Notice: This repository is not being actively maintained anymore. If anyone wishes to continue the development of the project, please create a fork of the repository and release future versions there.

This library does not bring anything gamechanging to the table, it's created to stop a decade long era of bad practices regarding map zones. An array of ~350 zones dumped (or manually converted?) from the game has been around for such a long time, but in that time I've never seen a satisfactory API for them. Let's look at an implementation from Emmet_'s South Central Roleplay.

stock GetLocation(Float:fX, Float:fY, Float:fZ)
{
    enum e_ZoneData
    {
        e_ZoneName[32 char],
        Float:e_ZoneArea[6]
    };
    new const g_arrZoneData[][e_ZoneData] =
    {
        // ...
    };
    new
        name[32] = "San Andreas";

    for (new i = 0; i != sizeof(g_arrZoneData); i ++)
    {
        if (
            (fX >= g_arrZoneData[i][e_ZoneArea][0] && fX <= g_arrZoneData[i][e_ZoneArea][3]) &&
            (fY >= g_arrZoneData[i][e_ZoneArea][1] && fY <= g_arrZoneData[i][e_ZoneArea][4]) &&
            (fZ >= g_arrZoneData[i][e_ZoneArea][2] && fZ <= g_arrZoneData[i][e_ZoneArea][5]))
        {
            strunpack(name, g_arrZoneData[i][e_ZoneName]);

            break;
        }
    }
    return name;
}

stock GetPlayerLocation(playerid)
{
    new
        Float:fX,
        Float:fY,
        Float:fZ,
        string[32],
        id = -1;

    if ((id = House_Inside(playerid)) != -1)
    {
        fX = HouseData[id][housePos][0];
        fY = HouseData[id][housePos][1];
        fZ = HouseData[id][housePos][2];
    }
    // ...
    else GetPlayerPos(playerid, fX, fY, fZ);

    format(string, 32, GetLocation(fX, fY, fZ));
    return string;
}

If you didn't get the reference, you should probably check out this repository. GetPlayerLocation most likely uses format to prevent this bug from occurring, but the risk is still there and arrays should never be returned in PAWN. Let's take a look at another implementation that even I used a long time ago.

stock GetPointZone(Float:x, Float:y, Float:z, zone[] = "San Andreas", len = sizeof(zone))
{
    for (new i, j = sizeof(Zones); i < j; i++)
    {
        if (x >= Zones[i][zArea][0] && x <= Zones[i][zArea][3] && y >= Zones[i][zArea][1] && y <= Zones[i][zArea][4] && z >= Zones[i][zArea][2] && z <= Zones[i][zArea][5])
        {
            strunpack(zone, Zones[i][zName], len);
            return 1;
        }
    }
    return 1;
}

stock GetPlayerZone(playerid, zone[], len = sizeof(zone))
{
    new Float:pos[3];
    GetPlayerPos(playerid, pos[0], pos[1], pos[2]);

    for (new i, j = sizeof(Zones); i < j; i++)
    {
        if (x >= Zones[i][zArea][0] && x <= Zones[i][zArea][3] && y >= Zones[i][zArea][1] && y <= Zones[i][zArea][4] && z >= Zones[i][zArea][2] && z <= Zones[i][zArea][5])
        {
            strunpack(zone, Zones[i][zName], len);
            return 1;
        }
    }
    return 1;
}

First of all, what do we see? A lot of code repetition. That's easy to fix in this case, but what if we also needed either the min/max position of the zone? We'd have to loop through the zones again or take a different approach. Which approach does this library take? Functions like GetMapZoneAtPoint and GetPlayerMapZone do not return the name of the zone, they return an identificator of it. The name or positions of the zone must be fetched using another function. In addition to that, I rebuilt the array of zones myself since the one used basically everywhere seems to be faulty according to this post.

Simply install to your project:

sampctl package install kristoisberg/samp-map-zones

Include in your code and begin using the library:

#include <map-zones>

• INVALID_MAP_ZONE_ID = MapZone:-1
  • The return value of several functions when no map zone was matching the criteria.
• MAX_MAP_ZONE_NAME = 27
  • The length of the longest map zone name including the null character.
• MAX_MAP_ZONE_AREAS = 13
  • The most areas associated with a map zone.

• MapZone:GetMapZoneAtPoint(Float:x, Float:y, Float:z)
  • Returns the ID of the map zone the point is in or INVALID_MAP_ZONE_ID if it isn't in any. Alias: GetMapZoneAtPoint3D.
• MapZone:GetPlayerMapZone(playerid)
  • Returns the ID of the map zone the player is in or INVALID_MAP_ZONE_ID if it isn't in any. Alias: GetPlayerMapZone3D.
• MapZone:GetVehicleMapZone(vehicleid)
  • Returns the ID of the map zone the vehicle is in or INVALID_MAP_ZONE_ID if it isn't in any. Alias: GetVehicleMapZone3D.
• MapZone:GetMapZoneAtPoint2D(Float:x, Float:y)
  • Returns the ID of the map zone the point is in or INVALID_MAP_ZONE_ID if it isn't in any. Does not check the Z-coordinate.
• MapZone:GetPlayerMapZone2D(playerid)
  • Returns the ID of the map zone the player is in or INVALID_MAP_ZONE_ID if it isn't in any. Does not check the Z-coordinate.
• MapZone:GetVehicleMapZone2D(vehicleid)
  • Returns the ID of the map zone the vehicle is in or INVALID_MAP_ZONE_ID if it isn't in any. Does not check the Z-coordinate.
• bool:IsValidMapZone(MapZone:id)
  • Returns true or false depending on if the map zone is valid or not.
• bool:GetMapZoneName(MapZone:id, name[], size = sizeof(name))
  • Retrieves the name of the map zone. Returns true or false depending on if the map zone is valid or not.
• bool:GetMapZoneSoundID(MapZone:id, &soundid)
  • Retrieves the sound ID of the map zone. Returns true or false depending on if the map zone is valid or not.
• bool:GetMapZoneAreaCount(MapZone:id, &count)
  • Retrieves the count of areas associated with the map zone. Returns true or false depending on if the map zone is valid or not.
• GetMapZoneAreaPos(MapZone:id, &Float:minX = 0.0, &Float:minY = 0.0, &Float:minZ = 0.0, &Float:maxX = 0.0, &Float:maxY = 0.0, &Float:maxZ = 0.0, start = 0)
  • Retrieves the coordinates of an area associated with the map zone. Returns the array index for the area or -1 if none were found. See the usage in in the examples section.
• GetMapZoneCount()
  • Returns the count of map zones in the array. Could be used for iteration purposes.

CMD:whereami(playerid) {
    new MapZone:zone = GetPlayerMapZone(playerid);

    if (zone == INVALID_MAP_ZONE_ID) {
        return SendClientMessage(playerid, 0xFFFFFFFF, "probably in the ocean, mate");
    }

    new name[MAX_MAP_ZONE_NAME], soundid;
    GetMapZoneName(zone, name);
    GetMapZoneSoundID(zone, soundid);

    new string[128];
    format(string, sizeof(string), "you are in %s", name);

    SendClientMessage(playerid, 0xFFFFFFFF, string);
    PlayerPlaySound(playerid, soundid, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0);
    return 1;
}

new zone = ZONE_RICHMAN, index = -1, Float:minX, Float:minY, Float:minZ, Float:maxX, Float:maxY, Float:maxZ;

while ((index = GetMapZoneAreaPos(zone, minX, minY, minZ, maxX, maxY, maxZ, index + 1) != -1) {
    printf("%f %f %f %f %f %f", minX, minY, minZ, maxX, maxY, maxZ);
}

stock MapZone:GetPlayerOutsideMapZone(playerid) {
    new House:houseid = GetPlayerHouseID(playerid), Float:x, Float:y, Float:z;

    if (houseid != INVALID_HOUSE_ID) { // if the player is inside a house, get the exterior location of the house
        GetHouseExteriorPos(houseid, x, y, z);
    } else if (!GetPlayerPos(playerid, x, y, z)) { // the player isn't connected, presuming that GetPlayerHouseID returns INVALID_HOUSE_ID in that case 
        return INVALID_MAP_ZONE_ID;
    }

    return GetMapZoneAtPoint(x, y, z);
}

To test, simply run the package:

sampctl package run