Traveller Subsector Viewer (B3D)

Community Forums/Showcase/Traveller Subsector Viewer (B3D)

mearrin69(Posted 2012) [#1]
Hi all,
I've been working on an app to view Traveller subsectors in 3D and posting the progress on Cartographer's Guild, where I'm a regular. 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!

download

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.

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

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. Any suggestions for mouse-based camera movement would be appreciated.

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.

I should note 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.

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: link

Here's a screenshot I posted at Citizens of the Imperium:
link
Don't know if you can see it without being a member.


Blitzplotter(Posted 2012) [#2]
am intrigued but couldn't see the link on my tablet


mearrin69(Posted 2012) [#3]
Tablet PC or tablet like iPad? It's done in B3D so it'll only run on a PC, or under emulation. You probably knew that but pointing it out just in case.

Here's the download link:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8988232/TSV.zip

And the in-progress thread (I see this is broken above):
http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?18660-TAS-Form-6-Subsector-Map-Grid

And the screenshot (was broken too, whoops):


BTW, I added sound to this and then forgot to set a flag to turn it off until I get the option screen in there so they can be turned off. A friend pointed it out...I hadn't noticed because I usually keep my speakers muted. I don't much like interface sounds either but I know so I put them in with the people who do in mind. I'll have user controls for toggling them and controlling volume in an update soon.
M


Derron(Posted 2012) [#4]
Why are the circles around the planets not "circles" but "ovals" - makes the planets looking distorted and looking like a plane rotated by 45° to the back.
As Planets are of orb form a surrounding "selection-hull" should be of the same form.


bye
Ron


mearrin69(Posted 2012) [#5]
Not sure what you mean? I assume you're talking about The 'travel zone' (hexes 0210 and 0309 in the screenshot above) indicators? They're B3D cylinder entities and are round if viewed from directly above...but, yeah, they appear as ovals from other angles. is that what you meant?


Derron(Posted 2012) [#6]
Yes that is what I mean.

they are only deforming to ovals if they are 2d-shapes (like discs) but planets are mostly no discs... they are like balls.
So the Selection around them - should behave like a ball (with transparency of - in this case about 70% - so alpha 0.3).


bye
Ron

edit: as it happens to the planets too: don't rotate the sprites. Remember: Each angle you are viewing a planet at is showing you a perfect circle (if you accept planets as "balls" :D) - the only difference is the part of the planet you would see (which you can ignore here in that case).

The hex-fields you use are to make it get some "depth" and look 3d - but the planets and selections have to get some further work.

Last edited 2012


mearrin69(Posted 2012) [#7]
Have you downloaded this or are you just commenting on the screenshot? They *are* 3d. There are no sprites. The planets are spheres and the objects you're referring to are cylinders. Any deformation you're seeing is coming from the 3D renderer and perspective. It's not a 2D program. Apologies if I was unclear about that.
M


Derron(Posted 2012) [#8]
Yes, was judging from the screenshot.

Judgement came from the planet on the bottom left - not completely circular, same for its selection thing.

If this is real 3D you should consider switching the camera : perspective/orthographic.
Now it seems to be the same odd perspective like in Blender "perspective" (numblock - num5).


bye
Ron


mearrin69(Posted 2012) [#9]
I'll check it out, thanks. I'm not sure I'll like what ortho does to it. Maybe changing the FoV or something would work? I'm no expert in B3D cameras, but I'll go see what they can do. Appreciate the feedback!
M