Came across some vintage maps of our solar system and thought it'd be cool to create a generator for such maps.
Vintage Star System Generator © 2022 by Arkimedz is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International
How to use:
Status | In development |
Category | Tool |
Platforms | HTML5 |
Rating | Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars (61 total ratings) |
Author | Arkimedz |
Made with | p5.js |
Tags | Generator,Sci-fi |
Asset license | Creative Commons Attribution v4.0 International |
Average session | A few seconds |
Inputs | Mouse |
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@Arkimedz can you link this to the star info on https://travellermap.com and corresponding system info on https://travellerworlds.com/ that way can be used in Traveller RPG games TO GENERATE systems in Traveller
this is awesome. i wish it had more customization so it could be more effectively used for TTRPGs. the visual of these are perfect. i have a couple of feature requests but some are pie in the sky wishes, you'll know whats doable and whats not.
The worn paper background is really nice.
Thank you for making this available!
(Honestly I'm just browsing so my opinion doesn't count for much, but is it possible to make the randomness of the 'worn paper' look plugged into to some random noise generator that gives the same look? I'm thinking of something like perlin noise (or some such) which also takes seed number. That way, star charts could be displayed next to eachother without looking like printing on worn paper that looks like clones because of the exact same paper look. A BIG ask, I know!)
Thanks for the comment and your interest in this. Initially I had started with trying out Perlin noise to generate the background. But the main reason I removed it was that it was taking a performance hit and too long to generate a background that looked reasonably well. To make it look realistic, I was having to do several passes of perlin noise with different frequencies. There might be faster ways to achieve the same thing and that's something I could try in the future. If you know about such approaches - would love to learn about them!
I've made a quick mockup in GIMP of a couple of paper samples. Would this kinds of thing be to your quality standards? (artefacts on the image such as corner stains and rust marks really help make it pop, but I'm starting simple first).
If this is indeed the kind of thing you'd find acceptable, I could look into writing up a Script-Fu automated process. I haven't written Script-Fu before, but I might be able to eventually get something working.
My trick is using perlin noise on a transparent layers and with layers shifted with translucent pixels, shifting the hue and opacity of each layer.
Above uses Perlin noise from the website: http://kitfox.com/projects/perlinNoiseMaker/
The above uses Perlin noise generated natively in GIMP
Very cool, but it's worth pointing out the CC BY-ND 4.0 license prohibits derivative works - "feel free to use it in your games/art with attribution" is problematic, since adding or modifying even the smallest thing (even adding a border) and then posting on a website is violating the terms of use, even when attribution is given.
Thanks for the feedback. I have updated it to the Attribution 4.0 International license.
I love the aesthetic, but it'd be even better if there was a degree of customization as well: Renaming the objects, perhaps even being able to add or remove planets?
Also, for some reason all the comet orbits seem to look the same.
Other than that, it's a very nice generator and I look forward to seeing the new features as they're implemented.
You should also incorporate Nasa's Exoplanet Catalog to create vintage maps of actual known solar systems: https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/discovery/exoplanet-catalog/
Glad you liked it.
About sharing externally: Not at the moment sorry.
I do plan to publish this as a standalone app with the option of adding the seed in the URL so you can either use the main URL for a randomly generated map, or use a URL with seed so it'll always return the map specific to that seed.
It's in my TODO list and will ping you once I publish a standalone app