Devlog #6

Hello everyone,

Welcome to Devlog #6 of Starmap Generator.

Honestly… I didn’t think I’d be writing another devlog after the final release, but here we are.

This one will be pretty short because there’s only one big thing to talk about.

Goodbye, Render

Until now, the project was running on Render.

It was great for getting everything up and running during development, but after using it for a while, I realized the free plan just wasn’t a good long-term solution.

The biggest problem was the cold starts.

If nobody visited the website for a while, the server would go to sleep, which meant the first person opening the site sometimes had to wait 30–50 seconds before anything even loaded.

It worked… but it definitely wasn’t the experience I wanted people to have.

And beside that render is not suported by hackclub so i needed to find better alternative.

Moving to Hack Club Nest

So I decided to migrate the entire project to Hack Club Nest.

The migration went smoothly, and the website is now running at alen.hackclub.app.

The difference is honestly huge.

The server stays online 24/7, so there are no more cold starts, pages open instantly, and generating high-resolution posters is much faster than before.

Since the application does quite a bit of work behind the scenes with Skyfield and Pillow, having a server that doesn’t constantly fall asleep makes a noticeable difference.

What’s Better Now?

The move brought a few nice improvements:

• No more waiting for the server to wake up.
• Faster poster generation.
• Better overall performance.
• More stable hosting.
• A much smoother experience for anyone using the website.

Wrapping Up

I wasn’t planning on making another devlog after finishing the project, but this felt like an important enough update to share.

The project now has a permanent home, performs much better, and is finally hosted somewhere that fits what it has grown into.

Thank you all for following the development of Starmap Generator and reading these devlogs.

Have a nice day.

Devlog #5

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the final devlog of Starmap Generator.

Well… we finally made it.

After quite a few hours of coding, debugging, redesigning things, and fixing bugs I didn’t even know existed, the project is officially finished.

It’s been a really fun project to work on, and I’ve learned way more than I expected when I first started.

Looking Back

When I started this project, the idea was pretty simple.

I just wanted to build a tool that could generate star maps.

As I kept working on it, the project slowly became much bigger than I originally planned. New features kept getting added, old ones were improved, and eventually it turned into a website where you can generate your own starmap poster and even print it.

What Changed Since The Beginning?

Throughout development I made improvements almost everywhere.

The star map itself became much more accurate, the coordinate grid was improved, objects are positioned better, and the overall visualization looks much cleaner than it did in the early versions.

I also spent quite a bit of time improving the website itself. The interface is much cleaner now, navigation is easier, and everything feels more polished.

Privacy Improvements

One thing I noticed while testing was that the website could show some of my own information by default.

Obviously that wasn’t something I wanted if other people were going to use it.

So I changed it.

Now the website starts with completely neutral values, and everyone can enter their own information without seeing any personal data from me.

Performance & Bug Fixes

Not everything went smoothly during development.

I ran into a few performance problems, including memory issues and random bugs that sometimes took much longer to fix than I expected.

After a lot of testing, I managed to make the application much more stable.

Loading is faster, resource usage is lower, and generating larger star maps works much better than before.

What I Learned

This project taught me a lot.

I learned more about procedural generation, coordinate systems, frontend development, debugging larger projects, and organizing code so it’s easier to maintain.

I also spent a lot of time reading documentation and using AI to help me understand concepts that were new to me. That combination really helped me keep moving whenever I got stuck.

Looking back at the first version compared to the final one, it’s honestly nice to see how much both the project and my own skills improved.

Final Status

Starmap Generator is now officially:

• Completed
• Tested
• Optimized
• Available on GitHub
• Available online

This is the end of the project… at least for now.

There will probably always be small things I could improve, but I’m really happy with where it ended up.

Thank you to everyone who read these devlogs, left feedback, or simply followed the project from the beginning.

See you in the next project.

Have a nice day.

Devlog #4

Hello everyone,

Welcome to Devlog #4 of Starmap Generator.

Hope you all are doing great.

Today’s session felt a lot better than the last one.

I finally managed to fix one of the biggest issues that had been bothering me for a while, and now the project is really starting to feel complete.

The Grid Is Finally Fixed

The biggest update today is that I finally got the CSS grid working the way I wanted.

It took way more experimenting than I expected. I kept changing things, refreshing the page, breaking the layout, fixing it again… and eventually everything just clicked.

Now the elements are finally where they’re supposed to be, and the whole interface feels much more stable.

About Yesterday…

I’m still a little annoyed about yesterday’s time tracker deciding that a 5-hour coding session was only 1 hour.

There’s nothing I can really do about it now, but looking back, those “missing” hours definitely weren’t wasted. A lot of today’s progress only happened because of all the work I put in yesterday.

So I guess it wasn’t completely for nothing.

The Website

I also want to say something about the design.

I’m not a web designer, and this isn’t meant to be the most beautiful website you’ll ever see.

It’s pretty simple, but it works, and honestly I’m happy with that.

Considering this is one of my first bigger web projects, I’m really proud of how everything has come together. I’ve learned a lot while building it, and that’s probably the most important part.

Almost Finished

At this point, there really isn’t much left to do.

There are still a few small things I want to clean up, but if everything goes according to plan, I should be able to finish the entire project tomorrow.

It’s kind of crazy seeing something that started as just an idea getting this close to the finish line.

I think that’s all for this devlog.

If you have any suggestions, feedback, or notice something that could be improved, feel free to leave a comment or open an issue on GitHub.

Thank you all so much for reading.

Have a nice day.

Devlog #3

Hello everyone,

Welcome to Devlog #3 of Starmap Generator.

Hope you all are doing great.

Today was… a long one.

I ended up spending around 5 hours working on the project, and honestly, most of that time was just coding, testing, breaking things, fixing them, and repeating the whole process again.

Now here’s something funny.

For some reason, my time tracker decided that today’s 5-hour session was actually… 1 hour.

I have absolutely no idea how that happened.

So if the analytics ever tell you I barely worked today, just know they’re lying. 😅

The Website Is Finally Alive

The biggest update is that the project has officially become semi-functional on the web.

It’s definitely not finished yet, but the frontend and backend are finally talking to each other.

Seeing everything actually work inside a browser instead of only running locally feels like a huge step forward.

There are still plenty of things to improve, but at least now the project is starting to look like an actual website instead of just a collection of files.

How I Got Here

Just like before, I spent a lot of time reading documentation and figuring things out.

Whenever I got stuck, I also used AI to help me understand concepts or point me in the right direction.

I’m still learning a lot as I build this project, so combining documentation with AI has honestly been one of the biggest reasons I’ve been able to keep making progress.

What’s Next?

Now that the website is finally up and running, the next goal is making everything smoother.

There are still bugs to fix, the UI needs a lot more work, and I want to start adding the features that will make the generator feel complete instead of just functional.

There’s still a long way to go, but seeing everything slowly come together is really motivating.

I think that’s all for this devlog.

As always, if you have any ideas, suggestions, or feedback, feel free to leave a comment or open an issue on GitHub.

Thank you all so much for reading.

Have a nice day.

Devlog #2

Hello everyone,
Welcome to Devlog #2 of Starmap Generator.
Hope you all are doing great.

Okay, now let me explain quickly of my recent changes or update on the site.

I am not sure but maybe this will be a bit shorter devlog, maybeeee…. since I’m trying not to bore anyone reading this, but I really want to keep these devlogs raw and unfiltered.
Okay now lemme explain.

Constellations & Core Features
Sooo, the big news is that today I finally finished all the basic functions.

The generator now does exactly what every proper starmap is supposed to do.

And the coolest part? Constellations are officially working.

The stars actually connect and form patterns now, just like a real night sky.

How did I do it?
If you ask how I managed to pull this off so fast, then ummm…

To be honest, I did a massive deep dive into the documentation, and I also used AI to help me figure out the math and logic behind the star positioning.

I’m not gonna lie, combining AI with reading documentation saved a lot of time here because I am still a bit limited by my current knowledge.
But it works now.

Moving to HTML (The Web Site)
Currently, I have already started working on the HTML side of things because I want to implement this whole generator into an actual website.

Right now, it looks super basic and has almost no CSS, so it is pretty ugly.

But don’t worry, as soon as I finish setting up the web structure, I will fix the design and make it look clean. The goal is to make it so anyone can just open their browser and generate their own starmap.

Oh…
The devlog doesn’t seem that small anymore. I’m sorry for that.

I guess that’s it for this devlog. My 10-hour clock is still ticking, but the foundation is officially ready.

If you didn’t understand any of the points, please do comment and I will try to explain it to you there.

Thank You all so much for reading.

Have a nice day.

Devlog #1: Reviving the Starmap Generator 🌌Hey everyone! I’m jumping back into an old project that’s been sitting on the shelf for a while, waiting to be finished – the Starmap Generator.I’ve decided it’s time to finally wrap it up and get it done. However, this time I have a clear plan and a strict time limit:10 Hours Max: I’m not going to spend weeks dragging this out. I’m capping my time at a maximum of 10 hours of work to polish the features, clean up the code, and get it fully completed on my end.🚀 What’s the plan next?Once those 10 hours are up, the code is finished, and everything is officially published, I’d love to hand over the torch. Since I’m currently limited by my knowledge when it comes to taking it to the next level (like turning it into a larger web app or a more complex system), I’m looking for someone who knows their way around that side of things to step in after the release.If you have the skills and want to take my foundational code and turn it into something much bigger, definitely reach out once it’s live!But first, let’s take it step by step. My 10-hour clock starts now—stay tuned for the next update! 🚀