A small Unity project that allows users to explore the Solar System in VR.
Open the repository folder as a project with Unity 2022.3.4f or later.
In the content browser navigate to 'Assets/Scenes' and open 'SolarSystemScene'.
Now press play.
- Move: Continuous Movement
- Select:
- Teleport to the celestial body the controller is currently pointing at
- Interact with UI and other points of interest
- Go Back: Return to view of the entiere solar system
- Manipulate Time:
- Move finger clockwise: Go forward in time
- Move finger counterclockwise: Go back in time
- Click: Pause/Unpause time
- Faster Time Manipulation: Switch from one day per rotation to one year per rotation
- Switch Tool: Cycle through available tools
- Use Tool: use the currently selected tool
The right hand is reserved for tools. The available tools can be cycled through by pressing the Switch Tool Button.
Tools are used to extract certain kinds of information from the currently visited celstial body.
Currently these tools include:
Measure the Average Surface Temparature by poking a celestial body and pressing the Use Button.
Extract the Atmospheric Composition by poking a celestial body and pressing the Use Button.
Hide or reveal Points of Interest around a celestial body by pressing the Use Button.
Measure the Equatorial Radius of a celestial body by pressing the Use Button.
Displays the Current Simulation Time as well as the Speed with wich time is currently moving.
This Time Speed can be manipulated by pressing the Use Button:
- Single press: speed up time
- Double press: slow down time
Solar System Explorer has no dependencies apart from Unity and the Unity-Packages used by this project.
- Textures for Planets and Moons are adapted from openly available surface scans offered by NASA.
- Textures for the Sun are custom made.
- All meshes for all celestial bodys and tools are custom made.
- The realtime rendering of Atmospheric Scattering and Absorption Events is based on this Precomputed Atmospheric Scattering paper.
- The ephemeris calculations for planets are based on VSOP87, a widely used approximation for planetary orbits and their pertubations due to other celestial bodys.
- The rotational model used for Earths rotation is based on this P03 long period precession theory paper.
- Other celestial bodys use less accurate IAU Rotational Models or simple Precessing Models with constant rates of precession and rotation.
- All text and all images shown as part of the UI, as well as all information retrievable through tools were taken from NASA's Solar System Exploration website.