The following images are screen shots taken from an education project I'm developing using UDK. That being said, not everything is final.
My goal here is to make a fully interactive, immersive learning tool that gets people curious about the universe around us. On a side bonus, i will be providing tutorials on different aspects of this applications development. Everything from shaders, to lighting, to matine sequences, to the mouse interacte aspects, to particles and more.
All 8 planets are currently included, along with their moons, rotations periods, orbits and shifts. All of these are precise enough that you can speed through time both forwards and back to see where the planets are at any given time.
Constellations are also included in this package. 88 Constellations, complete with their locations, stars, facts and mythology.
This video is a quick fly through of what i have done as of January 27, 2012.
This is what you see when you first start the application. There is a scale button, which by default is turned on. This allows the planets to scale up as the viewer zooms out, better illustrating the size relations of the planets.
The bottom right is the time display and controlls.
The bottom left is the planet selection window.
The top right is the information screen readout.
The top left is the options screen.
This application is set up in such a way that only a mouse is required. Left clicking selects your desired options, and right clicking brings up a readout that rotates the screen based on which side/corner from the relative center the mouse is in.
In the planet selection screen (Bottom left), when a mouse is placed over a planet, the planets orientation path will change to red. An on-screen direction read out will soon be implamented to show the planets direction.
There is an option to see the planets orientation in relation to the solar system.
A 'Cross Section' has been added to show the layering of the planets. Since nobody knows what this actually looks like, geometry used to represent the rough layering provide the clearest idea.
Each layer of the planet is color coded and has that corresponding color to the right of the planet along with what it represents.
A grid option allows you to better grasp the scale of the solar system.
The goal was to keep the screen as clean and clutter free as possible. This is the neutral screen when viewing the sun.
When the Information button is pressed on the top right, the camera rotates out and the information screen slides in.
Through the Options menu (Top Left) you can activate the Constellations. All 88 major constellations are included, along with the actual positions of the major stars which make up the constellations themselves. Placing your mouse over the constellation will cause the illustration to fade in and the name to appear, and moving your mouse from it causes it to fade. This allows the screen to remain clean, but allow the viewer to see any neighboring constellation and how they're related without even clicking a button.
Double clicking the constellation will fly the camera towards it, out of the clutter of the solar system,orientates itself correctly and brings in a screen full of useful information.
This application is set up in such a way that only a mouse is required. Left clicking selects your desired options, and right clicking brings up a readout that rotates the screen based on which side/corner from the relative center the mouse is in.
