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Friday Update: Interactive Galaxy Map



This week's Friday Update for Star Wars: The Old Republic adds a Galaxy Map to the Holonet as its final menu option. As seen previously, maps are highly detailed showing your location, the objective's location, and anything in between. These new maps detail each region's notable worlds and any interesting facts.

You can also view each region of space in 3D using the Unity web installer, which gives you the control to explore the galaxy in-depth. Each starship and planet is accessable through the 3D viewer, as well as the location of each planet by space sector.

Courtney Woods
The Star Wars galaxy is massive and you will be able to visit numerous worlds during your travels in the The Old Republic. To give you an early taste of what the experience will be, weve added a new feature to the website, allowing you to explore the Galaxy Map for yourself. Youll get to see the five major sectors of the Known Galaxy, check out profiles of the planets, and even examine interactive models of the player Starships.

Access the new Galaxy Map page through the HoloNet!

Comments

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  • Davidicus's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #50 Davidicus Posted 10/5/2011 3:45:10 AM
    Wow, this is great stuff. +1 for BioWare's Web Development Division :P
  • Mythor's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #36 Mythor Posted 10/1/2011 2:39:53 AM
    Had a read through all the planet descriptions earlier, lots of interesting bits and pieces in there. Can't wait to visit all the places I just read about. :)
  • Kaiser's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 642
    #39 Kaiser Posted 10/1/2011 3:01:45 AM
    I know, I hadn't gone through them in a while and now it's just made me that much more excited!
  • sindjinn's avatar
    Nerf Herder
    • Posts: 8
    #31 sindjinn Posted 9/30/2011 9:26:00 PM
    The videos cannot be stopped or closed in IE. They just keep playing when you close the window and move to the next planet. Noticing the other compatibility comments above makes me wonder if Bioware even tested this before releasing it. Not a good sign for the game.
  • Kaiser's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 642
    #38 Kaiser Posted 10/1/2011 3:01:21 AM
    No, the fact that you think this affects the game's quality is not a good sign for the game.

    *rolleyes*
  • gstommylee's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 102
    #32 gstommylee Posted 9/30/2011 9:39:44 PM
    How would an issue like this effect the game itself.
  • Chronx6's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 189
    #34 Chronx6 Posted 10/1/2011 1:24:46 AM
    Why is he using IE? Most likely it has something to do with IE and its integration with how the website is built. Go with chrome or firefox man. They don't give any where as many issues.
  • Jaramukhti's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 783
    #33 Jaramukhti Posted 10/1/2011 12:13:46 AM
    It can if you believe it can. You just have to believe it- screw it, he's just making a mountain out of a molehill.lol

  • sindjinn's avatar
    Nerf Herder
    • Posts: 8
    #37 sindjinn Posted 10/1/2011 2:56:42 AM
    Well, yes - mountains and molehills, but, its those little molehills that add up to a poor looking yard.

    Is SWTOR being rushed? Not testing your galaxy map against one of the more widely-used browsers does tell me something.

    btw, I use IE, Chrome, and Opera.
  • Jaramukhti's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 783
    #42 Jaramukhti Posted 10/1/2011 7:47:36 AM
    Doorofnight put it in better perspective, there isn't much more to add.

    To make a correlation between SWTOR's (perceived) development quality, and the quality of a feature created by a separate team running the website, would be a little bit like connecting a car's quality with the person selling it to you at a dealership, not the manufacturer.

    Also, the most important trait of an MMO developer is not to get it perfect out of the gate (impossible), but to quickly get things running smoothly in as efficient a manner as possible.

    Within a few hours, the videos played in every single one of those browsers.

    I would say they succeeded in smoothing out the rough edges in a smooth, timely manner.

  • Doorofnight's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 143
    #40 Doorofnight Posted 10/1/2011 4:00:58 AM
    I doubt very much the people running and programming the website and the people making the game are even the same people, yes the website uses videos of the game, but that doesn't mean that the more interactive features like the Galaxy map are designed by the game designers, it is probably run by professional website developers.

    There is also the fact that this plug-in is one that I've never even heard of before(I apologize if that means I've been living under a rock) and plug-ins always runs weird when they are first released because there is no way of controlling how they interact with all the other plug-ins. In fact, I have a better question for you, does ANY video plug-in ever work exactly the way it is supposed to. Even Adobe Flash has a pretty high fail rate with problems like the one you are describing.
  • sindjinn's avatar
    Nerf Herder
    • Posts: 8
    #41 sindjinn Posted 10/1/2011 6:31:33 AM
    The Unity game engine and its associated plug-ins is one of the largest third party game engines around. http://unity3d.com/ If you ever plan on designing your own games, its definitely one to look at.
  • Doorofnight's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 143
    #45 Doorofnight Posted 10/1/2011 4:49:00 PM
    ah, I stand corrected. It seems to be running a lot better now too, it was a bit rough in Firefox too at first but they seem to have it working much better, its probably just the typical problems that always crop up with a new online release that everyone is trying to use.
  • Davidicus's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #51 Davidicus Posted 10/5/2011 3:46:39 AM
    While I'm using it 3 days later, I had no issues on Firefox 7.
  • Daelite's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 187
    #26 Daelite Posted 9/30/2011 8:02:14 PM
    The 3D tool is a little clunky and almost amateur for lack of a better term, not the typical Bioware quality I have come to know and love. The 3D ship viewer was a nice touch.
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