OPEN WORLD MAP SYSTEM PRO

A scalable minimap and world map system for massive World Partition worlds.

Open World Map System Pro turns large Unreal Engine worlds into a multi-resolution tile map and streams only the tiles currently needed on screen. No giant world-map texture, no need to keep the entire level loaded, and predictable runtime memory usage even for very large maps.

Documentation: Download

Demo: Download

THE PROBLEM

Traditional map workflows usually assume the whole world can be loaded and captured from above. With large World Partition levels, that becomes slow, memory-heavy or impractical.

A single huge map texture also wastes memory because the full texture remains loaded even when the player only sees a small area.

THE SOLUTION

The editor baker processes the world tile by tile:

Load area -> Capture -> Save tile -> Unload -> Continue

Only a small part of the world needs to be loaded at once.

The resulting map is stored as a pyramid of multiple resolution levels. At runtime, only visible tiles are streamed in. If a high-resolution tile is not available yet, the system temporarily uses its lower-resolution parent tile so the map remains filled instead of flickering.

Runtime memory depends on what is visible, not on the total size of the world.

MAP BAKER

Open:
Tools -> Open World Map -> Map Baker

Before baking, the tool estimates:

• Finest-level tile count

• Total tile count

• Disk usage

• Runtime tile memory

• Estimated bake time

• Mapped area in km²

Configurations above 4,000 tiles are rejected to help avoid excessive asset counts that can negatively affect the Content Browser, Asset Registry and cooking workflow.

Bake Missing creates only tiles that do not already exist. This makes it possible to resume cancelled bakes or regenerate missing tiles without rebuilding the entire map.

Baking runs in a separate Unreal process with rendering enabled, while your current level remains open. Live progress, cancellation and diagnostics are included.

The complete bake workflow is also available through command line for automation and build machines.

MINIMAP AND WORLD MAP

One UMG widget supports both modes.

Minimap:

• Follows the player

• Configurable world radius

• Optional rotating map

• Fixed player arrow support

• Off-screen marker clamping

World Map:

• Mouse panning

• Zoom toward cursor

• World-position click detection

• Markers and POIs

• Waypoints

• Multiplayer pings

• Exploration fog

CUSTOMIZATION

The map appearance is controlled through one style configuration.

Customize:

• Background

• Tile tint

• Mask shape

• Frame

• Border

• Fog color

• Player arrow

• Marker sizes

• Grid

No custom map material is required.

MARKER SYSTEM

Add the included marker component to an actor and it can appear on the map.

Each marker can define:

• Marker type

• Label

• Visibility

• Rotation

• Edge clamping

• Zoom visibility

• Owner-only visibility

• Team visibility

• Global visibility

Marker definitions are lightweight Data Assets.

Built-in procedural shapes:

• Circle

• Square

• Diamond

• Triangle

• Pin

• Cross

Because these markers are generated procedurally, they require no texture atlas. Custom textures can still be used when desired.

WORLD PARTITION POIs

Points of Interest can be added with actor tags.

Examples:
OWM.POI
OWM.POI.Village

The baker reads POIs from World Partition actor descriptors, allowing them to be discovered without loading every actor into memory.

EXPLORATION FOG

Optional exploration fog reveals the world as the player moves.

Features:

• Configurable grid resolution

• Circular reveal areas

• Only changed regions are uploaded

• Compact save data

• Existing saves can be resampled after resolution changes

At the default resolution, the fog grid uses about 0.25 MB of runtime memory. Save data can remain only a few kilobytes depending on explored area.

MULTIPLAYER

Team markers and pings support replication.

Personal data such as exploration fog, waypoints and discovery state remains local and is not unnecessarily replicated.

Ping requests are validated server-side with:

• Rate limits

• Burst allowance

• Max pings per player

• Max pings per team

• Ping lifetime

• Max label length

• Map-boundary validation

Invalid requests are rejected by the server.

No changes to your Player Controller, Game Mode or Game State are required. The plugin creates and manages the required runtime systems automatically.

SAVING

Map progress is exposed as a plain save struct that can be stored inside your existing save system.

The save includes version and atlas information, allowing the system to detect when save data belongs to a different map.

If you do not have a save system, Blueprint nodes are included for saving and loading map data directly.

INCLUDED

• Runtime C++ module

• Client-side UI module

• Editor module

• Full Blueprint API

• Around 30 Blueprint-accessible functions

• Map baking tools

• Command-line baking

• Tile streaming

• Minimap

• World map

• Marker system

• Multiplayer pings

• Exploration fog

• Save/load support

• World Partition POIs

• PDF documentation

• Full C++ source code

The plugin itself contains no required content assets.

TESTING

123 automated tests are run against every release.

They cover:

• Projection

• Fog format

• Estimator

• Atlas

• Save format

• Tile streaming

• Full end-to-end bake

The tests are stored in the development test project and add nothing to your packaged game.

IMPORTANT LIMITS

The level must be saved before baking because the baker reads it from disk.

Large maps take time to bake. A second Unreal process is started before tile generation, and the estimated time shown in the editor includes startup.

Map orientation is fixed:
Up = World +X
Right = World +Y

The north setting changes compass interpretation but does not rotate baked tiles.

Tiles are captured Unlit from directly above. The system is designed to create a gameplay map, not a recreation of final level lighting.

TECHNICAL

Supported Unreal Engine versions:

• 5.5

• 5.6

• 5.7

• 5.8

Each version is provided as a separate build.

Tested platform:

• Windows

The descriptor also allows Linux, macOS, Android and iOS. The code contains no intentional platform-specific dependency, but these platforms have not yet been officially built and tested for this release.

Full source included.
No required precompiled binaries.
No bundled gameplay content.
Include-What-You-Use structure.

Open World Map System Pro is built for developers who need a world map that scales with the visible area instead of the total size of the world.

Bake the world once. Stream only what the player sees.

SUPPORT

[email protected]