English

Overview

The Sandbox Editor has a built in tool for creating minimaps. Note that Scaleform needs to be installed in order to use minimaps.

Preparing to Create a Minimap

When creating a minimap, there are certain console variables that are better left turned off. Specific adjustment of CVars for minimaps are controlled in the MapScreenshotSettings.xml file.

You can edit this file, located in the <root>\Editor\ folder, with a text editor. There is also a shortcut to the file built into the MiniMap Tool in the RollupBar.

A lot of the settings contained in the MapScreenShotSettings can be tweaked to create the most desirable results, but make sure to create a backup copy of the original MapscreenshotSettings.xml.

The standing settings are shown here:

Code Block

language	html/xml

<settings>
  <r_HDRRendering value="1"/>
  <r_PostProcessEffects value="1"/>
  <r_MotionBlur value="0"/>
  <e_ScreenShotQuality value="0"/>
  <e_ViewDistRatio value="100000000"/>
  <r_DisplayInfo value="0"/>
  <e_StreamCgfPoolSize value="128" />
  <e_VegetationSpritesDistanceRatio value="20"/>
  <e_ViewDistRatioVegetation value="100"/>
  <e_Lods value="0"/>
  <e_Vegetation value="0"/>
  <e_TerrainOcclusionCulling value="0"/>
  <e_OcclusionVolumes value="0"/>
</settings>

For higher quality, you can adjust the Camera Height and Resolution settings from the Mini Map tool itself. In addition, you can also change some of the lines in the .xml file, or add new CVar commands.

These settings will raise the quality and the amount of objects visible.

Here is an example of some higher quality settings:

Code Block

language	html/xml

<e_TerrainDetailMaterials value="100000">
<e_TerrainDetailMaterialsViewDistZ value="1000000">
<e_LodRatio value="0">
<e_ViewDistRatio value="100000">

Creating a Minimap

First, open the desired level in the Sandbox Editor.

Next, open the MiniMap function located in the RollupBar, on the Terrain panel.

After pressing the MiniMap button, a green bounding box, and a smaller blue "selection" box will appear on the terrain. It is helpful to zoom far away from the terrain in order to see the entire area.

If you cannot see the terrain after zooming out, try increasing the ViewDistance setting under the Environment tab.

To move the minimap bounding box, click on a different section of the terrain where you want to create your minimap.

The green bounding box shows the area that will be made into a minimap image, adjusting the camera height will therefore change the size of it. To change the Camera Height, put the preferred height into the input box.

Make sure that the minimap bounding box is actually bigger than the actual play area of your map. Failing to do so can lead to anomalies if the player stands on the border of your map.

Adjusting the Resolution in the minimap properties will increase the size of the minimap image that the Editor generates. For example, choosing a resolution of 2048 will give you a minimap image of 2048x2048 pixels.

Warning
You should only choose to use very large resolutions (8192 or 16384) if you are running the editor on a very high spec system with a minimum of 8 GB of ram.

After you have moved the box and set the Resolution and Camera Height, select the Output directory and one of both of the file formats (.dds and .tif). Now press Generate MiniMap.

A quick succession of images will flash in the upper left corner of the Editor, showing that your minimap is being created; this can take a few minutes depending on the Camera Height, Resolution and MapScreenshotSettings.xml.

After the editor has finished, your minimap will be placed in the same folder as the currently opened .cry file along with an .xml file.

All the associated files (*.tif, *.dds & *.xml) will adopt the level file name.

The .xml file provides the CryENGINE with the map coordinates so that the player position is correctly displayed on the minimap.

Example from Forest level:

Code Block

language	html/xml

<MetaData>
<MiniMap Filename="Forest.dds" startX="0.0" startY="0.0" endX="1024.0" endY="1024.0" width="1024" height="1024"/>
</MetaData>

Note
The generated levelname.tif will require rotating 90 Clock-Wise in an image editing program, to match the the terrain texture orientation.

Save & reload the editor to see the minimap active in the HUD.

Excerpt

hidden	true

Use Sandbox and an image editor to create high resolution mini maps for in game use.

Chinese

创建“迷你地图”

Sandbox 编辑器有一个内置工具用以创建“迷你地图”。注意使用“迷你地图”需要安装 Scaleform。

准备创建“迷你地图”

当创建“迷你地图”时，最好让某些控制台变量处于关闭状态。在 "MapScreenshotSettings.xml" 文件中控制“迷你地图”的 Cvars 的特定调整。您可以用文本编辑器编辑此文件，它的位置在*\编辑器*文件夹。Rollup 栏上的“迷你地图工具”也内置有此文件的快捷键。

在 MapScreenShotSetting 中含有的许多设置可以进行微调以创建最佳预期的结果，但是请确保创建一个原始文件 “MapscreenshotSettings.xml”的备份副本。现有设置如下所示：

<settings>
  <r_HDRRendering value="0"/>
  <r_PostProcessEffects value="0"/>
  <e_ScreenShotQuality value="0"/>
  <e_ViewDistRatio value="100000000"/>
  <e_TerrainDetailMaterialsViewDistZ value="100000000"/>
  <r_DisplayInfo value="0"/>
  <e_StreamCgfPoolSize value="128" />
  <e_VegetationSpritesDistanceRatio value="20"/>
  <e_ViewDistRatioVegetation value="100"/>
  <e_Lods value="0"/>
  <e_TerrainLodRatio value="0"/>
  <e_Vegetation value="0"/>
  <e_TerrainOcclusionCulling value="0"/>
  <e_OcclusionVolumes value="0"/>
</settings>

为了达到更高质量，您可以调整“迷你地图”工具中的*摄像机高度*和*分辨率*设置。除此之外，您也可以改变 xml 文件中的某些行，或者添加 Cvar 新命令。这些设置将会提高可见对象的质量和数量。此处有一个高质量设置的示例：

<e_TerrainDetailMaterials value="100000">
<e_TerrainDetailMaterialsViewDistZ value="1000000">
<e_LodRatio value="0">
<e_ViewDistRatio value="100000">