Journeyman's Minimap - Code Plugin for Minimaps and Fog of

[anonymous_user_11c1b2f9]

Hello? Is this still being supported?

[anonymous_user_11c1b2f9]

Hello? Are you still supporting this? Been waiting on a response for over a week now.

[Zhi_Kang_Shao]

@Gunschlinger;733569

When i try to include your c++ plugin into my project then it compiles but the c++ classes dont show up inengine

{
PublicDependencyModuleNames.AddRange(new string] { “Core”, “CoreUObject”, “Engine”, “InputCore”, “UMG”, “RenderCore”, “ShaderCore”, “ProceduralMeshComponent”, “MinimapPlugin” });

PrivateDependencyModuleNames.AddRange(new string] { });

// Uncomment if you are using Slate UI
PrivateDependencyModuleNames.AddRange(new string] { “Slate”, “SlateCore” });

// Uncomment if you are using online features
// PrivateDependencyModuleNames.Add(“OnlineSubsystem”);

// To include OnlineSubsystemSteam, add it to the plugins section in your uproject file with the Enabled attribute set to true
}

That looks correct. I didn’t mean to ignore you, but I didn’t have any more suggestions until now. I just remembered there is another step to it: in your game’s .uproject file, add “MinimapPlugin” to your game module’s AdditionalDependencies list. My .uproject file looks like this:

{
	"FileVersion": 3,
	"EngineAssociation": "4.15",
	"Category": "",
	"Description": "",
	"Modules": 
		{
			"Name": "MyGame",
			"Type": "Runtime",
			"LoadingPhase": "Default",
			"AdditionalDependencies": 
				"CoreUObject",
				"Engine",
				"AIModule",
				"UMG",
				"MinimapPlugin"
			]
		}
	],
	"Plugins": 
		{
			"Name": "PlayFab",
			"Enabled": true
		}
	]
}

That should allow you to include code from the plugin and inherit from its classes!

[Zhi_Kang_Shao]

@;735911

Hello? Are you still supporting this? Been waiting on a response for over a week now.

Are you from the same team as Schags or Gunschlinger? Anyways, I believe I’ve replied to all the issues now. I hope you’re no longer obstructed from working with the plugin.

[Gunschlinger]

@;736145

That looks correct. I didn’t mean to ignore you, but I didn’t have any more suggestions until now. I just remembered there is another step to it: in your game’s .uproject file, add “MinimapPlugin” to your game module’s AdditionalDependencies list. My .uproject file looks like this:

{
	"FileVersion": 3,
	"EngineAssociation": "4.15",
	"Category": "",
	"Description": "",
	"Modules": 
		{
			"Name": "MyGame",
			"Type": "Runtime",
			"LoadingPhase": "Default",
			"AdditionalDependencies": 
				"CoreUObject",
				"Engine",
				"AIModule",
				"UMG",
				"MinimapPlugin"
			]
		}
	],
	"Plugins": 
		{
			"Name": "PlayFab",
			"Enabled": true
		}
	]
}

That should allow you to include code from the plugin and inherit from its classes!

Unfortunatly this didnt work ether. It was included in the .uproject file before and then i inherited your MapIconComponent class and then compile i get this error : “UE4Editor-MinimapPlugin-9616.dll is missing on this computer”

[Zhi_Kang_Shao]

Can you try deleting the Saved, Binaries and Intermediate folders. Then regenerate VS solution and retry?

[Gunschlinger]

@;736728

Can you try deleting the Saved, Binaries and Intermediate folders. Then regenerate VS solution and retry?

I included “MinimapPlugin” in the .build file. There is “MinimapPlugin” in the .uproject. Deleted Saved, Binarys and Intermediate and rebuild VS and recompiled. Still no success. I created a class based of MapIconComponent it did compile but i cant add my new component to a blueprint since it dosent show

[Zhi_Kang_Shao]

@Gunschlinger;737055

I included “MinimapPlugin” in the .build file. There is “MinimapPlugin” in the .uproject. Deleted Saved, Binarys and Intermediate and rebuild VS and recompiled. Still no success. I created a class based of MapIconComponent it did compile but i cant add my new component to a blueprint since it dosent show

Okay, but your “UE4Editor-MinimapPlugin-9616.dll is missing on this computer” seems to be gone, which was caused by a corrupted cache. If you ever get an error about a missing DLL with a number (MinimapPlugin-9616 in this case), deleting those folders and regenerating VS solution will help that.

To fix your remaining problem of not being able to add your custom component via blueprint, can you these two things:

• What I suggested to DPStudio above, which is in MinimapPlugin.uplugin change the loading phase to PreDefault (
  
  &d=1497345738)
• For your C++ MapIconComponent subclass, mark it blueprint spawnable if it isn’t already: UCLASS(meta=(BlueprintSpawnableComponent))

If those suggestions don’t work, can you post the header file of the subclass you created?

[anonymous_user_54033f39]

First of all, great plugin! It’s well made and has saved my team a bunch of time.

We’re having one issue now, though, which is that our map background actor is rendering our atmospheric fog (which we just added) to the minimap texture. I tried adding our fog volumes to the ignored actors list but that doesn’t seem to have stopped it from capturing the fog. Is there a way to accomplish this right now?

Eventually we’ll move to a custom-painted map but for the time being the auto-captured version has been extremely helpful for prototyping!

[Zhi_Kang_Shao]

Hello prolenorm,

Thanks for purchasing the plugin and I’m glad to hear it is helping you out! Someone else has reported the issue of atmospheric fog being captured. Unfortunately, it is a known bug that fog is being captured by SceneCaptureComponents, even if you add the fog actor to the Hidden Actors list:

Fog rendering too thick with scene capture

I have already looked into the fog issue. I have tried disabling the SceneCaptureComponent’s Fog ShowFlag as Andrew Hurley suggested as a workaround in that AnswerHub post, but while it did hide fog in pixels that show the sky, it didn’t affect pixels that contain geometry. I have tried finding other workarounds for this, but at the moment I think this is a bug that can’t be addressed without modifying engine code. The best you can do at the moment is temporarily disable fog, generate a snapshot and save it to a texture. And vote for this issue perhaps to let Epic know that it is affecting you:

The Unreal Engine Issues and Bug Tracker

[Yun-Kun]

Hello there
[MENTION=23394][/MENTION]:

I’m finally getting my hands on your Plugin (it was a tought half-year for me, didn’t quite have the time before) and I’m experiencing a weird behavior: I attached a MapView to my Character but its location appears to be offset when displayed on the minimap.

Here are screenshots of the behavior / my setup:

**Map says I’m out the world **(Black areas = dungeon)

Zoomed in / out

Map Background

Map View / Icon on my Character

Map View set to Background

Map View manually set to Character

I can’t wait to know what’s wrong to continue toying around with the map, in the mean time I’ll check out Fog of

Thanks in advance and have a nice week-end!

EDIT: I would also like to know how to generate a snapshot of the map at runtime!

[Zhi_Kang_Shao]

Hey Yun-Kun,

Great to hear from you and nice that you’ve found time to use the minimap! From your screenshots (very helpful, ty) it seems that the minimap center (controlled by the MapView comp) and the character’s icon (controlled by the MapIcon comp) are both at wrong positions. Can you please post a screenshot of your character’s component hierarchy? Are the MapView and MapIcon currently direct children of the character’s mesh? If they aren’t, perhaps that would help.

You can call the MapBackground actor’s GenerateSnapshot() function to recapture the image at run-time. You can also check its SceneCaptureComponent’s setting bCaptureEveryFrame if you want the minimap to show a live image, although obviously that renders the scene twice every tick.

[Zhi_Kang_Shao]

I got a question from someone via e-mail and I thought this could be useful info to everyone. The question was whether it is possible to render only the navigation mesh. This can result in a clearer outline of the walkable area, especially if your world has rooftops, trees and other meshes that appears in the render but are basically noise when you’re trying to render an outline of the walkable area.

This is certainly possible. To do this, select the CaptureComponent2D on the MapBackground actor and add the “RecastNavMesh-…” actor from your level to the list, like shown here:

Now, only the nav mesh is rendered.

[Yun-Kun]

@;740429

it seems that the minimap center (controlled by the MapView comp) and the character’s icon (controlled by the MapIcon comp) are both at wrong positions. Can you please post a screenshot of your character’s component hierarchy? Are the MapView and MapIcon currently direct children of the character’s mesh? If they aren’t, perhaps that would help.

No luck on this one, still got the problem:

To clear the setup I’ve reset the position of both MapView and MapIcon to 0;0;0 and rotation 0;0;0 attached to Mesh but still no luck.

I’m eager to hear what you think And thanks for your answer!

@;740476

Now, only the nav mesh is rendered.

Awesome stuff!

[Zhi_Kang_Shao]

Hey Yun,

• Can you check whether the Map Background’s aspect ratio is 1:1?
  The aspect ratio shouldn’t be a problem, because I built in a correction for when the minimap’s aspect ratio doesn’t match the MapBackground volume’s, but if you can please check ti rule it out.

• Then, can you place a BP_MinimapExample_Basic actor into your map?
  This is in the folder “MinimapPlugin Content/Examples”, you must have View Options > Show Engine+Plugin Content checked in the content browser to see the folder. That helps me determine whether maybe the minimap has initialized its own size with the wrong values. Are you doing any dynamic resizing of the minimap during the game?

• Finally, can you add a BillboardComponent as a child to your character mesh and place it above the character’s head, uncheck “Hidden in game” and see if it appears above your character’s head in-game?
  I don’t see anything wrong with your setup, this will confirm that the input positions are correct and then we can look into why the rendering is off.

Thanks for your patience! My goal was to make this minimap usable out of the box, so whatever the cause of this issue turns out to be, I’ll get it fixed in a next update.

[Yun-Kun]

Yo there

I feel like a complete beginner. Everything is solved now.

The problem was:

• the component “Area Map View” was offset by 1500 / 200 in the MapBackground actor
• I must have moved it by mistake while I was selecting it for discovery reasons (I click everywhere like a madman :x)

It’s really silly and I feel a bit sorry for the screenshot spam these past two days when it was so simple!

But! To make it sure nobody makes the mistake again, I suggest you to set the relative position of the “Area Map View” component to 0;0;0 in the Construction Script.

Another thing that bothered me was the weird relative location / rotation of the “Capture Scene Component”. I resetted it but nothing was captured after that so I dropped another Map Background just to see what its original Transform. And it is indeed a very weird transform Maybe you should also add it to the list of things you set in the Construction Script to avoid people from resetting it thinking they have modified it by mistake.

Thank you very much for your support and your time You put me back on track with your answers (it was in fact the first suggestion of your previous message that made me think of this fix).

I can’t wait to try things out now

PS: You can change the color of the Navmesh if your project settings!

EDIT:

Actually I have another question [MENTION=23394][/MENTION]!

I rotated the Widget Minimap by -45 Angle (in Widget, tried both the minimap widget directly and a box containing it). Here are the results (the red Arrow is the character):

You can see the Character Icon is offset by an amount on the minimap but everything else works fine!

Here is the widget setup:

[Zhi_Kang_Shao]

Hey Yun!

@Yun-Kun;740897

Yo there

I feel like a complete beginner. Everything is solved now.

The problem was:

• the component “Area Map View” was offset by 1500 / 200 in the MapBackground actor
• I must have moved it by mistake while I was selecting it for discovery reasons (I click everywhere like a madman :x)

It’s really silly and I feel a bit sorry for the screenshot spam these past two days when it was so simple! But! To make it sure nobody makes the mistake again, I suggest you to set the relative position of the “Area Map View” component to 0;0;0 in the Construction Script.

No problem, I have experience myself with issues that turn out to be that something was moved accidentally. That is a good suggestion, I will set that AreaMapView to (0, 0, 0) in the C++ BeginPlay, as there is no benefit to moving it off center. I won’t make an update purely for this but it will be part of the next one.

@Yun-Kun;740897

Actually I have another question [MENTION=23394][/MENTION]!

I rotated the Widget Minimap by -45 Angle (in Widget, tried both the minimap widget directly and a box containing it). Here are the results (the red Arrow is the character):

You can see the Character Icon is offset by an amount on the minimap but everything else works fine!

Here is the widget setup:

Hmm, if changing the render angle of a parent widget doesn’t affect the children correctly, I think that is an issue with UMG. I had noticed another issue when rotating things in UMG: any canvas clipping is applied before the render rotation so when I rotated an icon that is near the edge of the minimap, sometimes half the icon wasn’t visible (because that part would fall outside the minimap canvas if the icon wasn’t rotated). This is why for this plugin I made a material based workaround. Bottom line, UMG render transform has some known issues. I believe they are going to be fixed as part of UE4.17, because there was a recent Epic blog post about that.

Something you can try instead of using the render transform:

1. Make a duplicate of the BorderedMinimap widget asset and in that, rotate only the border image (not the internal Minimap widget) by -45 degrees. (Edit: I suggest not modifying the existing one because those changes can be lost when you download an update)
2. At the character’s BeginPlay set his MapView to the right world rotation (so that the minimap’s North marker aligns with what you want to be north).
3. Make sure the MapView doesn’t inherit yaw by unchecking the built-in setting, but you’ve probably found that already.

Hope this helps!

[anonymous_user_7eabd1c8]

Hi!

I just recently purchased this plugin as it looks fantastic. I have run into some initial issues however and was hoping you might be able to help me solve them.

First of all is that the fog of visibility shape is not circular, it is a sort of rounded square with two hard edges. These images should explain better:

Any ideas on how I could make this the circular shape shown in the preview screenshots?

Also I have noticed a rather annoying flickering effect on the fog of when played in the editor. Hopefully it is visible in the attached video:

It is a little tricky to see but definitely there. Any suggestion how to eliminate this would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

[Zhi_Kang_Shao]

Hi Rob,

First off thank you for purchasing the plugin and for bringing this bug under my attention. I know what is causing the fog of revealer not to be round. UE4.16 changed the behavior of one of the most basic material nodes (BreakOutFloat2Components) to lose information about negative values. This affected some other parts of the plugin too which have been fixed, but it seems I’ve missed a material. I will be submitting an update to fix this issue, but in the meantime you can fix it locally by replacing the first part of that M_Revealer_Circle material with this:

As for the flickering, I’m not sure. Let me think about that some more.

[anonymous_user_7eabd1c8]

Hi,

Thanks for the prompt reply. Your suggestion has fixed the Revealer and it works as intended now, thanks very much. I am still noticing the flickering that I previously mentioned but will continue to look and see if I can find the root of the problem.

Cheers