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This site was created by Joshua Bell. Feel free to send email with any comments, suggestions, bug reports, praise, or offers of help to inexorabletash@gmail.com.
Changes to the site and APIs are announced on a blog to support ad-hoc updates and feedback. Check it out: http://travellermap.blogspot.com/. You can syndicate it here: XML (Atom).
Author, source, and publisher information for all sectors can be found on the Traveller Map Credits page.
The map was inspired by many sources: the Imperium Map poster which provided an overview of known space in the Classic Traveller era; the Spinward Marches poster included with Deluxe Traveller; and the Atlas of the Imperium, which provided cursory maps of all sectors of the Third Imperium. Each of these sources are numbered among my treasured posessions from childhood. I carefully pieced together a map with all of the sector names from the classic Alien Modules, and meticulously traced the various borders onto it. (See it!) I also dutifully entered the Sector Generator BASIC program into my Apple II and spent endless hours in the 1980s trying to coax a decent map from a 72-DPI dot-matrix printer. (Marc, you rock.)
In early 2005, after a hiatus from Traveller of nearly 20 years, I purchased a copy of the GURPS Traveller rulebook, which includes a reprint of the Imperium Map poster in showing the map within the frame of an imaginary computer-based map viewer. I first saw this within weeks of Google Maps appearing, and was inspired to create a functional version of the map viewer using contemporary Web technologies. (Loren, you rock too.)
There are many other Traveller map resources on the Internet. Some other Web-based tools make use of static images (such as The Traveller Atlas), which require significant preparation time by the site author; others use client-side technology (such as the [now offline] The Java SubSector Viewer). There are also full applications, such as Jim Vassilakos' highly regarded Galactic (downloadable here) and commercial applications such as Traveller Universe. This site is a supplement to these other tools; the impressive work by their creators cannot be understated. (They rock as well. I'm just standing on the shoulders of giants here.)
The map page is constructed using HTML, CSS and JavaScript targetting both the Microsoft Internet Explorer and W3C event models, and has been tested with Internet Explorer 8+, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari.
The map page uses client side script to request image tiles from the server. The script arranges the tiles in a scrolling container, which is moved when the user drags the map. As the map is dragged, any newly revealed tiles are requested from the server, filling in the edges of the map. (Feel free to look at the page source to see how this works.)
The server providing the map tiles is running Microsoft's ASP.NET, with a custom ASPX service generating the images on the fly. The service is coded using C# and makes use of the GDI+ services (via .NET wrappers) to produce high-fidelity rendering.
The map data comes from two sources. The macro-scale data - comprising the governmental borders and rifts - was literally traced from the Imperium Map poster released by GDW in the early 1980s by scanning the map and tracing the borders with a mouse into a custom vector format. The micro-scale data is derived from sector data found on the Internet in ".sec" format.
Most of the data that allows the site to function is exposed by various APIs over HTTP. See the API Documentation for more details.
The aspect ratio of the map follows the Classic Traveller convention of hexagonal parsecs, so parsecs are cos(30°):1 rather than square. This means that the map on this site matches the Classic Traveller resources such as the Imperium Map, maps in the Alien Modules, the Spinward Marches and Solomani Rim modules, and hexagonal subsector maps. The maps may appear distorted when compared with square-based maps such as the Atlas of the Imperium or MegaTraveller-era publications.
When zoomed out to larger scales, the stars are rendered pseudo-randomly rather than trying to display the actual system data. This maintains the appearance of the Imperium Map poster. Rifts are simply left empty. At extremely large scales and away from Charted Space, the galactic structure is rendered based on a galactic map copyright © 2000 Far Future Enterprises, hosted by Clifford Linehan's [now offline] The Core Route Projects.
The map features shown at various zoom levels are arbitrary; I settled on them by trial and error. Although some view toggles are exposed by the controls, most are hard-coded. Here is a rough guide:
| Feature | Min Scale | Max Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Sector Grid | 1 | - |
| Sector Names | 1 | - |
| Random Star Field | 1 | 4 |
| Subsector Grid | - | 8 |
| Parsecs (Square) | 16 | 48 |
| Parsecs (Hex) | 48 | - |
| Capitals | 1/2 | 4 |
| Labels (Macro) | 1/2 | 4 |
| Labels (Micro) | 16 | - |
| Borders (Macro) | 1/32 | 4 |
| Borders (Micro) | 4 | - |
| Routes (Macro) | 1/2 | 4 |
| Routes (Micro) | 8 | - |
| Worlds (Dotmap) | 4 | 16 |
| Worlds (Basic) | 24 | 32 |
| Worlds (Full Data) | 48 | - |
| Worlds (UWP) | 96 | - |
If you do just one thing with the map, set the scale to 64 (Subsector) and select Regina/Spinward Marches.
If you do just two things with the map, visit Regina, but also set the scale to 16 (Sector) and pan around the Imperium to get a sense of scale.
If you do just three things with the map, visit Regina, then pan across the Imperium, but finally set the scale to 64 (Subsector) and select Capital/Core. Then retrace the steps of the Sylean Federation Scout Service, and try to make your way to Vland or Terra. It's a humbling trek.
There is lots more that can be done, but for now: enjoy!
There are plenty of excellent Traveller sites out there. Start with Traveller Downport and go from there. But I thought I'd link to some of the sites that inspired this one. This map is intended to be very simple to use but also extremely minimalist. If you need more data or hard core analysis, check out the following sites.
Map of Traveller Charted Space [via The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine] - Anthony Jackson's awesome map site, featuring trade routes, sector data, and PDFs of documented sectors.
Underdeveloped Sectors - John G. Wood's project to remap the sectors of the Coreward and Rimward domains, based on the published DGP dotmaps.
AB's Traveller Astrography Page [via The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine] - Andrew Brown's excellent site, featuring not only detailed data but background theory and details on on Traveller astrometrics and astrography.
The Zhodani Base - P-O "BeRKA" Bergstedt's site includes thorough maps and sector data, among other treasures.
Interactive Atlas of the Imperium - Ned Utzig's drill-down side, which like this one generates images on the fly.
The Traveller Atlas - An excellent "drill-in" map site.
The Missouri Traveller Archive - a fabulous archive of text files.
Traveller Sector Information - Donald McKinney's comprehensive list of documented sectors in Traveller.
List of Worlds - Mark Seemann's comprehensive list of documented worlds in Traveller.
Federation Development Agency [via The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine] - Leroy W.L. Guatney's development of the Rim-Trailing edge of the OTU.
IISS Stellar Cartography [via The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine] - Leroy W. L. Guatney's analysis of Mains and the true extent of the Vilani Imperium.
The Zhodani Files [via The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine] - GypsyComet's sector maps for the Zhodani Consulate and surrounds.
Gateway to PDF - an awesome set of tools by J. Greely to output PDF files from sector data and route/border metadata, as well as tools to compute things like borders from raw sector data.
