Terran Consortium

[Greason Wolfe]

It’s been a long time since I’ve actively participated here at the Guild. Between work, family, and limited internet access, I haven’t had much in the way of time or means to actively work on any projects. While my internet access is still somewhat limited, I’ve started to have a bit of free time, and decided to be productive with it.

As of late, I’ve been in a Sci-Fi sort of mood and reading a lot of the classics (Heinlein, Asimov, LeGuin, Herbert, and so on), and that has inspired me to some degree. Not just in terms of mapping, but also in terms of story telling. I’ve a story in mind, and, like most every story, it needs a setting, an interstellar setting to be precise.

Now, the problem for me, particularly when looking at (or dealing with) interstellar maps (or maybe it’s better to say charts) is that we are, more often than not, using a 2 dimensional medium to represent a 3 dimensional space. Most folks work that out by plotting 2 of those coordinates within the 2 dimensional medium’s parameters and then tag the 3rd coordinate as a + or - to represent positions above or below the plane of our 2 dimensional medium. Inherently, there is nothing wrong with this method, it’s clean, easy to read, and functional. But I wanted something different.

As I envisioned it, the characters in the story, when they wanted to figure out where they were and where they wanted to go, could call up a holographic image that was rotatable in every direction. I’m sure I’ve seen something similar to this somewhere (perhaps on the web, in a movie, or both), and decided to have a go at it, myself. Admittedly, it is beyond my meager programing abilities to create a chart of this sort (the rotating sort that is), but I can, in essence, create a snap shot that, I hope, captures the effect I am looking for. Of course, I’m still working within the confines of a 2 dimensional medium, so there are some little subtleties I’ll have to work out, but I think I have a handle on them.

I’ve laid out the basics of the chart so far, and will probably be working on a key (or legend if you will) next. I’ve got about 120 star systems to put on this chart based on information gleaned from the Internet Stellar Database. It’s going to take a while to get all those systems placed, and it is quite possible, since some of that information is based on different epochs, that some of those systems will seem a bit out of place. I’m fine with that since I see this as a slightly different universe than our own. It’s also possible that I will “fudge” some of the individual systems’ data to allow for a larger number of habitable (or at least hospitable) systems for the characters to visit.

In any event, here’s what I have accomplished so far. Hope to be able to update this soon.

[selden]

Are you aware of Celestia? It's a free astronomical visualization program available for Windows, MacOS and Linux. See https://celestiaproject.net/


You can use it to position and display objects in 3D, including stars, planets, maps, etc.

[Greason Wolfe]

Yup. Have an older version of it somewhere along with Astro synthesis. Played with both of them and while great for moving around within the plotted space, neither quite gave me what I was looking for in terms of a "map."

[selden]

Well, while one can create 3D maps in Celestia, it is true that the overhead of creating something that looks like what you want can be a bit overwhelming. I often do it by using Anim8or to create a 3d model of the structure that I want, for example.

Using a 3D design program by itself might be another option. I like Anim8or but some prefer Blender or others.

An example of a 3D map shown in Celestia can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLOx-zZcho8

It shows travel routes between stars.

[Greason Wolfe]

That's pretty sharp. Obviously celestial has changed a bit since the last time I played around with it. Might have to take another look at it in the future. For now I will just keep plugging away at this and see where it gets me.

Not really an update, more a test of concept. Not sure if I am getting the full feel I want with this just yet. Threw a few systems in too see what it would look like.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[johnvanvliet]

you want a star map like the Gaia 3d data
http://charliehoey.com/threejs-demos/gaia_dr1.html

[selden]

The main problem I see with your Terran Consortium map is that the coordinate system lines are thin and dim, making them hard to see, although that might be caused by the image's default gamma setting. (Do you use a Mac, by any chance? They tend to have different gamma settings than are used on other systems.) You might want to consider using an inverted color scheme, with a white background and black coordinates.

[Hai-Etlik]

The thing is, this wouldn't really be all that helpful for interstellar navigation. It might be a pretty visualisation, but practically speaking a simple list sorted by travel time/cost from the current location would be more helpful. Since you mentioned characters in a story, that might actually make for interesting flavour. The fancy holographic maps are there for people who don't know better and feel the need to "see" where they are going even though it tells them nothing, anyone experienced with interstellar travel just wants the numbers.

The holographic maps could be useful for other things like a reference map in a school but you would no more use one for navigation than you would use a high school wall map.

You may also have conflated the words "terrain" and "Terran". "Terrain" is the ground, "Terran" describes people or things from or related to Earth. They are related but not the same.

[Azélor]

I agree with the others, while the map is pretty, it is severly distorted. Just by looking at it, it's not always easy to know the distance between 2 stars.

If you still want to go 2d the best thing to do would be to use colors to indicate dept like on a elevation map : https://serc.carleton.edu/eslabs/corals/4b.html

[Greason Wolfe]

No that was an auto correct that I didn't catch. It should indeed be Terran instead of Terrain. As for actually using the map it might be better if I explain a little more thoroughly.
There is a bit of a pulpish feel to the story in my head. Think "high" low technology. The map.isn't just for navigation. It can be used to pull up resource data, political affiliations and so on. Maybe better to say interactive hologram.

As for the dimness of the various lines and elipsi, that is purposeful right now. That will get brighter once I have everything else populated. My eyes are as old.as I am and work about as well sometimes. Haha.