Abandoned EDEA - your personal exploration assistant

Suntaclose

S
Exploration is my favorite activity in this wonderful game. Since I've started exploration, I always wanted some kind of journal to track visited stars and planets, I even created post on Reddit year ago asking FDev to add it. With 2.2 update my dream came true.

So let me introduce EDEA: Elite Dangerous Exploration Assistant. This app parses scan events from journal log files and presents them as a tree of visited stellar bodies where you can choose and see information about any of them. One of my goals was to create clear, well structured UI, so it doesn't look like geeky console application.

EDEA1.png​

Current features:
  • Parsing of "Scan" events from journal log files. Also "LoadGame" and "Rank" events are parsed to show info about current commander.
  • Creation of a tree-view of parsed stellar bodies (Stars -> Planets -> Moons).
  • Information about this bodies: Mass, Radius, Temperature, etc.
  • AU, Kelvins and some other units converted to more common and readable units.
  • Ability to bookmark any stellar body.
  • Ability to add notes to any stellar body.
  • Store parsed information in SQLite database.

Planned features:
  • Observe and parse journal log files in real time even when game is running.
  • Charts. For example chart showing % share of each planet/star type among all planet/star types you've found.
  • Manually attach screenshots to entries. Journal log stores information about saved screenshots and closest stellar object where screenshot was made, so it might be possible to attach screenshots automatically.
  • Share your findings with other through API. Possibly through integration with Elite Galaxy Online and EDSM.
  • Add in-game descriptions of star and planet types to UI.
  • Parse and show more information about rings.
  • Make portable version of app.

In progress:
  • Search bodies by name.
  • Display list of bodies in a raw, grid-like format with ability to filter and sort by any characteristic. For example you can filter only Neutron stars and sort them by their temperature to find hottest Neutron star you've ever discovered!

Known issues:
  • App doesn't parse files automatically, only at startup. You can reload/reparse app by clicking Reload button on Settings tab without modifying directory path.
  • If you use EDEA with multiple event logs folder, all events from different directories will be stored in one DB, so it's hard to tell to which folder each event belongs. Might be a problem if you use EDEA for multiple ED game instances (each with own logs directory).

How to use:
  • .NET Framework 4.5.2 is required.
  • Extract installation file from .zip.
  • Install MSI package like usual program. Desktop icon will be created.
  • During first launch app will try to detect your journal files directory, which is usually at "%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous". If folder was not found, app will prompt you to select directory manually. You can change it later in Settings tab.
  • You can find SQLite database with parsed and stored entries at %AppData%\Roaming\EDEA.

More screenshots:
EDEA2.png
EDEA3.png​

Please let me know what do you think about my application, should I continue its development, what features and improvements you would like to see. If you will encounter any bugs or crashes, leave any information you have in this thread (screenshot with error if any, your OS, etc).

Changelog:
v1.1.52 (Feb 12 2017)
  • Hotfix: v1.1.48 failed to run if it was first installation of EDEA app.

v1.1.48 (Feb 10 2017)
  • Improvement: significantly improved performance of stellar bodies tree building. This is CPU heavy operation which is done on every application start. Improvement must be noticeable if you have large data sets (1000+ scanned bodies) and/or slow CPU.
  • Improvement: manually entered data (Bookmarked bodies, Notes) is now stored both in DB and in file manualUserData.json, so from now it won't be lost between updates of EDEA.
  • Improvement: you can see events previously stored in DB even when disconnected from logs directory.
  • Fix: app crash on Search & Filter tab when disconnected from logs directory.
  • Fix: Tidally locked now properly detected.
  • Fix: Rings and materials are displayed on UI and stored in DB again.

v1.1.36 (Feb 6 2017)
  • Improvement: logs parsing performance must be improved.
  • Improvement: parsed events are now being saved to DB asynchronously in parallel thread, so application UI is not blocked during save (which might take a long time on first app run).
  • Improvement: previously parsed events are now read from DB, no "parse all log files on each app run" anymore. Only new files are parsed, only new events are saved to DB on application start.
  • Important: previously stored bookmarks and notes will be lost in this app version, sorry about that.

v1.1.26 (Feb 1 2017):
  • New feature: sortable grid-view of all stars and planets on Search & filter tab.
  • Fix: fixed app crash when star orbiting another star was recognized as planet.
  • Fix: fixed app freeze when previously stored logs directory location was not accessible anymore.
  • Improvement: App notifies user when logs directory is not accessible or empty and suggests to update directory path.
  • Improvement: App configuration (logs directory path, etc.) is now being stored at %AppData%\Roaming\EDEA in config.ini file.

v1.0.83 (Jan 29 2017):
  • First version released

Download: v1.1.52 from Dropbox
 
Last edited:

wolverine2710

Tutorial & Guide Writer
wolverine2710
Cool. Haven't tried it but it looks nice. I appreciate each and every third party tool created by authors who try to enhance the ED experience. Rep +1.

It would be very much appreciated if you could find some time to add it to EDCodex - edcodex.info.
 

st3ve

st3ve
Great, simple but informative. Thank you Suntaclose for your efforts. A portable version would be excellent, enabling use of the information on another machine. At the moment the programme hangs when it can't find a networked location for the log files.
 

st3ve

st3ve
EDEA has stopped working, probably my fault.

Sequence of events:-

1) Installed onto my laptop. (ED is on my PC, not switched on)
2) Window opened with no information in it.
3) Switched on my PC.
4) Entered the network file location of the ED log files.
5) EDEA window populated with my information.
I noted your comment in the OP "Store parsed information in SQLite database."
6) Closed EDEA on my laptop, switched off my PC.
7) Started EDEA, the window opened but remained totally blank, I got the programme not responding error.
8) Rebooted laptop, switched on PC, started EDEA. Same totally blank window.
9) Re-ran the .msi file and did a repair.
10) Started EDEA on laptop with PC running, the window opened but remained totally blank.
11) Uninstalled and reinstalled EDEA on my laptop.
12) Started EDEA on laptop with PC running, the window opened but remained totally blank.

Can you help me please?
 

Suntaclose

S
Thank you for detailed report, it's interesting case with network location. I think I've got what is the problem and possible way to handle it: when previously stored location is unreachable app should display data from database and also notify user that old location is unreachable/contains no files.

By totally blank you mean whole window is white, no controls at all, right? Re-installation should reset stored files location, but apparently it doesn't. In this case you have to wait for next release :( I've been working on next version today, so probably I will release hot-fix tomorrow. Also I've found critical bug in case when star orbits another star. It is being recognized as a planet and when you select it in the tree-view, app crashes.

As for portable version, I've added it to planned features list.
 
Last edited:

Suntaclose

S
New version released.

v1.1.26 (Feb 1 2017):
  • New feature: sortable grid-view of all stars and planets on Search & filter tab.
  • Fix: fixed app crash when star orbiting another star was recognized as planet.
  • Fix: fixed app freeze when previously stored logs directory location was not accessible anymore.
  • Improvement: App notifies user when logs directory is not accessible or empty and suggests to update directory path.
  • Improvement: App configuration (logs directory path, etc.) is now being stored at %AppData%\Roaming\EDEA in config.ini file.

EDEA3.png​

Download: v1.1.26 from Dropbox

st3ve, please try new version, I believe it should fix blank window problem. I haven't implemented "read from DB if old directory is not accessible" feature yet, it will take more time then few days, but at least you should be able to change directory path from Settings tab. Even if app still freezes because of wrong path, you can change directory path in config.ini at %AppData%\Roaming\EDEA. Please note that if you access network location it might take a lot of time (more than 5 seconds) and if network location is offline it might take even longer to respond. This doesn't depend on EDEA app and not much can be done.

P.S. do you guys know how to make attached screenshots thumbnail smaller, but with large version on click?
 
Last edited:

st3ve

st3ve
I'm afraid the same thing has happened.
On initial run Windows closed the programme as Non Responsive just as data populated the title bar, Cmdr: Ship: Credits: etc.
On restarting the programme, complete blank screen.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled. Run, straight to blank white screen. This part I do not understand. Is there configuration files being created that need to be uninstalled manually?

In answer to your question re: attached screenshots, my answer is No.

I hope you're going to tell us.
 

Suntaclose

S
st3ve said:
I'm afraid the same thing has happened.
On initial run Windows closed the programme as Non Responsive just as data populated the title bar, Cmdr: Ship: Credits: etc.
On restarting the programme, complete blank screen.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled. Run, straight to blank white screen. This part I do not understand. Is there configuration files being created that need to be uninstalled manually?

In answer to your question re: attached screenshots, my answer is No.

I hope you're going to tell us.
Click to expand...

I don't understand why app became non responsive after you've installed new version. New version doesn't use old config at all and should ask you for a new location on start (if default location was not found). Can you please send me content of config.ini in folder %AppData%\Roaming\EDEA? There should be path to directory which app tries to access.

Also, I just tried to reproduce this situation with offline network location and this is what I've got after 4 seconds:
EDEA-01.png

First 4 seconds window was blank, like you said, but then it was ok. Not sure yet why it's different for you.
 

st3ve

st3ve
I have uninstalled EDEA and manually deleted the EDEA folder in AppData.
Reinstalled EDEA.
Ran EDEA (it worked), entered the network address, pressed Reload, after a few seconds the information loaded correctly.
I browsed the data for a while, closed EDEA.
After a minute ran EDEA it went to the blank white screen and eventually Windows closed it.
I then directly edited the config.ini file and changed the address to point to a local directory (non network).
Ran EDEA and got a similar screen to the one you showed "Journal log files not accessible.......".
Using the Change button, I then browsed to Network folder. Pressed Reload and got the message EDEA is not responding and eventually Windows closed it.
 
Last edited:

st3ve

st3ve
I have copied the Saved Game files onto my laptop.
Uninstalled EDEA, deleted the AppData folder.
Reinstalled EDEA.
Ran EDEA, it worked first time.
Closed EDEA.
Ran EDEA, blank white screen not responding.
 

Suntaclose

S
st3ve said:
I have copied the Saved Game files onto my laptop.
Uninstalled EDEA, deleted the AppData folder.
Reinstalled EDEA.
Ran EDEA, it worked first time.
Closed EDEA.
Ran EDEA, blank white screen not responding.
Click to expand...

Wow, that changes a lot. Probably problem is not related to directory path, probably log files themselves contain something that breaks app. Can you zip your journal files ans send them to me?
 
Last edited:

st3ve

st3ve
I tried increasing numbers of log files. All on laptop (No network).

125 logs - 3.54 MB - 40 secs to load
This worked

126 logs - Extra 29kB - 42 secs to error
This failed with the Windows stopped working error
 

Suntaclose

S
st3ve said:
I tried increasing numbers of log files. All on laptop (No network).

125 logs - 3.54 MB - 40 secs to load
This worked

126 logs - Extra 29kB - 42 secs to error
This failed with the Windows stopped working error
Click to expand...

Well, I have only 53 files (605 KB) and CPU i3570k running at 4.4 GHz. Probably your laptop's CPU has less performance. 99% chance that poor optimization is the reason of problem. I'll put optimization on top of my TODO list. Thank you for helping me to find real reason of the problem, I'll release optimized version in next few days.
 
Last edited:

Suntaclose

S
New version released.

v1.1.36 (Feb 7 2017)
  • Improvement: logs parsing performance must be improved.
  • Improvement: parsed events are now being saved to DB asynchronously in parallel thread, so application UI is not blocked during save (which might take a long time on first app run).
  • Improvement: previously parsed events are now read from DB, no "parsing all log files on each run" anymore. Only new files are parsed, only new events are saved to DB on application start.
  • Important: previously stored bookmarks and notes will be lost in this app version, sorry about that.

Download: v1.1.36 from Dropbox
 
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