Port2Jump on Azure!

This image may look no different to one I posted a month ago but it represents a big step forward as the software is now running on Microsoft's Azure platform. What this means is:

• I can open up access to the software for alpha and beta testers, and end users, as I'm ready
• There is "industrial grade" hosting for the images and data
• The system can scale well beyond any Traveller fan use
• I can apply the tech to other nascent projects such as the Combat60 Google Maps Campaign system

It also means I can now got back to actually writing the functional code for Port2Jump, as well as some nice bells and whistles like WebGL 3D graphics!

Port2Jump Resurrected

Having got the Gushemege Guide effectively completed and now just struggling to find the best way to get it out into the big wide world I can turn my attention back to Port2Jump which I haven't worked on since 2016 - but this will be the Winter I get it working and out there!

Port2Jump is a player/GM helper app for the Traveller role-playing game which takes you through the whole sequence from loading up at a starport, heading out to jump, jumping, and then dock back in the new system. I hope it will also be far more than that and become a way of adventuring in the Traveller universe quite independent of a "physical" game. Whilst it was initially very text centric I started adding still images and am now looking at adding WebGL 3D visualisations. Who knows where it will end up.....

First challenge, completed today, was to get the 3 yr old code running on Visual Studio 2019. Next is to start publishing to Azure so that I can open it up to alpha testers sooner rather than later. Then I'll start actually adding new features.

Earlier Perl Version

Back to PortJump

Having dragged myself away from No Man's Sky for a while I've decided to try and get Port2Jump to a stage that I can release it in beta before Christmas. You get a clue as to what Port2Jump is about by the ship name in the above photo chosen about 2 years ago - the "Poor Man's Sky"! P2J is a GDW Traveller play aid, letting you take a ship from downport to anywhere in the system, and then jump to another system and land on any other planet. However it's all about implementing Traveller rules, not about graphics! Initially all feedback is via the text "COACC message log" and a set of static images which will be cued to your orbit type and the world below. Pretty quickly some of these will be replaced by some WebGL graphics of spinning globes etc.

I had most of P2J working in Perl about 2-4 years ago, but I started last year to port to ASP.NET. All the basic navigation stuff is already working. I'm now doing the table-intensive system and world generation, then once I've got the first WebGL bits in and worked out how to get it up onto Azure I may let people start playing with it.