Topic: Galaxy maps...how *do* you draw one...?

[Aotrs Commander]

On a whim, I've started working up a new sci-fi universe (as opposed to a new campaign world). Not entirely sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but...

It occurred to me that I could really use a proper galactic map this time around...or at least one of the local clusters. Nearly all the sci-fi games/books et al in any media have galaxy maps... Trouble is, I have no idea about how to go about getting one (since I'm going from the basis of the milky-way galaxy as opposed to an entirely fictional one a la Star Wars). Presumably there must be some sources somewhere, since everybody and their dog has one (SM2, BattleTech, Star Trek, Mass Effect yada yada yada), but damned if I can find one with a google search...Surely not everyone draw it from painstaking co-ordinates every time (the mind boggles in that case!)

I suppose I might be able to dig one out of one of my astrology books maybe (whose sole purpose is to support my sci-fi roleplaying), but a computerised one would be better; something publically available that I can modify to suit would be best.



(Actually, come to that, I wonder how people draw the maps of Earth for game resources and such? There must be some sort of resource somewhere they copy from surely...? I just realised I really don't know.)



Anybody have any ideas?

[markc]

 I have Astro Synthisis and Fractal Mapper, which can build a star system and generate the world map. I think there are others out there but I also know that quite a few people use Bryce to generate world maps.
 Someone has plugged in all the stars for 25 LY around earth. [If my memory is correct]. So you can use the basic data and add things you want to the systems or change whole planets and orbits. The only thing it cannot do is have multiple objects in the same orbit, I think. At least I thought I sent them an email a long time ago and asked how I would do something like that and they said I would have to jump through some hoops. I think it was generate a mathematical formula for the planet points and go from there.

MDC

MDC

[Defendi]

I use Campaign Cartographer and the gliese catalog.

[RandalThor]

I suggest you look into Traveller 2300 (and 2320, now) and the old SM map - they both deal with the space near Earth out to, what, 25 or so LY.

For doing it yourself, I would suggest not trying to be to "realistic" with it and just make it how you need it for your game. If you want a Nebula bordering one side, put it there. You can always come up with reasons why it is there for your game that defy astrophysics.

[markc]

Another far out option is to have the sol system telepoted to another part of the universe. Then you can just make the near stars like you want.

MDC

[Aotrs Commander]

After some other suggestions and some experimentation, I've opted to use Celstia. This does, granted, have the slight drawback that I can't easily draw empire borders or print it out (and I think there may be a way to get round even that) but this is more than balanced out by the fact I can calculate actual travel times by just moving the date to the one I want...and it's all in 3D and whatnot. Plus I can pilfer the data on actual extrasolar planets and use that as the jumping off point for inhabited systems.

That is a frighteningly good piece of kit for free software, seriously.

[markc]

 If you have a photo program of Photoshop you can import the immage and draw a boarder in.

MDC

[Michael Hodgins]

After some other suggestions and some experimentation, I've opted to use Celstia.

Hi

Is that Celestia?


Moo

[Dax]

Is that Celestia?

I suppose so. Or better I am sure. (And welcome to the forum)

What I have done (it was long before the common use of computer):
I looked through an astronomy book with all the data of stars and their position.
Then caculated the position to (x,y,z) coordinates.
After that I realised that the displayed stars are very far apart (the book only stated the bigger stars
or some on interest or ... I don't know).
So I choose one star and built the space around it.

How?
I used the star density of our galaxy arm (rounded it up because the space was nearer to the core).
So I knew in every cube of x*y*z LY (LightYear) there is one star, so I randomly roll for position.
At this point I followed the normal SM procedure (So there could happened to be more stars).
I noted down the position of the star on a paper-sheet with a fine line-grid (millimeter-paper).

Today I would also go the way with computer assistence.
(I would like to be competent enough to program a good GUI  :'( )

It seems that Celestia got all you need.

See the use of Celestia for Shadow World     <- Link

[Michael Hodgins]

welcome to the forum

cheers

I've just installed Celestia (I love Linux; just

Code: [Select]

#sudo yum install celestia -y and I'm away). Looks pretty amazing. I love the way you can look at the constellations from different points in the Galaxy.

Michael

[highpriest_rsw2]

I generally use either Heaven and Earth

http://www.downport.com/wbd/HEAVEN_&_EARTH.htm

or


Camapaign cosmographer by profantasy software

http://www.profantasy.com/products/cos.asp

Heaven & Earth is free if you don't want to pay the $ for cosmographer. (which is a great tool if you're gonna use it a lot.)