Galaxy Scale

1:1 Milky Way, Tiles & Exploration Distance

Cartographic Overlay

Signal Summary

Elite Dangerous models the galaxy at a scale where ordinary UI assumptions break down. A single table cannot carry the whole map; a route cannot inspect every system; a renderer must stream layers.

Galactic cartography is therefore about compression, levels of detail, and making vast distances understandable without pretending they are small.

ScaleTilesExploration

Key Concepts

Human scale - A commander thinks in jumps, refuels, sessions, and expeditions.

Map scale - The galaxy map thinks in sectors, tiles, LODs, and visible density.

API scale - Spatial endpoints need indexes, bounding volumes, and pagination.

Exploration scale - Even well-known routes touch a tiny fraction of the total starfield.

Field Notes

The galaxy-map tile baker exists because shipping every system to the browser at once is the wrong scale.

A low-detail overview should preserve structure; high-detail tiles should reveal local star patterns.

Scale-aware interfaces avoid giving users a blank screen while still respecting the size of the dataset.

Reference

Signal	Value	Use
LOD	Level of detail	Lower detail for overview, higher detail when zoomed in.
Tile	Spatial chunk	A bounded file or query region used for streaming.
Route unit	Jump	The travel-scale step commanders actually experience.