Yeah I think so. It's not the simplest thing to test, but I can take whatever existing map and extend the canvas horizontally or vertically. I think if the map is wider than 4:3 you'll get the horizontal pan, which to me feels pretty natural, like the map sorta behaving as I'd expect for the drag around survey view. If the map is narrower than 4:3 you'll get the vertical pan at max zoom out instead, and to me this feels sorta awkward and I can't quickly zoom out to scan and pan, but have to drag the cursor to see the bottom. The mouse wheel up/down scales the height. I'm not sure if there is a way to define the mapview window or the marquee rectangle on the mini as something other than 4:3 or whatever it's using for the actual field of view? I think if there is, it's within tripleA or if tripleA is carrying that over from windows, like the game engine rather than in the map.properties of whatever specific map?
The Tutorial map is an interesting case, cause it shows the Bung World War II Europe 1940 map which has almost not pan at max zoom out. Like it is only just the tiniest bit wider than 4:3 so there is no play in the grab and drag unless you first zoom in. The minimap for the tutorial is a swatch at 2:1 currently. So the image shown in the mini is stretched. The map view holds at 4:3 but the dimensions of the minimap will change the shape of that rectangle as it's it's displayed on the mini. If the baseline and mini don't match, you will see a slightly different shaped rectangle on the mini, but really it's the 4:3 image being stretched. Here's a screen showing the current default for the map called "Tutorial"
Screenshot 2024-04-03 022752.png
Here's how it looks when I replace the 2:1 smallMap image in the map folder with one that matches the aspect ratio of the Tutorial baseline. You can see the minimap rectangle is now displaying as normal and the main map has the vertical up/down drag. The field of view orients top right so the bottom of the board is cropped off at max zoom out.
Screenshot 2024-04-03 023557.png
I think the reason the mini is at 2:1 in the default is so that the map can zoom all the way out, even though it heavily distorts the mini to achieve that. The zoom for the field of view on the main map seems like it can be at least partial controlled by the smallMap that the minimap is using?
I've been saying 4:3 but it's kinda hard to tell honestly, my screen is at 16:10 so it could just be that is the display area and it's just the mini that's stretching, same as in the above. I guess someone could maybe confirm if your screen is at 16:9 and the rectangle on the mini matches that with a slightly wider view then I guess we'd know it's keying off the resolution screen size in windows for that?
But anyway, the idea would just be to make sure the baseline map is wider if you want a horizontal pan at max zoom out, like to fit the map by Height as opposed to Width. Otherwise you'll get a crop like in the Tutorial map, with the up/down drag. I think most players will play at some intermediate zoom, but then mouse wheel to max zoom out for the quick scan. That's what I do at any rate.
There aren't a whole lot of tripleA maps that have a square or vertical orientation rather than a horizontal orientation, but there are a couple. In some of the fantasy games, or simpler maps like chess or capture the flag etc those type games set in a square or taller. Maybe someone who has more experience with various maps could let us know how it feels for those. Mostly I've been playing tripleA maps that are wider than they are tall, like the World War II world maps. But I think anything too square-ish and you get a similar thing happening with the zoom.
