Proof of concept interactive starchart

[Biteketkergetek]

Added some rudimentary support for colors, using data from CMDR Smacker. More info on the help page. I had no time to do a proper UI for this yet, so this is only meant as a workaround for the time being. There is work to do on the backend of the map, too, to prepare it for Beta 3. It has to be done first, until then it seems pointless to improve the UI.

Some info has been added to the ship setup help page. Apparently info on the FSD values has been released by FDev and McLaine did his part with his Ship Outfitting spreadsheet.

 

[Arbanax]

You sir keep pulling it out of the bag, soon they'll have to invent new bags from which to contain that which you keep pulling stuff out of. Most impressive, hope we can keep this going - at least for the core systems to something FD in game comes up.

Ab

 

[burzum]

@Biteketkergetek is the source somewhere available via a git repository the best? I would like to look at the web part and improve it. I would love to add a web API as well, I might already have an idea how to do it.

 

[Biteketkergetek]

@Biteketkergetek is the source somewhere available via a git repository the best? I would like to look at the web part and improve it. I would love to add a web API as well, I might already have an idea how to do it.

Hi burzum, yes, it is open source, always has been. There is a link on the help page to the project. If you are a web developer, have a look at the data/mapsrv directory, all web content is there (static HTML, templates, CSS, SVG and JavaScript).

The project is a set of loosely coupled packages:
db: for the sqlite and json store
route: octree, jump logic and A* code
cmd: various commands using the packages, notably "nav", the command line route planner, and "mapsrv" serving the site
data: json and sqlite data (the latter being automatically initialized from json)

Nowadays I plan to decouple the backend from the frontend HTML/CSS/JavaScript code, and move more code to separate self-contained packages with just the minimal interface necessary. Ideally mapsrv should serve only dynamic json content to be processed with JavaScript.

 

[Biteketkergetek]

I just added two very basic JSON API functions for map data and route access. The APIs use the same query parameters as the HTML map itself. They are nothing more than serving the data available for templates in json, so they may be completely useless for now, but they show some of the structure. Data is not ideally structured yet, because they are intended for use from templates within the server, and some content is accessed from templates using functions (eg. to minimize memory use). These will be refactored.

 

[Biteketkergetek]

The map has been updated with Beta 3 data. Some systems that have not moved since Beta 2 will be added soon, and new systems will be added when they become available.

 

[Biteketkergetek]

Added some systems, many thanks to RedWizzard and Harbinger for the data.

Furthermore, a new route planning mode "Fuel scoop" has been added. This removes the fuel use calculation, assuming the fuel tank is filled up right after each jump, and minimizes number of jumps only.

 

[Biteketkergetek]

There is a new 3D view, see here, which uses WebGL and is still being worked on, and is only tested in Chrome and Firefox.

Furthermore, I have tried different URLs for the site during the day. I tried a different URL which seemed to work fine after testing, so added a permanent redirect for the old address in place, but then it turned out that it will not work in the long run.

In short: use "Clear cached images and filed" in Chrome or clear "Cache" in Firefox at least for this day (Sunday 9.11.2014), if you are experiencing problems with the map. If this link does not work for you, it might be a cache issue.

 

[Arbanax]

Well Biteketkergetek that is a thing of beauty, if you can now implement the means to plan routes and find stars as before this will be amazing. I love being able to zoom in and out and it seems so much less of a hassle than trying to do this in the galaxy map in ED. Loving it mate, very evocative.

Ab

 

[Biteketkergetek]

I'm glad you like it! And thanks for the rep. The idea is to add everything to the 3D map as well, this test is just to see if it would work. I want to add the features of the 2D map to the new view as time permits, and add features like searching for stations or commodities already available in the backend.

What I'd really like to add is a captain's log feature, that would either require users to install the map, or use some form of login on my site.

 

[Arbanax]

Excellent, that would be great.

Ab

 

[Biteketkergetek]

The map has been updated with a much wider default view now. Instead of scaling, it uses jquery for dragging. Thanks to other improvements the map should load much faster.

Unfortunately I couldn't make both autocentering and dragging make flawlessly, it is not quite right yet in Firefox, but works fine in Chrome.

Now I'm quite sure this view will be the base view for the map, as it can show quite a big bubble without any overlap. 3D looks nice, but is useless IMO: for shorter routes within 100 Ly the 2D view will work better, and it isn't really possible to display longer routes graphically without zooming anyway.

 

[Smacker]

The map has been updated with a much wider default view now. Instead of scaling, it uses jquery for dragging. Thanks to other improvements the map should load much faster.

Unfortunately I couldn't make both autocentering and dragging make flawlessly, it is not quite right yet in Firefox, but works fine in Chrome.

Now I'm quite sure this view will be the base view for the map, as it can show quite a big bubble without any overlap. 3D looks nice, but is useless IMO: for shorter routes within 100 Ly the 2D view will work better, and it isn't really possible to display longer routes graphically without zooming anyway.

Wow that is a lot of systems! Really fast to load as well. I agree on the 3D view, looks very pretty but much prefer the 2D for planning. Is there any way to control the zoom level? Also if you drag the view then it can randomly select a system and if you have a route set then dragging will lose the route. Nice work as always!

 

[Biteketkergetek]

Wow that is a lot of systems! Really fast to load as well. I agree on the 3D view, looks very pretty but much prefer the 2D for planning. Is there any way to control the zoom level? Also if you drag the view then it can randomly select a system and if you have a route set then dragging will lose the route. Nice work as always!

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, I have noticed the problem, but plan to rewrite the map as a true webapp, so I didn't bother fixing it yet. I plan to add in the foreseeable future:

- controls for colors (available as the color query parameter)
- radius setting (the layout of systems will be the same, but will hopefully look less cluttered, it's already available as the r query parameter)
- scaling
- plan routes without having to change the center
- switch center without losing the route
- show system info and station list in addition to the itinerary
- context menu instead of single click handler with options to show route, set start system, set center of the map (single click will just show the route, but not after dragging)

 

[Arbanax]

This map is the 'bee's knees' really awesome work, thanks so much. I watch with interest and admiration. I also find it to be the easiest way to plan a route as its so much quicker and stable that the in game galaxy maps.

Ab

 

[Biteketkergetek]

This map is the 'bee's knees' really awesome work, thanks so much. I watch with interest and admiration. I also find it to be the easiest way to plan a route as its so much quicker and stable that the in game galaxy maps.

Ab

I'm glad you like it, and thanks for the rep!

 

[Smacker]

I am finding that changing the ship settings (e.g. jump distance) can seem to get stuck with an infinite wait cursor.
EDIT This seems to be fixed now.

 

[Smacker]

Are you going to be using EDSC/TGC DB for your positional data (it now has 20k systems)? Let me know if you need any help coding/testing.

 

[Biteketkergetek]

Are you going to be using EDSC/TGC DB for your positional data (it now has 20k systems)? Let me know if you need any help coding/testing.

Any help would be appreciated. Basically the new data needs to be imported into my own elite.json, but I haven't got around using EDSC data yet. I can use the TradeDangerous sqlite DB as input, too, basically my dbtool makes a temporary copy of it and makes some adjustments until my own code thinks it is using the proper format.

I'm in the middle of reworking the UI; I started with the parts missing from the old version (the one currently online) like proper setup screen and more logical search/routing, but it is not nearly finished yet.

Some code would have to be backported from my next branch to master to make things work, the old map used static charts generated up front and stored in sqlite. This method will likely be unusable with so many systems. The new version generates maps faster on the fly (caching them in sqlite), but was not tested on my server yet. Basically the very first person looking at a map after a system update will have to wait 1-2 seconds more than usual.

 

[Smacker]

Any help would be appreciated. Basically the new data needs to be imported into my own elite.json, but I haven't got around using EDSC data yet. I can use the TradeDangerous sqlite DB as input, too, basically my dbtool makes a temporary copy of it and makes some adjustments until my own code thinks it is using the proper format.

I'm in the middle of reworking the UI; I started with the parts missing from the old version (the one currently online) like proper setup screen and more logical search/routing, but it is not nearly finished yet.

Some code would have to be backported from my next branch to master to make things work, the old map used static charts generated up front and stored in sqlite. This method will likely be unusable with so many systems. The new version generates maps faster on the fly (caching them in sqlite), but was not tested on my server yet. Basically the very first person looking at a map after a system update will have to wait 1-2 seconds more than usual.

Cool!

Step #1 Learn Go (be right back ...)