Tour the Star Wars Galaxy

A long time ago. . .

On May 25, 1977, the greatest movie ever made was released. On May 19, 1999, the adventure started all over again. On December 18, 2015, the journey continues. Naturally, I am talking about Star Wars.

Have you ever wanted to tour the Star Wars galaxy? Or, have you ever wondered exactly where Tatooine was when Luke said, “If there’s a bright center to the universe, you’re on the planet that it’s farthest from.”

If so, this is the map for you.

Welcome to a tour of the Star Wars galaxy. (Best viewed in Google Chrome or any browser that supports WebGL. Recommend on a desktop machine.)

To create this 3D visualization, this universe was sketched out in ArcMap and finalized using Esri CityEngine. With this map, you can tour the Star Wars galaxy in a three-dimensional space. The tour showcases the planets and moons of note that were mentioned or seen in the movies.

The map is comprised of four elements: a grid, stars, regions, and planets/moons.

Grid

The grid was added to give a chart-like feel to the map.

Stars

The stars are randomly placed points within the universe, with a greater height and density applied to those points closer to the center.

Regions

The regions in Star Wars have been fairly well established, so they roughly follow what has been described according to where both Star Wars canon and noncanonical sources show them (much of the information used in this map came from sites like Wookieepedia).

Planets/Moons

Like the regions, the locations of the planets/moons were approximated in accordance with many online Star Wars enthusiasts and source literature. The planet textures were created in Photoshop and then applied to UV spheres in Blender before they were consumed in Esri CityEngine. Since the Star Wars galaxy varies with each new comic, game, or movie, the look of the planets were given arbitrary characteristics.