Minecraft wiki entry for Map, associated text: In Java Edition, every map contains a marker that marks the position of the player, and points in the same direction as the player. When a player moves out of a map, a big white dot appears and moves relative to the player's position. The pointer either disappears when the player moves away a certain distance from the border of the map or, in case of explorer maps, the big white dot changes to a smaller white dot. The distance required for the small white dot to appear(explorer maps) or for the big dot to vanish (normal maps) changes with the scaling of the map.