adjust either your minimap scale or your map zoom, or both.
    • If your map scale isn't zoomed in, then a minimap is going to have to show a great deal of the map for it to be useful
    • Unless  it shows additional information - in this case, I'm using the proximity compass to show additional info
    • You can use a larger minimap (which rabbitMap now supports) to show a much larger field
    • Or you can have your minimap scale be much smaller so that the little window shows more of the world

• You map needs to have the exact X to Y ratio as your main map
  • You can resize your map to make it smaller, but you must keep the aspect ratio the same as minimap positioning relies upon it
  • Your minimap has to have at least one "unit" for every single tile on the map
    • Don't export your map from RPG Maker and then cut off the edges. This will break your minimap
      • Again - minimap positioning relies upon them lining up perfectly - even if there's a bunch you can't see

• Consider padding the edges of your maps, particularly..no, especially if you zoom in the main game map
  • If your player can get to the edge of the map, then they can get to the edge of the minimap
  • This will result in having a big black space in the direction the player is moving
  • While the demo doesn't show this, in my own project, outdoor maps, in particular, are all padded with scenery which the player can't get into.
  • This keeps the minimap and the main map from showing ugly black borders
  • It also gives the illusion that the world is bigger and more alive than it might otherwise seem
  • This is less of an issue on indoor maps which frequently exist in a black void to begin with

• Exporting your map from RPG Maker is perfectly reasonable start to setting up your minimap
  • Consider opening up GiMP or some other image editing tool and stylizing the image
  • Run it through a filter or two to give it a unique style
  • Maybe make it blurry or run it though a line filter so that it's just a hint of the real game map
  • Decide level of detail you want to show

• Events won't show up on your map export
  • So, they won't show up in the minimap
  • In my project, I put placeholder images for a lot of events so they show up on the map.
  • You can also add detail to the minimap by putting icons for important locations on the map
  • Or you can use the proximity compass from VisuStella (I am NOT affiliated with them, I just love it) to show events by proximity

I hope these tips are useful to you and I hope you enjoy using rabbitMap.

--poorrabbit