Proof of concept interactive starchart

[Acen ONYX]

Colours in StarChart.Club .. and a missing/invalid thread (link)?

Spoiler

The map has been refactored. Most of the changes affect only the backend, but there are some changes visible to users, too:

- new url is http://starchart.club (unfortunately this means everything needs to be set up again)

- new default economy colors based on this thread (with thanks to Smacker for the hint)

Spoiler

- station list on map
- slightly modified edit page

Please let me know if you experience problems. The old site remains online at http://tajti.co:6969/elite/map/ (note the port number) for the time being, feel free to use it in case there are any problems with the updated version that has not been noticed.

Sadly .. there doesn't seem to be a valid "thread" there, anymore.. :[
Well, I changed the colours around a little.. to try and impute "visual cues/clues" into my colour choices...
Here's what I've been using... Shared to you all, just for kicks, of course!

Nothing fancy, no complex "real colours", and not sticking to "web colours" (factors of 3), but using "matched pairs" for RGBs.

[[ Try Wat Yu to 70 Ophiuchi, with 25Ly Bubble, to see a decent sample of varied "dots".. ]]

 

[Acen ONYX]

Main vs "test" map [Jan'15]; screencaps *today*; FRESH(?) IDEAS..

I've replaced my own force based layout code with one from the excellent VPSC library from Tim Dwyer and Michael Wybrow. A test version of the site is available at http://starchart.club/test/map/.

This seems to be a little less dense but much cleaner compared to the old layout. Most importantly it's more than 100 times faster.

Let me know your opinions.

Just to reply to your 21 Jan 2015 post, re the TEST map, vs the "main" map.
**Sorry; seriously, not trying to "spam" the thread..! Just REALLY LIKE StarChart! Am responding as I read through it...** >_<

1st Opinion:
".. but we've lost several system name/Power/Faction/economy-indicator colours..!"

Main site map example:

Spoiler

View attachment 93066

/test/map/ version of the same -- note route change, too -- [In-image annotated comment & question] :

Spoiler

View attachment 93067 .. and this with NO change of settings (bubble radius, etc)

((Please load the Image View for both, and use [Prev] & [Next] to flip back & forth between them to highlight the differences..))
Which is "more right"? Thanks.

As for IDEAS going forward:

Spoiler

+ IF it is FAST enough :: Mousewheel to control "View scale" value in 0.1 increments, with "LIVE redraw" centered on either:
-- last selected/highlighted system; or
-- newly-selected (single-clicked, but not yet double-clicked) system..??
-- ... or, if viable, centered on mouse [x,y]..?!? (or closest-system-to-mouse(x,y)?)

+ If it is NOT fast enough :: "View Scale" factor box RIGHT NEXT TO "Setup" link in Top Right Corner, for on-page adjustment;
--- or, perhaps better, a small "floating widget", with just Bubble Radius and View Scale variables PLUS a "Redraw" button..??

+ For (dashed) ROUTING lines, instead of "always" being CYAN, how about WHITE dashes where the route goes "up" through space,
--- "higher" than the current view [Z-coord range], and GREEN dashes where it goes "lower" than the current [solid line route] view,
--- and can keep CYAN dashes for route continuing "at same level" [Z-coord range] in order to add a "3rd dimensional visual cue"..??

+ Is it possible to put a simple "x" within the circumference of any System Dot with NO SCOOPABLE STAR (& no refueling station)?

+ For ROUTING MODIFICATION, how about:
--- LEFT-click Jump Segment (link line) to "Select" it (maybe auto-select/highlight the "end point" of that jump segment for re-centre);
--- then allow RIGHT-click of any other System to get "Context Menu" :: "Avoid", "Route via", "Make New End-point".

Thank You.
[nosig]

 

[cygnusa]

I must be living under an outcrop (haha! you see what I did there? get it? get it?)... I just noticed this tool. This is most excellent. Huge +rep. This greatly improves awareness of nearby systems. I just hate incessantly switching to the galmap and the delay/interruption that entails. I'll be running this on the smartphone/tablet along side.

 

[Miklos Atreides]

Sadly this very good map suffers from being up to date. There is no major improvement over a couple of months, and yes, I am still using it, even if it somewhat outdated in some places.
I still love it to plan multi-hop routes and roundtrips. As I am not a real developer (even if working in IT for almost 30 years now) and not having a cent in Go for programming it would be
a real step forward to have an interface to EDDN data that finally feeds the starchart with most current data and feeds back the changes to EDDN given from the pilots working with this tool.

I created a small script for my own amusement to feed Stations json data into sqlite db so, If I can do that otheres might be even better in doing it.

Regards,
Miklos

 

[Biteketkergetek]

Go is really easy to learn (takes a weekend or so) and fun to work with, and good go code is really easy to read and understand (sadly this might not be true for the starchart.club code, though).

The data can be edited on starchart.club anonymously. When it was developed more than a year ago I found no user friendly system that would let me edit data other than system coordinates. Therefore I just did it for myself but others started using it, too.

This edit function is difficult to get around because and it is somewhat complex to merge data with other sources. Smacker kindly updated starchart.club and other data with his Syncopation tool for many months, but perhaps he lost interest in doing so lately. Adding systems is trivial, though. I did that before Smacker stepped in with his superios solution.

Another solution would be to just use some other data source like eddb.io, and have the edit page disabled. That would unfortunately require working on the html and javascript which I find rather boring, to have a system details page without the edit functionality. One disadvantage would be the lack of immediate updates.

But in that case the edits made on the site since the last sync by Smacker on August 2015 would be lost. Perhaps that is inevitable to lose some data at this point of time because conflicting values might exist in different databases since then, and it's impossible to know which one is correct.

Honestly these are minor technical issues, one would just need a few days to work on the frontend or the backend, but it needs to be decided how to have things improved. Perhaps having a poll would be the best way to get going...

 

[Miklos Atreides]

I still love it. I still use it. Anyone else?

I did some play around sesssions with the json files from EDDB and massaged them into sqlite tables and played a little with Go
to create the sqlite database automated. ( It works quite good ) But what I didn't get is to feed the data into that startchart to
update that stations and systems.

I could deliver sqlite data or invest a little time to output csv data if someone offers to feed the starchart for an update.

But anyway, today I even do not know if it would be capable to perform on all known systems today. We did progress over the last months
the system didn't really update.

 

[st3ve]

Yes I still use it. It is probably the best map available for planning stuff. It is a pity that the data is not being updated.

I don't particularly use the station data, but an expansion of the system data would be great.

 

[Miklos Atreides]

Go is really easy to learn (takes a weekend or so) and fun to work with, and good go code is really easy to read and understand (sadly this might not be true for the starchart.club code, though).

The data can be edited on starchart.club anonymously. When it was developed more than a year ago I found no user friendly system that would let me edit data other than system coordinates. Therefore I just did it for myself but others started using it, too.

This edit function is difficult to get around because and it is somewhat complex to merge data with other sources. Smacker kindly updated starchart.club and other data with his Syncopation tool for many months, but perhaps he lost interest in doing so lately. Adding systems is trivial, though. I did that before Smacker stepped in with his superios solution.

Another solution would be to just use some other data source like eddb.io, and have the edit page disabled. That would unfortunately require working on the html and javascript which I find rather boring, to have a system details page without the edit functionality. One disadvantage would be the lack of immediate updates.

But in that case the edits made on the site since the last sync by Smacker on August 2015 would be lost. Perhaps that is inevitable to lose some data at this point of time because conflicting values might exist in different databases since then, and it's impossible to know which one is correct.

Honestly these are minor technical issues, one would just need a few days to work on the frontend or the backend, but it needs to be decided how to have things improved. Perhaps having a poll would be the best way to get going...

Lately I invested some time to get my arms a litt around go and json.
Well, the result is that I am now able to bring up a json file that will allmost look like that one starchart is loaded from.
Currently I drew the populated systems and stations information from EDDB and massacred it into matching jsonfile.
So if there is any intrest to publish this I would be able to deliver lastest bubble data from EDDB.
Next step is working on a tool that runs with systems data of unpopulated system.
Hence a final question if would it be feasable to feed starchart with a json contain 12 to 15 million star systems?
I have no idea about web services, java and how to run them, therefore I will not be capable run a starchart on my own
so if someone is capable to update this one with the data I have, maybe... , just a suggestion.

Regards,
Miklos

 

[CapuchinSeven]

[up]

 

[Susanna]

Here is a web app that displays nearby systems.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/276965/edstarchart.png

With route calculation in place, this part is not relevant anymore:
It is still in an early stage, and is quite useless for anything else other than virtual stargazing, but shows that even a 3D map can be displayed in 2D reasonably well. Currently it displays at most 60 stars within a 25 Ly radius. (Seems to work with Mozilla and Chrome) If there are many systems nearby, only the 60 closer ones are shown, to avoid overlap. For example around i Boötis only the stars within a 20.5 Ly radius are shown.

The maps are created using the X and Y coordinates of the stars. Then a simulation is performed, with all visible stars acting like having an electric charge, and pushing each other around until all names are visible.

Special thanks to forum members kfsone, Smacker, Codec and Chromatic for their work and inspiration for my project.

Nice app! This could be very useful. I'd like to be able to pull up the system info such as planet/star data (can this be pulled from EDSM?). Well done with this!

 

[Miklos Atreides]

Nice app! This could be very useful. I'd like to be able to pull up the system info such as planet/star data (can this be pulled from EDSM?). Well done with this!

All what is needed is in EDDB, which is feeded also from EDSM. There the daily json files contain everything you need.
I've set up a simple SQlite DB from this data with a tiny Go Program and create a few views for my usage.
Now I am using the Systems_populated and Station table data to merge the starchart json from it.

to update the starchart/club someone needs to pick up the json and bring it to the correct place and force a small restart to load the data.
Then we would get quite a complete setup for the bubble unfortunately all the unpopulated in today will get lost.
I am already working on that read EDDBs systems.csv and create the json data for that.
The result will be the 13.000.000 Million Systems in starchart. :x
Only I do not know if the starchart is capable to handle this amount of Data.

Because I am doing this in my rare spare time it might take some weeks to get a satisfying result.

Regards,
Miklos


Edit: So far it was easier than expected. Today I created a starchart compatible json file containing some more than 10.000.000 systems.
The best of it I can re-create the file withing a few minutes after downloading the eddb.io data.
Creating the bubble data took longer because of merging multiple sources to provide the station information..

Hence give me a note when someone is capable and willing to update the chart. I will happily provide the data (I will draw a most recent snapshot before).

Regards,
Miklos