Virtual Reality is a cutting edge technology that can transport users anywhere they could possibly imagine, real or unreal. For my final project in Introduction to Virtual Reality, my team and I developed an interactive model of Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn. Our vision evolved from its inception, initially we wanted to create an objective based game play that lead users around the moon. Given our timetable, we instead opted to do a first person open world exploration app that allowed users to explore a mock up of the icy extraterrestrial world.
Using Unity, Rhino, and Google Sketchup, we modeled a terrain similar to the topography of the icy crust of Enceladus. Two stunning features on the surface we wanted to display were the exhilarating views of Saturn, and the exciting water geysers that burst from the below subsurface ocean.
In Sketchup, we modeled a small habitat that our user could reside in. We found a model of an astronaut suit in the Unity store that we imported and attempted to use as our first person model. After much frustration, we opted instead to feature him as a waving crew mate patiently waiting in the habitat.
Progress Presentation
Final Presentation