Traveller Subsector Viewer (3D)

[mearrin69]

Hi all,
This is my first post...so hopefully I do everything okay. I've been working on an app (Windows) to view Traveller subsectors in 3D and posting the progress on Cartographer's Guild, where I'm a regular. One of the posters over there suggested I post it here...so here I am.

Below is a link to my viewer app on Dropbox if anyone wants to try it out. It mostly works now, though there’s more to do. Would love to know features you GMs and players out there might find useful. This is just a fun project for me to do, not a business or anything, but I'll certainly consider your suggestions!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8988232/TSV.zip

Download, unzip, and double-click TSV.exe to run the app. Roll over the “Menu” tab at the bottom of the screen to open the menu. The “Load” button will open up a little dialog requesting the name of the sector to open. The “Options” button does nothing for now. “Exit” will close the program, as advertised. The buttons to the right are view toggles, they don’t do anything unless you’ve got a subsector loaded.

You can move the view around using:
W – Forward
X – Backward
A – Left
D – Right
Z – Down
C – Up
Q – Turn left
E – Turn right
S – Reset camera
Up Arrow – Camera pitch up
Down Arrow – Camera pitch down

The controls are hinkey and I’ll improve them at some point before I’m done.

Other keys:
Ctrl-R – Toggle display of jump routes
Ctrl-A – Toggle display of allegiances
Ctrl-Z – Toggle display of travel zones
Ctrl-L – Load subsector
F1 – Help (not yet implemented)
F2 – Credits
ESC - End program

Technical things:
Ctrl-W – Toggle wireframe
Ctrl-D – Toggle debug display

Subsectors are stored in text files in the "subsectors" directory. You can probably figure out what's what from looking at the file. If you do play with the files be aware that changing something outside of expected bounds (i.e. changing the "starport" digit of the UPP to something other than A-E) will likely cause strange behavior or even cause the app to crash. There is no strong error-checking at this point.

Eventually I'll create a generator that will create these files and I may try to create import functionality for popular existing generators if I can figure out what they are...suggestions welcome.

Feel free to critique...and please let me know if you get any major errors. Thanks!
M

PS: I don't see a way to post images here and I'm not really on any image hosting services. If you want to see some screenshots (some earlier in the development process) you can look over at CG, though you might need to be a member to see them. Here's the thread: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?18660-TAS-Form-6-Subsector-Map-Grid/page2

 

[aramis]

Images can be posted in the gallery, and then linked to from anywhere on COTI by using the image URL, using the insert image button (which looks like:

)

 

[mearrin69]

Thanks for that. I'll grab some screenshots and post them tomorrow.
M

Edit: I should have noted in the original post that there's some 'flicker' on the planets due to the app having trouble figuring out which polygons to render first between planet, water, cloud, and atmosphere layers. Apparently this is a problem with DX7 and the programming tool I chose to use, Blitz 3D, and can't be solved without building in something else...which I may eventually do.

 

[aramis]

Problem: Running in WINE on OSX 10.6, all the dialogues and the subsector name and traveller logo are mirrored.


click to enlarge

Oh, and no buttons are visible. It does run, it does load, and it does make PRETTY display.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Whoah. That's freaky, Aramis.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Very nicely done. Mouse control would be handy.

 

[mearrin69]

@aramis: Woah. That is freaky indeed. Is the bitmap you posted flipped top to bottom or is that the way you were seeing it on your screen? If so, it's not only flipped left-right but also top-bottom. See my screen shot, with Sol loaded and camera in the default position. The logo is also skewed into 'italics'. Not sure what's going on with that but I'll check with folks in the Blitz3D forum. How'd you manage to get a subsector loaded without seeing the load dialog, or did that show up? [edit]Nevermind, I see you said the dialog was backward[/edit]

@Andrew: Indeed, mouse controls are in the cards someday.

I think I forgot to mention that if you roll over an object you get a small display noting what it is. If you right-click on a world, you get data on that world and key features of the system.
M

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Gallery/images/16889/1_Capture.JPG

 

[aramis]

I got the roll overs, but no visible text in them.
Nav and the map itself work fine.

 

[mearrin69]

I've asked some folks if they know what's going on with OSX/Windows emulation. I imagine somebody has run into this problem before.
M

 

[altasilvapuer]

Hey, mearrin! Good to see you found your way over here. Hopefully I'll finally have time to play with this for more than a couple minutes when I'm on vacation next week.

It's looking great, so far!

-asp

 

[mearrin69]

Thanks! I'm going on vacation myself shortly...but I'll try to upload a new version. Sounds will be temporarily disabled until I can work up an options box to turn them off/down. I think there might be a handful of other minor enhancements, though I haven't worked on this for a bit so would have to check my notes to see where I got to.

Planned future improvements are a complete options dialog, frame limiting (currently runs slowly when a lot of things are on screen and fast when not), and an improved movement system (still experimenting).

If anyone has suggestions for how they'd like to see movement implemented please let me know: should it be like an FPS game or maybe you click on a world to make that your pivot or something else.
M