Proof of concept interactive starchart

burzum · Oct 21, 2014

The map isn't working for me in any browser. Tried IE, FF and Chrome. Edit: You should update the first view posts. Looks like http://tajti.co:6968/map?jr=8.5 is gone but http://tajti.co/elite/map/ works.

What is your server side used language? If you could provide an API the returns json it should be pretty easy to work with the map. In the case you need help with the web related stuff just ask me.

Smacker · Oct 21, 2014

burzum said:
The map isn't working for me in any browser. Tried IE, FF and Chrome. Edit: You should update the first view posts. Looks like http://tajti.co:6968/map?jr=8.5 is gone but http://tajti.co/elite/map/ works.

What is your server side used language? If you could provide an API the returns json it should be pretty easy to work with the map. In the case you need help with the web related stuff just ask me.

I think the port number was removed a while ago, looks like the OP needs an update.

Biteketkergetek · Oct 21, 2014

Smacker said:
I think the port number was removed a while ago, looks like the OP needs an update.

Thank you both for pointing this out. OP updated.

Biteketkergetek · Oct 21, 2014

burzum said:
The map isn't working for me in any browser. Tried IE, FF and Chrome. Edit: You should update the first view posts. Looks like http://tajti.co:6968/map?jr=8.5 is gone but http://tajti.co/elite/map/ works.

What is your server side used language? If you could provide an API the returns json it should be pretty easy to work with the map. In the case you need help with the web related stuff just ask me.

Hi Burzum! The server side uses Go. There are some dependencies but they are handled nicely by Go itself. Have a look at the info page, there is a link to the project on bitbucket. The site is template-based, so basically everything used for display directly (HTML, SVG, CSS and JavaScript) lives in the data/mapsrv directory of the project. This means a web developer does not need to understand Go, even its template syntax is somewhat similar to mustache. The server code that serves the content is in cmd/mapsrv. So there is no real API (yet?), since I am more proficient in go than in JavaScript, but I'm open to suggestions. The code should work on all platforms supported by Go (OSX, freebsd...), but I have not tested it anything except Windows and Linux yet.

Biteketkergetek · Oct 21, 2014

I forgot to mention in my last post that of course anyone is very welcome to assist me with this project.

Frankly, most of my time is spent with the HTML/CSS of it: I wasted much more time adding a #%&^*% checkbox for the "save fuel" option than doing the server-side code. I could not figure out the CSS part at the end, so I added a dropdown list instead. I would not be surprised if most of the javascript code and therefore the HTML and CSS had to be refactored or rewritten.

If it's easier to do more in javascript, then the same data (coordinates for the graphic, routes etc) could be supplied via json, with minimal changes on the server code.

Arbanax · Oct 22, 2014

Biteketkergetek said:
I forgot to mention in my last post that of course anyone is very welcome to assist me with this project.

My friend this project is awesome sauce, but I am totally out of my depth when it comes to being able to help. I struggle to set up a wordpress site, so helping you with this is way beyond my payscale. Let alone my skill or knowledge set.

But I have to say a big thank you for increasing the bubble and range, now I can deploy my newly bought cobra to get the best goods work out routes and therefore well to sell stuff. Since I am useless at combat, until I amass enough funds to improve and buy back my stuff when I fail, trading is my only route to success. This map tool is making that a possibility. And with the news that our wealth will carried over to Beta 3 I need not start out over again. Thanks a lot.

Ab

Snuble · Oct 22, 2014

One thing I never get the hang on in this tool is selecting a new "from" system. The search thingy top left seems to left me select the target, but how to set .. ehem

edit . Found out, target icon next to search box... Think what is throwing me off there is that it is hidden when open search box, so a two step process.

But yeah, this might be one of the most usefull tools in B2.

Biteketkergetek · Oct 22, 2014

Thank you guys! Yes, there is definitely room for improvement for the UI.

Frankly I thought I should add an "enter" press handler for the input box (first select -> show route, second -> jump) but I am not a HTML/JavaScript guy, so I haven't figured that out yet.

Such input is very helpful to decide what to fix/do next, or what to improve in the help/info page at least. For me it is natural to know how things work because I coded it.

Snuble · Oct 24, 2014

Biteketkergetek said:
Thank you guys! Yes, there is definitely room for improvement for the UI.

Frankly I thought I should add an "enter" press handler for the input box (first select -> show route, second -> jump) but I am not a HTML/JavaScript guy, so I haven't figured that out yet.

Such input is very helpful to decide what to fix/do next, or what to improve in the help/info page at least. For me it is natural to know how things work because I coded it.

I would suggest using two inputs, from, to. Maybe have a enter handler that set the system and then give focus to the other box. Oh, and a swap button.

Biteketkergetek · Oct 24, 2014

A from/to box would certainly make sense. Right now I am thinking of improving the UI to work like a slippy map. This way one could scroll the map indefinitely in the galactic plane, and use two UI controls to move the view in the direction perpendicular to this plane. A

For now I rewrote the route planning package, eliminating the routing bugs I could find. Therefore both the "fewer jumps" and the "save fuel" options yield better routes both on the site and in the command line version.

Smacker · Oct 25, 2014

Couple of features I would like to see sometime:

Auto scale to show full navigation route
Economy indicators (circle colours perhaps?)
- My fork of Trade Dangerous has a fist pass adding the extra system info.

Keep up the good work, use this every day

Biteketkergetek · Oct 25, 2014

Smacker said:
Couple of features I would like to see sometime:

Auto scale to show full navigation route

Economy indicators (circle colours perhaps?)

My fork of Trade Dangerous has a fist pass adding the extra system info.

Auto scale to show full navigation route

This would be nice, but I don't see a way to do it on a 2D map, unfortunately. Right now the maps are generated dynamically, so this could be done by centering the map on the star closest to the geometric center of the route, and using an appropriate radius. The computational complexity of the simulation making the stars visible is O(N³) where N is the number of stars visible, so it will not work on the long run. What is worse the map would perhaps need to display the complete thickness of the galactic disc for a long route mostly perpendicular to the galactic plane. This is doable once there is info on the significance of a system (brightness, physical mass, population, whether it's a capital), then the map could drop less significant systems as it is being zoomed out, but this information is not yet available.

Economy indicators (circle colours perhaps?)

This is easy. I looked at your Pillage branch, the data is there, but I think the SQL is not ideal yet. There should be tables for Allegiance, Economy and Government, so the actual data in SystemDetail could be an ID then, and the different possible values could be listed more efficiently. I would also have them rather in the System table to make it cleaner. If one really needs compatibility with the old format, that could be done with a SQL view on the new, extended System table without compromising the optimal SQL table structure. I guess I should switch to using the csv files directly, to make it easy to update the database without relying on TD. Earlier this was not an issue, but this data seems to be unnecessary for TD, so there may be little pressure on kfsone to incorporate them.

Edit: perhaps a separate SystemDetail makes sense after all, since it makes sense for inhabited systems only. Even in this case perhaps "population" should be in System, to distinguish between systems with no population and those that have not been added to SystemDetail yet.

harag · Oct 25, 2014

Just found this thread today and started using the starchart planner - very nice. however I do have some quetions / ideas:

1. Filling out the ship data, I'm not sure what all the numbers mean, I have range and fuel tank size sussed, but not "max jump fuel" - I can't find that on the outfitting screen. not sure what the other entries mean

2. Route planner: After selecting the starting system, then select the target system the route is displayed in the bottom left corner, but while flying along if I click within the box the location I arrive at the map resents and I have to reselect the target, would it be possible for the planner to store the target and then redo the route from the selected system?

full route...
e.g : http://tajti.co/elite/map/?s=er_lo_wu_di&j=15.24_0.8_2_0_7_j&r=37#wredguia_yc_q_b46_4

clicking on the 2nd one in the list ( Kulkanabossongma ) should then display as:

http://tajti.co/elite/map/?s=kulkanabossongma&j=15.24_0.8_2_0_7_j&r=37#wredguia_yc_q_b46_4

3. Any chance of having "economic" colours ont he system dots? agriculture, high tech etc. (of course a toggle of some sort?)

4. Mentioned in another post - the ability to type in a target name as well as the starting name???

Excellent stuff, please keep it up - hopefully something like this will be available in game at some point as come beta 3 with 2000+ systems I can see this being a lot of work for you, and then when the game is released...

Biteketkergetek · Oct 25, 2014

harag said:
Just found this thread today and started using the starchart planner - very nice. however I do have some quetions / ideas:

1. Filling out the ship data, I'm not sure what all the numbers mean, I have range and fuel tank size sussed, but not "max jump fuel" - I can't find that on the outfitting screen. not sure what the other entries mean

There is an icon (i) in the corner of ship data, that might help.

I will update the info in the help later, until then here is the text:

"Fuel capacity" and "Jump range" are always visible in the bottom right corner of the in-game outfitting interface, where you buy new equipment for your ship. "Max fuel per jump" is shown only when using the "compare" option on your frame shift drive, this means it works only, if the station has at least one frame shift drive for sale, so it's best to remember or write down when buying a new drive. This last value is an attribute of the frame shift drive in question, so it will not change if you swap out other parts of your ship, or fill up your cargo space.

2. Route planner: After selecting the starting system, then select the target system the route is displayed in the bottom left corner, but while flying along if I click within the box the location I arrive at the map resents and I have to reselect the target, would it be possible for the planner to store the target and then redo the route from the selected system?

full route...
e.g : http://tajti.co/elite/map/?s=er_lo_wu_di&j=15.24_0.8_2_0_7_j&r=37#wredguia_yc_q_b46_4

clicking on the 2nd one in the list ( Kulkanabossongma ) should then display as:

http://tajti.co/elite/map/?s=kulkanabossongma&j=15.24_0.8_2_0_7_j&r=37#wredguia_yc_q_b46_4

I don't know why I did not thought of this. Good idea! Keep in mind though, the planner assumes you have a full tank of fuel at the starting point, so it's best to switch view only where you actually dock.

3. Any chance of having "economic" colours ont he system dots? agriculture, high tech etc. (of course a toggle of some sort?)

Yes, with Smacker's data this will be possible. I could have done it already, if I did not decide to switch to CSV format for my data files. I wasted too much time on this.

4. Mentioned in another post - the ability to type in a target name as well as the starting name???

This is in theory already possible. If you enter a system and just select it, without clicking on the target icon, the route is displayed. It might be tested only in Chrome but, only occasionally test it in Firefox. Unfortunately I am lacking the web programming skills to make it intuitive enough and work well in all browsers.

Excellent stuff, please keep it up - hopefully something like this will be available in game at some point as come beta 3 with 2000+ systems I can see this being a lot of work for you, and then when the game is released...

Thanks! The number of systems is not a real issue for me, thanks to the nice people collecting and sharing the system coordinates. Thanks to them, adding new systems is practically effortless for me.

harag · Oct 26, 2014

Thanks for the reply.

#1 - The text you mention about comparing the Frame drives isn't on the website - I've pressed the "I" key and viewed the details, I guessed it might be on the compare where you said it's in the outfitting screen, but assumed it was the data bottom right of that screen. Thanks for confirming. I'll check next time.

#2 - I use it to plan my route to planet Y from X so start off with full fuel, having the names bold helps me to keep an eye on my fuel where I generally dock and top up. Would be nice to have some sort of "AutoZoom" radius when clicking these, so the map "zooms" in as you get closer to the target (changing r=X in the URL).

#3 - yep it's a lot of data, the next question would be as well as economic, what about government etc. but we can always use the inhouse game map for all that info then use yours for planning the route, since it's not in the game (YET!)

#4 - Excellent - Tested this (using chrome) and it does indeed work, thanks for the tip, will now save my eyes a little looking for HIP XXXXX amongst 100's of other HIPs.

#5 (new systems) are you planning on expanding it to the new Beta 3 size, what about when the game is released? Hopefully it will all be put in game at that point. In the cockpit of the sidewinder there is a nice display not used between the legs that would be perfect for a route list. (not sure about other ships).

Thanks again.

NoTones · Oct 26, 2014

Biteketkergetek said:
A from/to box would certainly make sense. Right now I am thinking of improving the UI to work like a slippy map. This way one could scroll the map indefinitely in the galactic plane, and use two UI controls to move the view in the direction perpendicular to this plane. A

For now I rewrote the route planning package, eliminating the routing bugs I could find. Therefore both the "fewer jumps" and the "save fuel" options yield better routes both on the site and in the command line version.

where can i get the command line version?

Smacker · Oct 26, 2014

NoTones said:
where can i get the command line version?

Trade Dangerous has a command line navigation option

Flavio · Oct 26, 2014

Am hoping that FD add another tab called routing to their galactic map to include something similar to your app and give you credit in some way for the concept. Until that happens, hopefully they will help you expand your star database.

Thanks for the work you have put in.

Biteketkergetek · Oct 27, 2014

NoTones said:
where can i get the command line version?

Its in the cmd/nav directory of the project.

Code:

[/d/src] $ cd /d/gocode/src/bitbucket.org/tajtiattila/harmless/
[/d/gocode/src/bitbucket.org/tajtiattila/harmless] (master) $ go build ./cmd/nav
[/d/gocode/src/bitbucket.org/tajtiattila/harmless] (master) $ nav -help
Usage of d:\gocode\src\bitbucket.org\tajtiattila\harmless\nav.exe:
  -db="./data/elite.sqlite": path to database
  -fuel=false: save fuel
  -jf=0.8: max. jump fuel [t]
  -line=false: show route(s) on single line (implies quiet)
  -ly=6.96: jump range
  -pow=2: jump drive exponent value
  -q=false: quiet mode (hide headed and legend)
  -tank=2: fuel tank size [t]
[/d/gocode/src/bitbucket.org/tajtiattila/harmless] (master) $ nav -ly 7.5 -tank 4 -jf 1.6 wyrd g235-25
route from Wyrd to G 239-25:
 0   0.00  ● Wyrd
 1   5.12  ○ BD+47 2112
 2   7.43  ● Bolg
 3   6.46  | LP 271-25
 4   6.88  | Ross 52
 5   4.38  ● CE Bootis
 6   6.12  | OT Serpentis
 7   7.04  ○ LHS 411
 8   6.48  ● Miquich
 9   6.22  | G 181-6
10   4.58  ○ Tilian
11   6.78  ● LHS 3262
12   5.79  | DN Draconis
13   5.40  ○ Lalande 29917
14   5.71  ○ G 239-25
 Legend:  ●=refuel  ○=station  |=other

Biteketkergetek · Oct 28, 2014

Added some preliminary color support thanks to data from CMDR Smacker. Added some info to the ship setup page, too, apparently there is information on the FSD values from FBDev and others.