ED Astrometrics: Maps and Visualizations
- Thread starter Orvidius
- Start date
Hi. I love the ED Astro site - great work you're doing. I've just started trying to use the Stellar Remnants map to hunt undiscovered black holes and neutron stars (looking where there are clusters and where there are gaps), and just had some suggestions/requests:
• Please could you do versions of the map with a coordinates grid overlaid? This would really help me identify where I currently am on the map.
• Please could you add a scale to the Z axis plots (i.e. X-axis and Y-axis 'sections' through the galaxy)? This would really help identify exactly where the cut-offs are on the galactic plane above and below which there are more neutrons.
• Can you think of any way of overlaying my route history from EDSM onto the map? This would really help me work out where I am and where I'm going.
Many thanks.
• Please could you do versions of the map with a coordinates grid overlaid? This would really help me identify where I currently am on the map.
• Please could you add a scale to the Z axis plots (i.e. X-axis and Y-axis 'sections' through the galaxy)? This would really help identify exactly where the cut-offs are on the galactic plane above and below which there are more neutrons.
• Can you think of any way of overlaying my route history from EDSM onto the map? This would really help me work out where I am and where I'm going.
Many thanks.
Hi there! Yeah, I'll look into the axis rulers, and grid overlays. I'll see what I can squeeze in. For the grid overlays, it may be a set of alternate links under each thumbnail, or something. Not sure yet.
Unfortunately the EDSM history is more difficult. It's not impossible, but right now it involves using the EDSM APIs for pulling commander histories, which need the individual commander API keys, and it's rate-limited too. So I'd have to have people give me their keys, and then the script on my side would have to check frequently for new updates. This wouldn't be bad with only a few commanders, but I couldn't scale it to hundreds. I'll put some thought into it though. What would likely work better, is an upload of journals like what I'm doing with the video creator. I'll have to think about options here.
Unfortunately the EDSM history is more difficult. It's not impossible, but right now it involves using the EDSM APIs for pulling commander histories, which need the individual commander API keys, and it's rate-limited too. So I'd have to have people give me their keys, and then the script on my side would have to check frequently for new updates. This wouldn't be bad with only a few commanders, but I couldn't scale it to hundreds. I'll put some thought into it though. What would likely work better, is an upload of journals like what I'm doing with the video creator. I'll have to think about options here.
What about a "once per [timeframe]" upload from EDSM per account? That would allow console users to partake while limiting bandwidth usage.
It doesn't work cleanly that way, unfortunately. The EDSM API requires asking for jump history by date range, a maximum of 7 days worth per request, and the requests are rate-limited. So if I start with a fresh commander, I have to ask for every week's data since the game launched (not knowing when the commander was created), just to catch up, and then a minimum of one data pull per week per commander, and considerably more if I try to keep it more current. That's not impossible, but it would need a queue mechanism to prioritize and schedule accordingly, and work within EDSM's rate limiter.
All of that can be done, but I don't want it to fill up over time with commanders that no longer check their maps after a while, since they'll still be queried. I'd probably have to expire people out if they don't look at their maps, or have new jump history data after a while (stopped playing, etc).
Plus, I'd have to add user logins to the website so that people can manage their EDSM API keys, etc.
I'll have to give it some more thought. Lots of things to consider, and it rapidly gets complicated.
Amusingly enough, I have some of this already coded, since I track my own history to make my own auto-updating map:
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Thanks for your replies. Actually regarding the Z-axis labels, I'm not too worried about that since having found your Star Class Height Graph (https://edastro.com/mapcharts/heightgraph.png) I now know exactly how the neutron stars are distributed on the Z-axis.
Regarding the travel history superimposed on the charts, yes I would definitely be happy to upload Journal files as needed, rather than having to interrogate EDSM each time. It you could have a version of the video creator that just creates the final route image instead of the video, but lets us choose one of your other charts (e.g. NSs) for the backdrop, that'd be perfect.
Regarding the travel history superimposed on the charts, yes I would definitely be happy to upload Journal files as needed, rather than having to interrogate EDSM each time. It you could have a version of the video creator that just creates the final route image instead of the video, but lets us choose one of your other charts (e.g. NSs) for the backdrop, that'd be perfect.
I've been wanting to add Z-axis rulers for a while (well, Y-axis, as far as the game is concerned), so I went ahead and hacked those in. They should start appearing on the website now. I designed the side views to have the "top" facing toward the main 2D map, but it wasn't clearly marked as such.
That's actually a pretty good idea on the video creator. I could have another drop-down selector to choose a backdrop (or multi-select or something) and have it build 2D maps alongside the video, or even instead of it, depending on what you choose. I'll give this some thought too.
That's actually a pretty good idea on the video creator. I could have another drop-down selector to choose a backdrop (or multi-select or something) and have it build 2D maps alongside the video, or even instead of it, depending on what you choose. I'll give this some thought too.
I have an update I've been working on, ready to test. I can't promise it's flawless, of course. 
I've added an alternate video timing method, at the suggestion of Redfox. It will base the animation speed on the actual times between jumps, but in order for this to work well with downtime between play sessions, etc, it skips these gaps if they go past a certain length of time. This is an option you can choose in the settings, after uploading the journals.
Let me know if you see any problems!
Still planned: Various 2D maps with your history overlaid, as selectable options from your journal upload as well. No ETA yet. I needed to do the other part first since it was incorporating some changes in the logic flow that will make additional features a little easier.
I've added an alternate video timing method, at the suggestion of Redfox. It will base the animation speed on the actual times between jumps, but in order for this to work well with downtime between play sessions, etc, it skips these gaps if they go past a certain length of time. This is an option you can choose in the settings, after uploading the journals.
Let me know if you see any problems!
Still planned: Various 2D maps with your history overlaid, as selectable options from your journal upload as well. No ETA yet. I needed to do the other part first since it was incorporating some changes in the logic flow that will make additional features a little easier.
I have some functionality working here now too. Your travel history that is generated during the video, can be overlaid onto some of the maps from the site. You can select these with checkboxes, and you will also get a download link to the raw overlay image as well.
Yeah, that was by chance. It runs on the mornings of the 1st and 15th of the month, with data through the previous evening. That's when everything is working correctly, and assumes that EDSM's nightly batches have completed on time.
EDIT: I might have to do a few manual runs along the way too. It'll be cool to see how DW2 shows up!
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Yeah, that was by chance. It runs on the mornings of the 1st and 15th of the month, with data through the previous evening. That's when everything is working correctly, and assumes that EDSM's nightly batches have completed on time.
EDIT: I might have to do a few manual runs along the way too. It'll be cool to see how DW2 shows up!
Nifty! Personally, I'd love if we got weekly updates while DWII is running so each waypoint gets a frame in the movie. But that's twice the current cadence, so I don't know if that works with whatever other constraints are in play.
Yeah, thinking on that further, I think I'm OK with weekly updates on it. I'm changing it to run on Mondays, so that it's always current up through the weekend.
I've added a spreadsheet to the website for Unknown Stars, which are stars that EDSM doesn't have a recorded type/class for. There aren't many, only 117, but it might be an interesting expedition project at some point to go and scan these.
EDIT: Example star: https://www.edsm.net/en/system/bodies/id/15749253/name/Pyraleau+EF-W+b20-2
EDIT: Example star: https://www.edsm.net/en/system/bodies/id/15749253/name/Pyraleau+EF-W+b20-2
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I've just found this...
The second word is amazing! (pick your first ) Thanks Orvidius, I think I'm likely to be spending way too long looking at your work!
The second word is amazing! (pick your first
) Thanks Orvidius, I think I'm likely to be spending way too long looking at your work!