How could we update our starmap?

[Kai]

Gamerofthegame

My computer should be finally coming this Monday. At that time I will download the program and go downtown on the Star Map. I gotta do some major contributions, after all, to the community.

Or, at the very least, figure out if this plan is feasible or not. Although I do like it.

But the Star map could use updating... In my mind, the 'dream' end of this would be to make a wiki page for each. and ever. star system inhabbited by Neps, Yams, and so on. Probably not Mishhu, though... Little... much there.

In this dream end not only would the planets be each semi-detailed, but a image of the star system would be given, too. But... I might be going insane.

And hell, I'm not sure if this is even possible on the program. I haven't looked to much into it.

Abwehran Commander

Celestia is a pretty good program as far as I've seen on a two hour play with it. Controls take time to get used to, but you can basically zoom out to see a system's configuration. There is a third party system builder that can be used; http://www.geocities.com/erinpatrickdunn/SystemMaker.htm.
My main problem with the builder system is that I have yet to find an ability to build a binary star system (which are the most common type of solar system around). But I've only fooled around with the System Maker for an hour.

Anyway, the idea to create a SARP universe Map using Celestia would be a major undertaking from what I've seen. Mainly because systems in SARP don't have much detail to them. In fact, other than Jaspis and Mordant, main systems only go into the description of the major planet in that system. Meaning we'd have to fill in the blanks to create a map using Celestia.

If we were to choose Celestia to create a map, it would be better to divide the project up. One person does the textures, one to create the meshes for stellar bodies, one to actually program the configuration of solar systems, and the final person actually programming the location into the stellar map.

But, I could be going too much in depth into this.

Fred

I've been looking at it too.

There are sites with additional planets and such. I don't think it'd be much of a problem to borrow a few things around and toss them in until they'd be suitable for our purpose.

I think we're also fine with having some starsystems be only stars until they get further fleshed out.

One funny thing in terms of scale that I noticed was that I once backed away 400 000km from earth and looked at me... and then told myself "I can fire a Mindy W2900 saber-rifle and hit something on the planet from here". I kept a straight face for a second and then dissolved into giggles.

Yes, if anything else, using Celestia for starmaps would likely sensibilize us to scale and distances. *nods emphatically*

Abwehran Commander

Yeah...I zoomed out from the Sol System to about 20 AU above the elliptic so I was looking down on a view of the entire system (at least I think it was 20 AU). I couldn't even see the labels for the Inner System Planets.

It's quite awe inspiring to see how small things are in our terms of distance.

Aendri

another program you might want to look up is the Orbiter Simulator. It would be fun to play with to get an idea of what things would look like from the bridges of the ships.

Gamerofthegame

Epic win. Got my computer... I'll be looking into this shortly. Probably tomorrow, after I got everything set up and all.