The Extal World Builder

a passion project built by a writer

This is a passion project of mine. For years, I’ve wanted a program that fit my needs as a writer. The ones I’ve found though, lacked or were limited in what I needed. None had all the things combined in one package which was weird to me. I need character profiles, the essential topics encyclopedia builder where you have all your information stored for lore. I wanted a timeline to fit everything in its place. And I wanted an interactive map that I could link with the topics or timeline events or even characters.

Now, I have all that!! And it’s mine!

As of right now, the program is not publicly accessible. It is still being worked on. However, the essential elements are in place.

1 The Topics Encyclopedia

2 The Character Profile Builder

3 The Timeline Event Organizer with graphs

4 The Interactive Map system with markers

- (plus an actual distance measurement tool)

Here, I have an update box where I show where I’m at in finishing the project with progress bars. As you can see, the testing is not at all near the end phase. The building is though. I will keep up to date on version history. I don’t know when the alpha version will be out but shouldn’t be too long.

The real question is, how will it shared. I’m not sure to this end yet but it’s a cross-platform device (Windows, Mac, Linux). It’s completely offline with the exception of downloading an AI model which will live inside the local folder everything is contained in. There are 3 model options, each larger in size, the largest being I believe 4 gb. So beware of that fact if you want them downloaded.

These are the current specs for the software

If you do not run the AI models, the required specs are much lower:

- CPU: Any modern dual-core processor (Intel i3/Ryzen 3 or better)

- RAM: 4 GB minimum (8 GB recommended for smooth multitasking)

- Storage: A few GB free (SSD preferred for faster load times)

- GPU: Not required

- OS: Linux, Windows, or macOS

- Node.js: Version compatible with Electron (for frontend)

- Python: 3.8+ (if using backend scripts, but not for AI)

Without the AI, the project will run as a standard Electron/Node.js app with a Python backend, so typical entry-level hardware is sufficient.

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If you do run the AI models, these are the requirements

- CPU: Modern multi-core processor (Intel i5/Ryzen 5 or better)

- RAM: At least 8 GB (16 GB recommended, especially if using large AI models)

- Storage: SSD with several GB free (AI models like Mistral-7B require several GB)

- GPU: Not strictly required, but a CUDA-capable GPU will accelerate AI model inference if supported

- OS: Linux, Windows, or MacOS

- Python: 3.8+ (for backend scripts)

- Node.js: Version compatible with Electron (for frontend)

- Dependencies: All Python and Node.js dependencies listed in requirements.txt and package.json should be installed

For best performance with large language models, more RAM and a faster CPU/GPU will help. If you plan to run the included Mistral-7B model, 16 GB RAM and a recent CPU are strongly recommended.

Check out my Extal World Builder Page