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This is awesome.
It would be cool to see what books talk about each world when you click on them. Also to be able to search for books and see what worlds are talked about in them.
There’s something visceral about seeing the places in 3D and their relation to one another. How many books and codices have I read with just random slapped down markers on the galaxy? There’s so much that can be done to extend this project from the lore - logistical movements and timeline accounts of various crusades and invasions. Great project! Thanks for linking it
Great start, awesome idea! Definitely need all the Xenos maps from all the various codexes (Lexicanum usually clarifies which codex has the most recent map for each, IME). The crown jewel, ofc, is to see the Tyranid fleets hitting the galaxy from two sides and then below, then zooming out to reveal the oncoming mass, still flying through the void towards us from Andromeda... Terrifying!
UI wise, there's definitely a sense of latency when just moving my mouse around. Obviously 3D (three.js?) has FPS limits, but this should be preventable. Also, a lot of the text overlaps on my random (medium sized) browser window.
EDIT: Also you gotta take the stars outta the intergalactic void! Would be much cooler to see the occasional super distance galaxy, anyway ;)
I'm the creator of Cartographia40k Big shout out to gbxyz for posting my page. All the visitors I got yesterday really helped me to get back on this and make additions. Up until yesterday this site would only get maybe a hundred visitors a day if that.
I was planning on dropping any plans to make additions to the site however now that I see there is interest I will defiently be coming up with some ideas.
Which brings me to the big question. What additions would you guys like to see? I can pretty much code anything into this site given enough time so no ask will go unconsidered! Lastly, this site was a MASSIVE undertaking if you find the information on it useful please consider supporting via the ko-fi link I have. It really helps me to set aside time to make the additions you guys want and that I also have planned.
The Latin seems quite wrong... e.g. "segmentum pacificus" should actually be "segmentum pacificum" [1] to keep genders correct. Was it the same in the books (which I don't know)?
Doesn't matter, canon or not somebody's gonna maintain that map by hand and it'll drift out of sync the moment next codex drops. Been there with internal wikis.
"Books" undersell it a bit though, IIRC most of the actual lore comes from codexes and Black Library novels, which contradict each other constantly. Good luck picking a canon version to link.
This has a lot of similarities to a world map interface I've been tinkering with for a game I've been working on, thanks for the additional inspiration.
The barrier of entry is admittedly high for playing the game, but it's tons of fun. You have to pick an army, start collecting models (which aren't cheap), then you have to build them and at least sort of paint them. Honestly the best way is just go on to a local store on they 40k open play night (most have one weekly) and ask around. Folks are extremely kind and generous and will often loan you some models to play against them and try out the game. Some stores even have loaner armies in stock for this purpose.
The "pay to win" feeling is really just in the competitive scene. You can choose to chase the ever-changing meta or just enjoy playing more narrative games.
ps. you can learn the basic mechanics of the game pretty quickly by watching "Battle reports" on youtube. Search for 11th edition specifically as it just came out in June and the rules changed a good bit.
Same as any hobby with a build/learn curve, PC building in the 90s, ham radio before that. Gatekeeping myth is overrated, local stores and clubs always wanted more players. Loaner armies were a thing back in 3rd edition too, nothing new.
I recommend the Eisenhorn books if you want to get into the lore. It's a good story and covers a lot of ground without expecting a ton of prior knowledge.
There are multiple legs to The Hobby (tm), the painting and modelling, the game, and the lore.
For me, painting is the fun bit. I find the game broken and totally driven by marketing. Horrible pay-to-win stuff.
Gaming you need people, you gotta get down a shop and say hi. I prefer independents, as they sell other games, but what's available depends on where you are. Even without shops, finding a group isn't that hard, there's an organised one in my very small town. Facebook etc. can help.
For painting, it's easy, just find models you like the look of, the official site can suggest paints, and have a crack. Your first ones won't be great, but it's the progress that's fun. There's an absurd amount of YouTube content. My crew like Cult of Paint.
Lore, I know least about, I find the books unreadable, but the Black Library is vast. The Horus Heresy is the canonical backbone.
A friend actually writes some short stuff on the fantasy side, do him a favour and grab a collection with Jake Ozga.
Ran fine here on a five year old laptop, chrome, default settings. "Atrocious" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Might just be an older GPU or too many browser extensions eating the WebGL context, not the site itself.
Built something similar for a different game years back—biggest time sink was always coordinate wrangling, not rendering. If you're hand-plotting from codex maps, grab Lexicanum's raw wikitext tables via their API instead of eyeballing pixel positions, saves a ton of rework later when new sourcebooks add worlds.
