Global Player Map Markers

Description:

 

In Vintage Story, player markers on the map disappear after a certain distance. This isn't an intentional design choice of the map, and is instead a consequence of server optimization. The server only sends entity data to clients that are within a certain distance of one another, and vanilla map markers rely on an active entity to apply the correct position and rotation data to the map marker.

 

This mod fixes this issue by tracking the position and rotation of every active client on the server and sending it to each client periodically. This packet is an array of 62 byte elements, with one element for each online player. This packet is only sent once every second, so shouldn't cause any lag.

 

When the map attempts to render a map marker for a player who has an unloaded entity, this mod renders its own custom map marker instead. This map marker utilizes a dummy entity built with the position and rotation information sent by the server, so it has all the features of a regular player map marker.

 

Due to the infrequent communication interval, the map marker itself only updates once every second. This is done for optimization purposes, as you don't really need to know the exact position and rotation of someone 5000 blocks away from you, and instead just want to know their general location.