For my Design for Simulation project my aim was to create an interactive simulation of all the planets in our solar system.
I made a FPS game style planet simulator, that allows players to walk around and freely explore what the different surfaces of each planet in our solar system look like.
The objective of the simulation was to combat the fact we may never visit any of these planets in real life, so a visual computer representation is the most we can realistically hope for.
It could be used both leisurely and educationally as a virtual environment to immerse yourself in and explore in a way we won’t ever be able to physically.
To begin the design stage I needed to collect as much scientific data about each of the planets. NASA had entire pages devoted to all of the planets I could use.
I took this information to make eight transparent visor interfaces, one for each planet, detailing their relevant information and saved these out as picture files.
NASA also had several height map images, taken by probes, for each of the planets, showing the low and high areas on the surface.
Next in Unity, I set up my player in a scene, by adding in a standard First Person controller asset onto a
terrain object (essentially a moveable camera) and saved it as a template scene for all future scenes/planets.
I began with Mercury and imported the relevant height map image, which I scaled up so it covered my terrain
object. Using my terrain tool I could raise and lower the ground in the correct parts. Once correct, I could
texture it. There aren’t any genuine textures available for the planets, so I needed to modify and combine
real world alternatives like dirt and rubble to give the same effect. I could assign several different textures
and paint them onto my terrain object.
To match this I then created a skybox to mimic what the planets sky would actually look like.
Once I had a scene to run around in, I could edit some of the settings on my first person controller to better
match the planet. From here I could adjust the gravity on my player, as well as adding several image effects
such as depth of field.
I also made use of the particle effect system within Unity to create dust or give the impression of wind.
Lastly I needed to add a canvas so I could overlay the visor images I made onto the screen and add a back
button to return to the menu.
This process could be repeated for all the planets.
Finally the menu was final scene to make that consisted of a simple canvas with UI buttons that would load
and connect the different scenes together.
As i’m fairly un-experienced with Unity I suffered many technical difficulties along the way. The first came
when making my second planet. As I was using a template and duplicating the scene each time I made a
new planet, I thought I was also duplicating my terrain object. After spending time making Mercury I moved
on to Mars and started making that terrain. I only realised afterwards the same terrain could be in both
scenes and that I need to create a new one each time as I had just over-written what i’d done for Mercury.
I also had a problem with the screen size when building the game as my canvas and UI elements did not
translate to the same position as they were in the editor. This was because I needed to tell Unity my screen
dimensions via a C# script.
Originally I was only going to do mercury and mars, however when I realised there was a maximum level of
detail I could achieve in the time I had and that I could build these different terrains in a relatively short time I
decided to include every planet in our solar system.
This meant however that I didn’t have time to include sign posed points of interest or objects like lunar
landers etc. I also didn’t have time to include as many level objects such as rocks etc as I originally wished.
As stated before our generation is highly unlikely to ever visit any of these planets, especially as half of them
we as humans physically can’t, so we rely on images and simulations like mine to play and experience this.
In Poetics 4, Aristotle tells us that people are naturally imitative, that they learn by imitating, and so they
enjoy seeing and hearing representations because everyone learns something different from being able to
identify something in a representation.
In this example, much like Aristotle’s view of mimesis, , my simulation can be seen as a positive thing that
mimics a reality we cannot otherwise experience. It is not trying to deceive us, as we are aware the artefact
is a simulated copy of a real place, it is simply allowing us to experience something that is currently
impossible for most of us.
The question is, what if my simulation looked so real you could convince people it was the view from a
camera on a robot on that planets surface? How would people know it was or wasn’t real. To them the
simulation would become a reality as they’re never going to actually go there and be able to compare to see
it was different. The simulation has replaced the reality.
If someone made a simulation of your house and told you it was real, you would be able to tell the difference,
but with other planets we have no reference except what others tell us.
If everyone told you it was real, would you not believe it and thus the artefact becomes no longer virtual.
This then poses the question about our own reality, as to whether anything in space is even real.
Could the mars rover be the same type of simulation? What if space itself is just a big simulation? How
The finished prototype meets my aim of simulating the planets surfaces. I have created 8 detailed
environments for players to explore. Right now it is in an alpha stage, with further work needed to add
greater detail and possibly a much larger map scale.
Moving forward, as new scientific data is learnt, it can be implemented and used to update the games
accuracy.
This might require that the games engine needs adapting to one that can handle more detail as the
simulation develops.
EXAMPLE