[sldev] Option to make minimap display map data?

[Melinda Green]

Tateru Nino wrote:
>
>
> Melinda Green wrote:
>> Feilen wrote:
>>   
>>> I've often noticed that the map displays full color incremental 
>>> screenshots of an entire sim, while the minimap simply layers on grey 
>>> for wherever prims are. Though this can sometimes be useful, the grey is 
>>> very often skyboxes or useless data. Could there be an option to make 
>>> the minmap display simple map data, for a more static, general but 
>>> detailed look at the sim, rather than the current prims on display?
>>>     
>>
>> You mean like the "terrain" tab on the main map? Sure, that could be 
>> done but then we start to erase the differences between main and 
>> mini-map. The mini-map is more for seeing symbolic representations so I 
>> suspect that's not a great idea, however it might be a good idea to only 
>> draw gray for prims within some vertical range around your current 
>> elevation.
>>   
> Certainly, for many sims, the overall appearance of the minimap is 
> either entirely gray or almost entirely gray. That, in itself, seems 
> to obviate the purpose of having an image in it at all :)
>
> Over time, though, the creeping gray has more or less trained me out 
> of really using the minimap (except for spotting campers and bots). It 
> doesn't provide me enough information to be useful on a day-to-day basis.

That's why I suggested the idea of only displaying gray for objects that 
are within a given vertical range of your avatar.If you're above that 
threshold then it'd make sense to stop drawing the terrain, but when 
you're low, such a height filter would "roll back the creeping gray" 
while making the map make more sense at all elevations. I *think* the 
mini-map has that object/height data but I'm not certain. Aimee would 
know for sure.

-Melinda