READ.ME

TRAVVIEW.EXE
MegaTraveller Subsector Viewer
Written by David Rodger ([email removed])

Version 0.50

1. What is TRAVVIEW.EXE?

TRAVVIEW.EXE is a Visual Basic, Windows application which will work with
standard (i.e., available from sunbane.engrg.uwo.ca or GeNie) MegaTraveller
sector data files.

2. What does it need to run?

I  have tested it on Microsoft Windows v3.1, and IBM's OS/2 v2.1 Win-OS2
subsystem.  It should run under Windows v3.0, but I make no promises.  (If
it does not, however, I would appreciate hearing about it.)

Along with the files included in the TRAVVIEW.ZIP archive, for each Sector
of data, it requires an overview file as follows:

File: OVERVIEW.TXT
"Spinward Marches"
Chronor,CHRONOR
Jewell,JEWELL
Regina,REGINA
Aramis,ARAMIS
Querion,QUERION
Vilis,VILIS
Lanth,LANTH
Rhylanor,RHYLANOR
Darrian,DARRIAN
Sword Worlds,SWORDWOR
Lunion,LUNION
Mora,MORA
Five Sisters,FIVESIS
District 268,DISTRICT
Glisten,GLISTEN
Trin's Veil,TRINSVEI

In my setup, I have a TRAVVIEW directory, where the program file resides, and
a series of subdirectories for each sector I am interested in.  Each in subdir,
there is a file OVERVIEW.TXT and 16 subsector files.  The overview file must
contain a quoted Sector name, followed by 16 lines.  Each line will contain
the subsector's name, followed by a comma, and then the DOS file name of the
subsector data.

This distribution includes the data from the Spinward Marches sector in a
ready-to-run format.

3. How does it run?

Run the program (through the File Manager Run command, or by creating an Icon)
and you will be presented with a Load Sector Overview File dialog box.  The
dialog will default to looking for a file of the name OVERVIEW.TXT, although
you may enter any name you desire.  After you have selected an overview file,
you will be presented with a sector display.  The sector name will appear in the
window caption, and there will be a 4 x 4 grid, with each subsector's name
appearing on a button in the grid.  Click on the subsector you want to see, and
the Subsector display will appear.

The Subsector display has been designed to mimic as closely as possible the
appearance of the Star Map; Subsector Capitals are written in Red text, planets
with a population over 1,000,000,000 are written in uppercase, Red and Amber Zone
planets are denoted on-screen, etc.  To see detailed information about a given
planet in the subsector, click on the planet's name.  This will bring up the
Traveller Planetary Information screen.

The Planetary Information screen displays the Planet name, the Subsector/Sector
and Hex number, followed by the standard Traveller information.  The Universal
World Profile is listed as a series of distinct buttons; clicking on any of the
buttons will bring up an information window explaining what the meaning of the
given code is.  Additionally, you may enter a different digit in this
informational window to look at other codes' meanings.

4. Files contained in the archive TRAVVIEW.ZIP

TRAVVIEW.EXE             The executable file itself
READ.ME
\SYSTEM\VBRUN300.DLL     The Visual Basic support files; these must be placed
\SYSTEM\CMDIALOG.VBX        in your WINDOWS\SYSTEM subdirectory
\SYSTEM\THREED.VBX
\SPINWARD\OVERVIEW.TXT   Spinward Marches overview file
\SPINWARD\ARAMIS            Subsector data files...
\SPINWARD\CHRONOR
... etc ...