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Location-based game

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The location-based game example shows how to position and orient a Player GameObject on a map using a GPS device or using the editor directly. The scene set a pin on a 2D map that includes building outline data and other procedurally generated geo features from Mapbox’s data that you can toggle and style as needed. This example uses a custom map style from Mapbox Studio, but it can be swapped with any other map style.

Add a Player​

The Player GameObject is a 3D model representing the player’s location on the map. Player moves and rotates along with LocationProvider, a GameObject that captures real or simulated location.

Any GameObject can represent the player in this scene. To use a different 3D model:

  • Remove the original Player object, add the new model into the scene, and position it at 0,0,0.
  • Add the Immediate Position With Location Provider and Rotate With Location Provider components to this GameObject.
  • Attach the Map object to the Map field in Immediate Position With Location Provider.
  • The custom Player will show up on the map and be able to move.

Understand the LocationProvider script​

The LocationProvider GameObject holds a collection of scripts to determine a player’s location, either in the real world (with GPS, on a device) or simulated in Unity (with manually added coordinates). Without these scripts, the location would be hard-coded in the AbstractMap script.

There are several different Location Provider scripts:

  • DeviceLocationProvider: Uses GPS data on a device. The Player GameObject follows the location on the map reported by the GPS device update.
  • EditorLocationProvider: Is like DeviceLocationProvider, but for testing inside Unity.
  • LocationArrayEditorLocationProvider: Allows the Player GameObject to be moved across a set of points entered as latitude, longitude coordinates in an array.
  • TransformLocationProvider: Makes the Player GameObject follow the position and rotation of another GameObject.
  • DeviceLocationProviderAndroidNative: Uses GPS data optimized for Android devices.

Benefits and limitations​

With the Location Based Game example, you can create a zoomable, pannable map that a Player can move around. Use it to look at real world map data from a top-down view, like a paper map. But, it is not ideal for building 3D scenes with a more flexible camera view. This is like the Zoomable Map example, which acts similarly to Location Based Game, but does not have a Player GameObject.

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