Retail radar/compass pseudocode — 2026-07-10

Oracle and scope

This note records the primary retail behavior used by acdream's retained radar port. The oracle is the September 2013 named client:

gmRadarUI fields: named-retail/acclient.h:54506-54548
color/shape: gmRadarUI::GetBlipColor 0x004D76F0, gmRadarUI::GetBlipShape 0x004D7B60
coordinates/compass/draw: UpdateCoordinates 0x004D8C80, UpdateCompassTokens 0x004D9060, DrawObjects 0x004D9380, DrawChildren 0x004D9720
cadence/list maintenance: UseTime 0x004D98A0, AddObject 0x004D9A00, Init 0x004D9B90, PostInit 0x004D9D30
production DAT layout: LayoutDesc 0x21000074 in 2026-06-25-retail-ui-layout-dump.json

The older AC2D-derived 1.18 × range, rotating player arrow, and horizontal scrolling compass strip are rejected by the named retail implementation.

Retained UI ownership

The production root is a 120×140 gmRadarUI element of class 0x10000010. Custom properties set center (60,60) (0x1000002E, nested 0x1000002F/30) and pixel radius 50 (0x1000002D). LayoutImporter owns the static DAT children and media. A dedicated UiRadar owns the dynamic draw/tick/input behavior. Core owns the pure projection, classification, marker geometry, compass, and coordinate algorithms. GameWindow supplies live snapshots and selection/settings actions only.

This is a screen-space retained panel. It is not an ImGui panel and does not use the raw world-space TextRenderer overlay path.

Per-tick pseudocode

every 0.025 seconds:
    range = player is outdoors ? 75 : 25
    heading = physical player heading in degrees
    move N/E/S/W child tokens around radar center
    if CoordinatesOnRadar and LandDefs.gid_to_lcoord(playerCell):
        ns = (lcoordY - 1024) * 0.1 + 0.5
        ew = (lcoordX - 1024) * 0.1 + 0.5
        coordinateText = abs(ns) + N/S + "," + abs(ew) + E/W
        show footer/text
    else:
        hide footer/text

for each maintained object except the player:
    require a physics/world entity
    require RadarBehavior in { ShowMovement=2, ShowAttacking=3, ShowAlways=4 }

    relative = convert object position into player's oriented frame
    if relative.X² + relative.Y² >= (range - 1)²:
        continue

    scale = radarPixelRadius / range
    x = trunc(centerX + relative.X * scale)
    y = trunc(centerY - relative.Y * scale)
    rgbBrightness = abs(relative.Z) < 5 ? 1.0 : 0.65

    color = exact _blipColor override 1..10, otherwise retail classification
    shape = fellowship/allegiance/PK relationship shape, otherwise Plus
    draw marker pixels
    if selected: draw the open selection outline at offsets ±3

After all object blips, draw the player's fixed bright-green center plus. Hover selects the nearest projected blip within squared distance 36; its name is the tooltip. A left click selects that object.

The lock button drives the existing retained-window drag gate; the drag affordance is hidden while locked. Completed moves are clamped inside the UI root and persisted per character through SettingsStore.

Production assets

Role	Element	Rect	RenderSurface
Face	`0x1000003F`	`(0,0) 120×120`	`0x06004CC1`
Coordinate footer	`0x1000003E`	`(0,120) 120×18`	`0x06004CC0`
N / E / S / W	`0x10000040..43`	four 10×9 tokens	`0x060011FB`, `0x06001938`, `0x0600193A`, `0x0600193C`
Lock	`0x10000619`	`(6,6) 27×27`	`0x060074B7` / `0x060074B8`
Drag	`0x100006A3`	`(87,6) 27×27`	`0x060074C9`

The child token orbit uses center + (sin(angle), cos(angle)) * magnitude with angles N=heading+π, E=heading+π/2, S=heading, W=heading+3π/2.

Wire contract

PublicWeenieDesc flag 0x00100000 carries nullable byte RadarBlipColor; flag 0x00800000 carries nullable byte RadarBehavior. Absent is distinct from an explicitly transmitted zero. Both values flow through CreateObject.Parsed, WorldSession.EntitySpawn, and ClientObjectTable.

Do not infer ShowMovement/ShowAttacking from local motion. Retail's InqShowableOnRadar accepts values 2, 3, and 4 directly; server/quality changes are authoritative.

4.1 KiB Raw Blame History Unescape Escape