Helm

Interactive galaxy map for Prosperous Universe. Navigate star systems, explore planets and visualize shipping — all rendered real-time.

Live at: helm.27bit.dev Project page: 27bit.dev/helm

Helm operates in 2 modes:

• Standalone (no extension): Open in a browser tab or a XIT WEB buffer to show the universe map including public FIO data.
• Helm Extension: With the browser extension installed, Helm additionally displays your own empire — base markers, ships and warehouses — directly on the map.

Features

• Resource Filter — Pick one or more materials and Helm shows the way. Every system with a selected resource gets highlighted with its concentration factor, and a sortable results sidebar ranks every contributing planet by factor and CX distance. Useful for scouting base locations without opening a pile of PLI buffers.
• Route Planner — Quickly highlight the shortest path between any two systems, gateway-aware.
• Planet & System Data — Detail panels for every system and planet. Resources, environment, fertility, gravity, temperature — plus infrastructure data showing population tiers, happiness and more. Planet panel links directly to PRUNPlanner for base planning.
• CX Distances & Prices — System detail panel shows jump count to all 6 CX's with gateway use flagged. Available resources shown with the most recent ask price at that nearest CX (via FIO).
• Search Everything — Type-ahead across systems, planets and CoGC programs — name, natural ID, substring, whatever. Selecting a planet drops you straight into the system view with the planet highlighted.
• Gateway Overlay — Toggle gateway links on the map.
• 5 Colour Themes — DryDock, CRT Terminal, PrUn Classic, Vivid and Colorblind Safe.
• Keyboard-Enabled — / to search, G for gateways, S for settled, R for resources, Escape cascades through close → exit.

Additionally, with the Helm Extension installed (awaiting store review — install links coming soon):

• Empire base markers — accent rings on every system and planet where you have a base, in galaxy and system view
• Live ship tracking — docked-ship markers at planets and exchanges, in-flight ships interpolated along their flight paths in real time, with flight-phase status and ETA on hover
• Empire lens (E key) — dims the galaxy to your empire and frames it; persists across visits
• CX warehouse indicators — a crate marker at every commodity exchange where you hold warehouse space
• CX-coded ship panels — ships at or bound for an exchange read as the CX code (ANT, MOR, BEN…), matching the map

Empire overview panels (burn status, fleet overview, buffer bridging, screen switching) are the next phase — follow the issues for progress.

Controls

Key	Action
/ or Ctrl+K	Open search — type to find systems or planets
Tab	Accept top search suggestion
Escape	Cascade: close panel → exit system view → universe view
G	Toggle gateway connections on/off
R	Open resource filter picker
E	Toggle empire lens (with extension)
Arrow keys	Pan the map
+ / −	Zoom in / out
Click star	Select system, open detail panel
Double-click star	Enter system view
Click planet	Select planet, show detail panel with resources
Hover star	Highlight direct jump connections
Mouse wheel	Zoom — zooming out past system threshold auto-exits system view

Tech Stack

• Pixi.js 8 — WebGL 2D rendering
• pixi-viewport — pan / zoom / pinch
• TypeScript 5.7 — strict mode
• Vite 6 — build & dev server
• Cloudflare Pages — hosting

Data Sources

Public data comes from FIO REST API; empire-specific data is collected and rendered in the client browser only.

Getting Started

npm install
npm run dev        # Dev server at localhost:5173
npm run typecheck  # TypeScript compiler check
npm run build      # Production build → dist/

With the Helm Extension

When the Helm Extension is installed, Helm becomes the desktop empire-overview surface for Prosperous Universe. The extension reads live game state from APEX and feeds it across the Helm Bridge; Helm draws empire overlays on the map (your bases, ships, CX inventory presence) and renders overview panels (burn, fleet, etc.). Helm remains fully useful standalone without the extension — it's an additive enhancement, not a dependency.

Acknowledgements

• FIO — Community game data API for Prosperous Universe
• Refined PrUn — Browser extension that simplifies the Prosperous Universe interface and adds useful features
• PRUNPlanner — Empire and base planning and management tool
• Taiyi's Map — Interactive map with resource search and filter functionality

License

MIT