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Jump 6 map generator

Z

zakrol

SOC-12
I've recently put together a script for use in my own campaign that given a set of sector files and a planet name will generate a jump 6 map centred on that system.

There didn't seem to be anything out there that did quite what I wanted which was basically to centre on an arbitrary world, include UWPs and print nicely onto a sheet of paper. sec2pdf looks excellent but seems to be on a grander scale. The Interactive Atlas of the Imeprium does the jump 6 part but doesn't have UWPs and won't print well.

The reason I'm mentioning it is that I've done enough on it to satisfy my own wants, but would there be anybody else interested in such a script so as to make it worth me tidying up and putting on a website? Or is it re-inventing a wheel I've so far not come across?

It is written in PHP and so would need (free) language software installed and produces postscript (which has a free viewer) though it can be converted to PDF. The upside of this is that it will run equally well on Windows or Linux, and maybe even Macs?

I have some sample output in the original postscript and also converted PDF.

Any comments or (polite
) suggestions on improvements gratefully received....

Chris Wright
 
Well, the program Universe does a really nice GIF/JPEG version. It doesn't necessarily print the UWPs, but it does *look* really nice.

We're always glad to see new contributions though, so if you feel like cleaning up the script, I'm sure some folks would find it useful.

And since I have PHP at home, I'm doubly interested


Nice output, BTW.

I'll see if I can find a J-6 map from Universe kicking around for comparison.

On another note: How does it handle planets near sector boundaries, where the J6 map could overlap into as many as 3 other sectors?
 
To see the Cipango map You need to copy the link and paste it into Your browser. (If You juct click it, You will see another picture, that is used to stop leaches that were wasting my bandwith.)

Or click this link:
http://zho.berka.com/data/spinward/chronor/cipango/
Then click the small j-6 map.

The Cipango map was not made by Universe. My planet icons are used in the Universe program. That is why it looks like "the sure first cousin".

But now I use Universe, since it is soo easy to use. A J-6 map made with Universe can be found here:
http://zho.berka.com/data/foreven/urnian/urnian/
 
The Universe maps are really nice and I've seen the one at the Zhodani base before. My own efforts will never come close to looking that good. However, lack of UWPs and scary ink consumption on printing put me off, though I did use it once.

The script handles sector boundaries almost seamlessly. It looks for all sector files in the directory and I've added a line at the top giving an offset - so far I'm using the Domain of Deneb so I made the Spinward Marches start at 0,0, meaning that the Trojan Reaches have offset 0,40.

As long as there are consistent sector files with appropriate offsets then it will work, whether they be OTU or homebrew sectors. Here's another sample from the SM / TR boundary : Romor and one which overlaps all 4 subsectors : Cauldron . Of course, if you go right to the boundary of your outer sector there will be blank space beyond on the map.

Thanks for the response, if there's at least somebody who might find it useful then it's worth tidying up. I'll add a few comments and instructions, maybe allow you to define which sector files to look at rather than use everything it finds, which would allow maps to be generated for different universes or eras within the OTU without having to add and remove files.

Chris
 
Originally posted by BeRKA:
To see the Cipango map You need to copy the link and paste it into Your browser. (If You juct click it, You will see another picture, that is used to stop leaches that were wasting my bandwith.)
Click to expand...
Wonder why my Firefox takes me directly there?
 
Originally posted by Zakrol:
The Universe maps are really nice and I've seen the one at the Zhodani base before. My own efforts will never come close to looking that good. However, lack of UWPs and scary ink consumption on printing put me off, though I did use it once.
Click to expand...
I'd love to see Universe have the option to render the image with black=white (keep the colour for the planets, that won't kill my inkjet and will let me see the lovely amber zones and planet states. <HINT HINT HINT>

Thanks for the response, if there's at least somebody who might find it useful then it's worth tidying up. I'll add a few comments and instructions, maybe allow you to define which sector files to look at rather than use everything it finds, which would allow maps to be generated for different universes or eras within the OTU without having to add and remove files.
Click to expand...
I would be interested. And that enhancement sounds good!
 
Originally posted by kaladorn:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Zakrol:
The Universe maps are really nice and I've seen the one at the Zhodani base before. My own efforts will never come close to looking that good. However, lack of UWPs and scary ink consumption on printing put me off, though I did use it once.
Click to expand...
I'd love to see Universe have the option to render the image with black=white (keep the colour for the planets, that won't kill my inkjet and will let me see the lovely amber zones and planet states. <HINT HINT HINT>
</font>[/QUOTE]Well Zakrol and Kaladorn, if you can wait just another 1.5 weeks there is a new patch for Universe coming. The bulk of its already coded, just going through some final checks and packaging. In the patch you will get:

- The option to create and print the "rich detail" type maps in ink saving white background.

- Right click on the J6 map and you can load up your clipboard with the UWPs of all systems on the J6 map. (Said UWPs also include the range to center world.) Once in your clipboard you can paste it into whatever suitable application you please.

Regards PLST
 
UNIVERSE ROCKS! (of course, Galactic and H&E do too, to be fair)

I'm a happy man. Just one question: Should I patch to 1.5 first (will the new patch be patch-up) or should I just wait and patch directly to the new one?

Also, I note that I said black=white, which would be bad. Really I meant black <-> white (swap colours). You still want to tell them apart.
 
Originally posted by kaladorn:
Just one question: Should I patch to 1.5 first (will the new patch be patch-up) or should I just wait and patch directly to the new one?
Click to expand...
Patch to 1.5? What version are you currently on? There is already a patch 1.6 available for those on 1.5.

This patch (1.7) will be an overlay patch, so it shouldn't matter what version you are currently on. However, there may be some SQL scripts you need to run to upgrade your databases to see all the new features. General instructions will be made available at the time.

I'll need to check some things this weekend for those on pre-1.5 (with a bit of luck you just need an upgraded TUmanager).

Originally posted by kaladorn:
Also, I note that I said black=white, which would be bad. Really I meant black <-> white (swap colours). You still want to tell them apart.
Click to expand...
Ah, so that's why all the maps are now blank. ;) No, actually I understood that. And some time ago BeRKA sent me some alternative world type icons for use on a white background.

Regards PLST
 
I'll have to check what version I'm on..... It could be 1.5. <shrug>

Another interesting idea for a feature extension is adding a 3D renderer (yeah, small task that...) to the package so that when you get to look at a world's stats, you also get to see a little 320x320 or so 3D render of the world. Might be kind of cool to have some sort of 3D view (or let players hook in their own picture from some source that they can view).
 
Nice! I'm going to pull it down. Merci Buckets, Zakrol. I should clean up my script for calculating hex numbers for adjacent hexes too and for the vaccuum effect calculator. Sweet work, keep it up.
 
The HE2 Sector Module Beta can display Jump Ranges 1-6. However, the only current output is a text file list of the Systems in Jump Range.

However, it will be quite easy to include an bitmap output for a map of the Jump Range output. Perhaps even in an HTML format showing the System UWPs in range.

I'll look at implementing this feature into the module shortly.

Stuart
 
I have exactly the same thoughts for HE2 except I was being a little more ambitious and making it a 3D system map which would allow the user to fly through the System and wrapping the HE2 World Maps round the world spheres. I'm currently dabbling with Direct3D to see if it is feasible.

It would be nice to include accurate (scaled)orbit rotations and allow the user to set the date and time the system is viewed.

The only thing is its probably several years away on my present development plan.

Stuart

Originally posted by kaladorn:
I'll have to check what version I'm on..... It could be 1.5. <shrug>

Another interesting idea for a feature extension is adding a 3D renderer (yeah, small task that...) to the package so that when you get to look at a world's stats, you also get to see a little 320x320 or so 3D render of the world. Might be kind of cool to have some sort of 3D view (or let players hook in their own picture from some source that they can view).
Click to expand...
 
My little script could calc all the hex coords from a given hex coord for an arbitrary distance... (of course, at some point, you'll get into all sorts of fun if you specified a radius like 40 hexes.... but I think it still worked, just took forever and I wasn't in the mood to verify that many hexes...).
 
The "system view" would be nice, but maybe just the world view would be a nice short(er) term feature.

It would be good to wrap planetary maps around an isocehedron or sphere if you can manage it and do a render. Of course, it gets even cooler if you can place symbols for annotation.

The system view is something I've dearly wanted, but you will run into scale issues - you'll need to do perhaps a 'near system' and 'far system' or something with drill-downs because the outer orbits are soooooo huge in comparison to the inner ones. I think Sol represented that way has the first 2-3 planets in a very small area relative to the others, near the star. And then don't even think about eccentricity, binary and trinary systems, and asteroid belts...

But yes, if this ever happens, that would be waaaay cool.

One thing about Traveller Software that strikes me: A bunch of folks are all working on their own kewl little project (or big project, as I nod to Stuart and Trevor or Jim V)... I sometimes wonder if we had a common open-source project, if we couldn't leverage more contributions from others. I mean, I'm leery to suggest how I can help these efforts other than comments on usability and feature suggestions, but considering one had time, it might be possible if we had a good coordinated project and some common architectural practices to farm out sub-components. Sort of a Cathedral and Bazaar applied to Traveller software.

TheEngineer(Mert V) has experimented with the whole 'flying through the system' thing. H&E does one set of things. Universe does another. Etc. And yet, these are all still individual efforts (mostly). I can't help but thinking there ought to be ways to leverage the larger userbase of skills and experience and the more varied knowledge of the various people that love the game. Similarly, I can't help but think that everyone has different interests, and if you had some common software architecture, you could work different people's projects all into one master project.

I should probably go back to my corner. That's probably not a practical idea, but I know I'd like to contribute some small little bit to the Traveller Software world, but I'm honestly so impressed with Stuart, Trevor, Jim, etc. that I really don't want to try to go down that road. But at the same time, I'd like to do something that could be useful and when a project relies on one person, there is always a heavy load for them to pull and people have to expect long windows of scheduling.

Anyway, just something to think about. Maybe it might be an interesting side discussion.
 
You are right of course. Scale will be the ultimately be the primary issue as the worlds to the outer extents of the system are going to be some distance away. Perhaps some abstract method of display would be more appropriate?

Although, as far as I'm concerned it isn't likely to be something that happens until HE2's basic functions are complete.

Stuart
 
Although its a nice idea a collaborative software effort isn't going to work. In the early days of developing WBD there was some discussion about a colaborative project with Tom Bont (Astrogator). However, it sadly didn't happen as Tom couldn't keep up with my frantic programming pace in those days.

This idea has been touted around a number of Forums and mailing Lists and in my opinion people spend more time talking about it without actually coming up with anything constuctive.

I prefer working by myself at my own pace and listening to users feature requests. This is how I progressed from Sector Generator to WB to WBD to H&E to HE2.

Stuart
 
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