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Author Topic: UQM Hyperspace Map/Planetary Database Project  (Read 23213 times)
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Re: Insane Undertaking: Hyperspace Image Map
« Reply #45 on: October 09, 2003, 03:28:09 pm »

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Some errors I've noticed in this sheet. I checked Vega 1's entry against what was in the game, and here is what I found.


Responses are from memory, so bear with me...

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According to game, density = 1.32 (earth scale as I recall). This data says density = 105. If this is intended to be actual density, I could correct this if I knew what Earth's was.

The displayed density is vastly different to that which is used in the mineral/bio calc, and is largely meaningless.  The calc for the value can be found in scan.c

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Techtonics is 2 in sheet, and 3 in game.

Tectonics, Weather and maybe a couple of other things are zero-based in the code, and one-based when displayed on the screen.  Essentially, add one to the value in the database.

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Rotation period is 251 in sheet, and 1.60 in game.

Rotation period is displayed differently to the way it's calculated internally.  See scan.c for more detail.


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Axial Tilt was a negative (though otherwise correct) value on Vega 2.

Axial Tilt is always displayed as an absolute value on the screen, but can be a negative in the code.

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All planets are listed as "BLUE_BODY"

er, dunno.

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Length of day

Again, this is calculated at the time it's displayed on screen, and is largely meaningless.  Calc can be found in scan.c

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Planet type: Even having a number that references a table of types would be useful.

That should be there, as it's essential for determining minerals.  I'll check that and get back to you.

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DistanceFromSun and DistanceFromParent are the same value. Not a big deal.

This is by design.  They're the same because the parent of a planet IS it's sun.  For a moon, DistanceFromParent will be a different value to DistanceFromSun.

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Density would be more correctly referred to as "Mass", but this is lkewise not a big deal, as I can label it as such when the time comes.

*shrug* it's Density in the code, so it's Density in the database.
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Re: Insane Undertaking: Hyperspace Image Map
« Reply #46 on: October 09, 2003, 04:19:27 pm »

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Density would be more correctly referred to as "Mass", but this is lkewise not a big deal, as I can label it as such when the time comes.
As technician I must say that there is a big difference between mass and density.

Mass [kg] = Density [kg/(m^3)] * Volume(Size) [m^3]

The density is important to decide wether it is a gas-giant (like Jupiter, Saturn, Source, ...) or a (possibly very large) planet with a solid surface...

Edit: added units
« Last Edit: October 09, 2003, 04:22:11 pm by Krulle » Logged
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Re: Insane Undertaking: Hyperspace Image Map
« Reply #47 on: October 09, 2003, 04:39:46 pm »

Sage: there's a new version of the database on my site that fixes the BLUE_BODY problem and includes the world type for each planet/moon.
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Re: Insane Undertaking: Hyperspace Image Map
« Reply #48 on: October 09, 2003, 05:04:40 pm »

Weather and Techtonics may be zero based, but any time either of these should be 0 or 1 in the game, the value is put down here as 0, making it impossible for me to tell which it is supposed to be.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2003, 05:07:22 pm by sageallen » Logged
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Re: Insane Undertaking: Hyperspace Image Map
« Reply #49 on: October 09, 2003, 05:10:49 pm »

Use the source, Sage.  It's all there in scan.c

Tectonics is listed on the screen as "none" if the planet is a gas giant, otherwise it's the internal tectonics + 1.

If you find an exception to this rule, I'd be interested in hearing about it.
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Re: Insane Undertaking: Hyperspace Image Map
« Reply #50 on: October 09, 2003, 05:51:34 pm »

Alright I see your point now.

Get this: Alpha Antilae 4c is listed in this data as a Pellucid World (purple), but in the game it's really a Treasure World (yellow). All the other information on it (with the exception of the minerals) is still accurate though.

If we're going to keep doing this we may want to establish real-time communications. If you like, grab one of my instant messenger screennames from my profile. I'd use the IRC channel for this purpose, but for some reason every IRC client I have refuses to work.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2003, 05:52:58 pm by sageallen » Logged
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Re: Insane Undertaking: Hyperspace Image Map
« Reply #51 on: October 09, 2003, 06:53:22 pm »

Well spotted.

Another new version of the database has been uploaded to the site, fixing the bug that caused the anomaly.
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Re: Insane Undertaking: Hyperspace Image Map
« Reply #52 on: October 10, 2003, 01:34:12 am »

Special system data is added "by hand" in planets/gen*.c, based on flags in the starmap data (e.g., RAINBOW_DEFINED.)
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Re: Insane Undertaking: Hyperspace Image Map
« Reply #53 on: October 10, 2003, 04:46:50 am »

Not only added, also changed in some cases. For example the Slylandro home world: a planet is changed into a gas giant and then it is marked to have one moon, thereby changing the next planet into a moon (I think).
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Re: Insane Undertaking: Hyperspace Image Map
« Reply #54 on: October 10, 2003, 08:11:52 am »

Yep, and that's the main reason I didn't support it in the first iteration of the planetary database.  All of the special types are defined in code, rather than in an external configuration file.  
Makes it a pain in the bejesus to extract out.

I'd read somewhere that you're planning to externalise a lot of that type of data into XML files for 0.4.  Is that still on the cards?
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Re: Insane Undertaking: Hyperspace Image Map
« Reply #55 on: October 10, 2003, 08:31:49 am »

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I'd read somewhere that you're planning to externalise a lot of that type of data into XML files for 0.4.  Is that still on the cards?


I don't know about for 0.4, but it's something we've kind of been looking at.  It's at about the lowest priority that still has a chance of being done...

If we don't do it by 1.0, it's one of the extensions that will probably be "inevitable" - but then, if we don't do it by 1.0, it's very likely that 1.0 will be a frozen version of the codebase that doesn't include code refactoring to make extensions possible - the proverbial "straight port".
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Re: Insane Undertaking: Hyperspace Image Map
« Reply #56 on: October 15, 2003, 09:51:55 pm »

Though I've remained quiet, I've done a lot of changing to this starmap. As of a few days ago I switched the output of my script to SVG, which will require a plugin from Adobe to view. This change has reaped some benefits and drawbacks.

Benefits:
Much smaller output file = faster download/rendering.
A much more "elegant" (as Bwahaha put it) interface.
Not so much clunky and slow javascript interfering with load times. In particular I now no longer need an image preloader script in this version.

Drawbacks:
Scrollbars are nonfunctional. Best bet is to "pan" the image, the method for which relies on which platform you're on.
Some browsers don't know what to do with this plugin (I'm aware that Opera doesn't at least, there's likely more). It's safe to assume this plugin will work for "major" browsers best.
It seems that I can't call javascript in an embedded svg file from across frames. This can potentially be fixed but it will take time.

My server is unable to parse svg output, but thanks to Bwahaha's help, I was able to secure some webspace to host this project on. The starmap (sans frames) can be viewed at http://uqm.chumbucket.org/starmap.cgi.
« Last Edit: October 15, 2003, 09:54:18 pm by sageallen » Logged
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Re: UQM Hyperspace Map/Planetary Database Project
« Reply #57 on: November 01, 2003, 02:30:24 pm »

Update: I've squashed a bug that displayed the map incorrectly (without the working controls). So now all the nifty stuff like the fuel calculator and sphere of influence controls are now showing. I've also put together a very alpha solar system viewer. To activate it, double click on any star, then from there follow the links to see planet data.

It should be known that in it's current incarnation there is some mismatched data (like a Gas Giant with a tectonics rating, among many others), and almost all planets orbitting a supergiant star will have several incorrect values. These of course will be addressed as I begin work on the graphical version of the solar system viewer.
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Re: UQM Hyperspace Map/Planetary Database Project
« Reply #58 on: November 03, 2003, 07:25:32 pm »

Sage-  That is totally awesome!   Shocked  Please finish this!
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Re: UQM Hyperspace Map/Planetary Database Project
« Reply #59 on: November 04, 2003, 06:53:06 pm »

As a result of Sage's feedback (and constant pestering), the planetary database that serves as the source for the online starmap has gone through quite a few revisions, including the fixing of the supergiant bug mentioned a couple of posts above.

While the exceptional data (rainbow worlds, etc) STILL hasn't been included, thanks to my lazy efforts, the data is now in pretty good shape.  Anybody who's interested can grab the latest XML version (in all it's 670k-zipped, 14mb-when-uncompressed glory) at:

http://uqm.chumbucket.org/uqm_plandata.zip

There's also a cut-down CSV version available, that doesn't go into quite as much detail and is significantly easier to parse:

http://uqm.chumbucket.org/uqm_csv.zip
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