Isometric map black screen

Question

I am trying to create an isometric map and I am very new to it. Please see the attached example map. While rendering it I've noticed that when my actor reaches the edges of the map the player can see the black screen after it which is not very nice. I wonder what are the best practices of dealing with it ? Do I need to show the black screen where the map ends, if not then what's the best way to avoid/hide it?

Answer 1

There are several options:

1. Have a non-scrolling background image which is more attractive than just pure black. This might make the game appear a bit more abstract. (example from Disgaea D2)
2. Add a decorative border which looks as if the game takes place on a tabletop or similar (Example from Rings of Power)
3. Design your maps with a non-reachable border region which is so wide that the player never moves close enough to the border to actually see it. This might be the most immersive solution but also the one which takes the most work because your maps need to be far larger. It also requires that the camera is bound to the player's position and that you can always come up with plausible obstacles to limit the player's movement.
4. Have the map loop around so there is no actual border the player can reach. This only feels plausible with very large maps which represent the surface of a complete planet.
5. Just stop scrolling when the player reaches the edge of the map (doesn't work well with a diamond-shaped map but works well with a square one).

Answer 2

There are multiple ways to solve this issue.

The first way to solve this would be to use procedural generation and simply create more terrain on the fly when the player reaches the edge of the map. Depending on what you currently have, this could be pretty hard to achieve.

The second would be to add walls to the map, so the player can't reach the edge of it. These don't need to be invisible walls, like some games do it (even AAA games). You can simply include some rocks or bergs there.

The third (and arguably the hardest) method would be to make the game world loop around, so if you reach one of the side of the world you see the other one, kind of like on a real globe.