Proof of concept interactive starchart

Biteketkergetek · Oct 9, 2014

Here is a web app that displays nearby systems.

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.

Non Grata · Oct 9, 2014

Interesting, nicely done.

Biteketkergetek · Oct 10, 2014

Added jump distance calculation, with clock hours showing jumps needed. Use proper eye protection to prevent them from falling out.

Biteketkergetek · Oct 10, 2014

taotoo said:
Interesting, nicely done.

Thank you!

Rhaedas · Oct 10, 2014

I can't seem to get it to work in my Firefox, version 32.0.3 (latest one). Tried disabling any and all security and blocking stuff. Seem to get a number of JS errors and warnings. Looks like a neat app.

Added: even tried safe mode, same results.

thebullfrog · Oct 10, 2014

Nifty. I like the proof of concept, can't wait to see what can be done with it. Course planning?

Biteketkergetek · Oct 10, 2014

Rhaedas said:
I can't seem to get it to work in my Firefox, version 32.0.3 (latest one). Tried disabling any and all security and blocking stuff. Seem to get a number of JS errors and warnings. Looks like a neat app.

Added: even tried safe mode, same results.

Sorry about that. Unfortunately I am no web developer. The page is really just an SVG wrapped in HTML. I thought it had no JS whatsoever, maybe I can check tomorrow.

Biteketkergetek · Oct 10, 2014

thebullfrog said:
Nifty. I like the proof of concept, can't wait to see what can be done with it. Course planning?

Yes! I plan to display routes on mouse click, and change the map to the destination only on another click for mobile support. Adding the routes to the SVG is trivial, but making it behave the way I want will take some time for me.

MadDogMurdock · Oct 10, 2014

Add some color coding and you have your 3rd dimension.

Blue getting darker for above the plane and red getting darker for below.

Little Angel · Oct 11, 2014

Very interesting.

Very clever!

Very bookmarked!!

Now, to get data from Beta 2!

peterbbb · Oct 11, 2014

Very interesting. Especially the route planning mechanism planned.

kwik · Oct 11, 2014

would love this on a tablet tbh

Biteketkergetek · Oct 12, 2014

Thank you all for the responses and suggestions.

I don't want to use colors for vertical positions, because I would like to reserve colors only for interactive output (routes). That's why they are represented with vertical lines. They are not that relevant anyway, because the X and Y coordinates shown are not correct anyway.

Comparing the true map around Acihaut to the cleaned up variant shows how much pushing around happens in the first place.

Mobile/tablet support is definitely planned, but this will be the hardest to do for me. Both panning and zooming need to be supported for this map to be of any use, in addition to the actual route planning, which I plan to implement today.

Biteketkergetek · Oct 12, 2014

Added simple route planning. First click selects destination, second click changes the view.

Still missing: refuel points are not shown, and text display for route (necessary for off-chart stops, these are represented by a dashed line in the graphic).

Biteketkergetek · Oct 12, 2014

Added ship setup section, and route display with refuel information.

MadDogMurdock · Oct 12, 2014

Any chance of an input to set the starting system.

lysan · Oct 12, 2014

Lets get it in game shall we, great work!!!

Biteketkergetek · Oct 13, 2014

MadDogMurdock said:
Any chance of an input to set the starting system.

I knew I forgot something

Jokes aside, it needs some work and thinking completely orthogonal to what I wanted to achieve first. This explains why it is not there yet.

For the time being, just edit the URL. Add or change the query parameter s=<systemname> at the end. A fuzzy search is used, so a query with shortened name also works. The only other parameter is "j", it stands for the jump specs of your ship.

Gomisan · Oct 13, 2014

This is brilliant, I needed something like this the other night. Link added at the HHGTED.

Biteketkergetek · Oct 13, 2014

Gomisan said:
This is brilliant, I needed something like this the other night. Link added at the HHGTED.

Thank you! Nice work with HHGTED. I guess then it is time to come up with a better name and/or get a domain for the project. I wonder if there is any chance finding someone to bribe to get a proper encyclopedia page for my site, so it does not stuck within lesser publications too long.