Basemap layers

You can use one or more basemap layers to provide visual and geographic context for the data layers displayed.

Basemap layer types

There are two fundamental types of basemap layers: vector tile and image tile. There are many vector tile styles available, such as streets and streets night, gray canvas, navigation, and topographic. Image tiles include satellite imagery, ocean, hillshade, and others.

Vector tile layers contain a vector representation of the data and a separate visual style. Tile access performance combined means vector tile layers can adapt to any display resolution across device types.

In addition to the default vector basemap styles, you can create custom vector basemap styles with ArcGIS Vector Tile Style Editor.

Image tile layers display pre-rendered image or raster data stored as tiles of .png or .jpeg images that can be displayed at different scales.

For a complete list of styles, see the Basemap layer service topic in the Mapping APIs and location services guide.

Basemaps

Basemap layers are organized as a basemap and you use the Basemap property of the ArcGIS Map to control the basemap in your scene.

The following are the source and source types to create a Basemap to use in your ArcGIS Map.

Source	Source type
Basemap layer	Basemap
Web map	Basemap
Image tile layer	Image layer
Vector tile layer	Vector tile layer

Basemaps from the basemap layer service

The basemap layer service provides vector tile and image tile global basemap layers in a variety of styles to use in mapping applications.

There are two ways to access basemap layers: through the basemap styles service or the tile services. You can access the basemap styles service with a URL and parameters to get the JSON definition for a specific basemap style. To see a complete list of styles, visit the Basemap styles service (v1) in the Mapping APIs and location services guide, and the Basemap styles service (v2) in the ArcGIS REST APIs documentation.

With the plugin, you can use the standard endpoint formatted as follows.

For the basemap styles service (v1):

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https://basemaps-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/styles/{basemapStyle}?type=webmap

For the basemap styles service (v2):

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https://basemapstyles-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/styles/v2/webmaps/{data_source}/{style}

For information about tile services, see the image tile layers and vector tile layers sections.

Basemaps from web maps

As mentioned previously, you can create a basemap from a URL that references a web map by providing the item page URL or the JSON, typically read from an item with type Web Map which is stored in an ArcGIS Portal.

You can load any web map that contains image tile layers, vector tile layers, or reference layers as a basemap. It is possible to use web maps that contain other layer types, but they will not be displayed in the viewport.

The SDK provides several preset basemaps from the Map Creator UI. These also use the basemap layer service with the web map format.

There are two ways to format the URL to create a basemap from a web map:

Item page URL
REST endpoint URL

Set a basemap

In the Basemap panel is a list of selectable, preset basemaps. You can also set a basemap from a basemap layer service, a web map, an image tile layer, a vector tile layer, or a local tile package.

If you do not want to set a basemap, click the ArcGIS Map game object in the Hierarchy window and empty the Basemap field in the Inspector window.

The preset basemaps are listed in the World Basemaps for Developers group in ArcGIS Online. Preset basemaps do not include the Human Geography Map and Human Geography Dark Map.

To set a custom basemap:

Click the Basemap tab.
Click + Add New at the bottom of the list. A pop-up window opens.
In the Source field, enter a service URL or a local file path.
- To use a basemap layer service or a web map, select Basemap from the Type drop-down list.
- To use an image tile layer service, select Image Layer from the Type drop-down list.
- To use a .tpk, or .tpkx tile package as a basemap source, copy and paste the local tile package file path, then select Image Layer from the Type drop-down list.
- To use a vector tile layer service, select Vector Tile Layer from the Type drop-down list.
- To use a .vtpk file package as a basemap source, copy and paste the local vector tile package file path, then select Vector Tile Layer from the Type drop-down list.
- To use a privately hosted web map or services, select the matching configuration from the Authentication drop-down list. For more information about using private content, see ArcGIS identity.
Type a Name for your basemap; this will be used to identify it in the basemap gallery.
Click Add to finish creating the custom basemap. The pop-up window closes.
Verify that the custom basemap is selected in the gallery.

To remove a custom basemap registry from the basemap gallery, click the X on the thumbnail.

Click the ArcGISMap in the Hierarchy window.
Expand the ArcGIS Map Component, then the Basemap section in the Inspector window.
Enter the online service URL for the basemap layer service, image tile layer service, or a local file package path in the Basemap field.
- To use a basemap layer service or a web map, select Basemap from the Type drop-down list.
- To use an image tile layer service, .tpk, or .tpkx tile package, select Image Layer from the Type drop-down list.
- To use a vector tile layer service or .vtpk tile package as a basemap source, select Vector Tile Layer from the Type drop-down list.
- To use a privately hosted web map or services, select the matching configuration from the Authentication drop-down list. For more information about using private content, see ArcGIS identity.

Set a basemap with ArcGISBasemap. If you want to use an image tile layer, vector tile layer, or a local tile package as the basemap, specify the layer type in the constructor.

You can find the sample code to set a Basemap in the ArcGISImagery value with ArcGISBasemapStyle class in the SampleAPIMapCreator.cs file. The sample script file is located in:

Assets/Samples/ArcGIS Maps SDK for Unity/[version]/Sample Content/Scenes/Scripts/APISample

Refer to FAQ for information about troubleshooting data loading issues.