UI Minimap for 2.5

Grinkles

Developer
Staff member
For DIRECTIONS/DOWNLOAD, skip to the GREEN TEXT below.

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Somebody asked me the other day if I could cobble together a miniaturized map window for 2.5 because apparently the client upgrade broke the few that were compatible with 2.0. Unfortunately, I can't remember specifically who asked for this, so I hope they find this thread. :oops:

I was initially going to adapt something from EQInterface, but the place is pretty much a ghost town. I couldn't download anything because my account was pending approval all day. I gave up on that idea and instead decided to trial-and-error my way through the UI file myself. Maybe a few players will find a use for what I came up with:


oOkjnNV.jpg


The Atlas tab and the Group button work (two great 2.5 features some players still haven't made use of). Mouse wheel zooming works. The map editing tools work. Standard UI buttons can't be made transparent, so I kept them all on the right-hand side in case a player might want to hide them offscreen. Overall, it's small enough that it can be left open indefinitely in a corner to simulate the minimap feature that comes standard with modern MMOs.

Here's a scaled-down fullscreen pic to compare the minimap to other windows (click the image to expand it if you need to):

2tb7nLu.jpg


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DIRECTIONS/DOWNLOAD

WARNING: This replaces the regular map! A minimap is not suited to everyone's playstyle. Be prepared to revert if you find it isn't to your liking.

  1. Navigate to your UI folder of choice.
    • [SoD Directory] > uifiles > [UI Folder]
  2. Rename the following files like so:
    • cart01.tga > Old cart01.tga
    • cart02.tga > Old cart02.tga
    • cart03.tga > Old cart03.tga
    • cart04.tga > Old cart04.tga
    • EQUI_MapViewWnd.xml > Old EQUI_MapViewWnd.xml
  3. Download the following .zipfolder:
  4. Open the downloaded .zip folder and place the five new files into your UI folder.
  5. Log in or use /loadskin to load your UI and test out the minimap.
Note: To revert, delete the five new files and restore the names of the original files. (Refer to Step 2.)
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I haven't decided if I'm going to adopt this myself. It's easy to see the appeal, but working around SoD's clunkiness has become second nature. :rolleyes: Regardless, I enjoyed learning something new by tinkering with the files.
 
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I want to visit this strange alternate dimension where grinkles lives, with matbarmaid and a super powerful rabb.
 
Must be a pretty strong Rabb to down 3 top clerics.. show me where this guy lives.

Pretty neat map idea though. Is it a replacement for the current large scale map? I'll test it out later today.
 
Is it a replacement for the current large scale map?

Sure is. I'm pretty sure there's no way to run them side by side, unfortunately. If you have the UI real estate to spare (I recommend the right-hand side so you can hide the buttons offscreen), it's almost like playing Final Fantasy XIV or the like... but with awful graphics, client bugs, and Nwaij.
 
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if you are up to it wouldn't mind a version of this with the standard grab bar on top to make it a bit easier to move around. though even as it is it is still very nice to have all that screen real estate back while looking at the map.

Out of curiosity is there much use for the atlas once you have the zone connections memorized out side of just being a pretty picture? you say the atlas is a great feature just curious why you think that. I can only think of maybe one or two quests off hand that even use the additional information you might get from knowing exactly which direction one zone is from another or what region a zone is in.
 
if you are up to it wouldn't mind a version of this with the standard grab bar on top to make it a bit easier to move around.
How's this?


oLp6w8A.jpg


Here's the download for those interested. The instructions are the same as in the initial post.
Out of curiosity is there much use for the atlas once you have the zone connections memorized out side of just being a pretty picture? you say the atlas is a great feature just curious why you think that. I can only think of maybe one or two quests off hand that even use the additional information you might get from knowing exactly which direction one zone is from another or what region a zone is in.
2.5's atlas feature is useful because it allows you to view a map of any zone from any zone without having to tab out to your internet browser. In other words, if you have a friend who's asking where Lord Commander Ravioli spawns in Mielech B, instead of giving vague directions off the top of your head, you can simply pull up the atlas, access the Miel B (Lower Guk) map, and tell him he needs to go to the big circular area in the southeast corner of the map.
 
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Thanks that was exactly what I was looking for.

And I actually didn't know you could click on the atlas to go to specific areas til you mentioned that. until now I just thought it was a big overview map. Main yet minor fault I see with the atlas now is it seems to use live names instead of SOD names though this might have some use for people coming from live for translation or running on linux where old zone names still show up. I imagine fixing that would be a fairly significant amount of work simply due to the amount of text that would need to be changed and checking for equivalence between names if the one doing it didn't have that memorized.
 
And I actually didn't know you could click on the atlas to go to specific areas til you mentioned that. until now I just thought it was a big overview map. Main yet minor fault I see with the atlas now is it seems to use live names instead of SOD names though this might have some use for people coming from live for translation or running on linux where old zone names still show up. I imagine fixing that would be a fairly significant amount of work simply due to the amount of text that would need to be changed and checking for equivalence between names if the one doing it didn't have that memorized.
The atlas is pretty much stuck as is for a few reasons. Norrath and Dalaya have different geography, yet all the atlas artwork is designed for Norrath. Also, the text and mouse click locations are hardcoded, meaning they'd be nearly impossible to adapt for SoD even if we had workable artwork for Dalaya. It's really only useful if you already have the Live geography committed to memory. Luckily, most people start here as transplants from some iteration of EQ, meaning that knowledge is often second nature.

Anyway, glad you like the updated minimap!
 
running on linux where old zone names still show up.

dinput8 library fixes this, fyi

The atlas is pretty much stuck as is for a few reasons. Norrath and Dalaya have different geography, yet all the atlas artwork is designed for Norrath. Also, the text and mouse click locations are hardcoded, meaning they'd be nearly impossible to adapt for SoD even if we had workable artwork for Dalaya.

Are you sure about that? Judging from the files in client/atlas/default it wouldn't be impossible to replace artwork and xml references with Dalayan equivalents. You've got xml files defining the click spots - the main thing that might be unchangeable would be some headers and the like, dunno without poking around much.

Edit: On further look it seems completely customizable, down to the headers and all labels.
 
Edit: On further look it seems completely customizable, down to the headers and all labels.
That's a good find. I hadn't thought to look at the corresponding .xml file. The atlas is such a unique feature that I didn't even consider that it must have one. @Nwaij's world map could perhaps be adapted to this end, though it'd be best to have a version that isn't pre-labeled. Still, it'd be a big undertaking for an obscure feature that most players have never even used, let alone heard of. :confused:
 
That's a good find. I hadn't thought to look at the corresponding .xml file. The atlas is such a unique feature that I didn't even consider that it must have one. @Nwaij's world map could perhaps be adapted to this end, though it'd be best to have a version that isn't pre-labeled. Still, it'd be a big undertaking for an obscure feature that most players have never even used, let alone heard of. :confused:
Let me know if you want to do this, I can provide you the unlabled map, np!
 
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