Solaris Virtual Reality

Centner, Jacob

Publication

Solaris Virtual Reality

Centner, Jacob

Description

The UW Shell Visualization Center is host to the C.A.V.E. (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment), a $2 million piece of virtual reality equipment that allows multiple people to see the same simulation. The floor and three walls are projected upon in order to immerse up to four operators in virtual reality. The C.A.V.E. currently lacks a working model of the solar system; in fact, it offers only a few demonstrative programs. To address that, Solaris VR was created. The goal of the project is to build a beautiful, realistic, and educational virtual reality solar system that can be used in the C.A.V.E. for demonstrations of the technology and for educational purposes for physics and astronomy. Solaris operates using realistically calculated physics and allows for user interaction beyond observation, like adding, changing, and deleting objects. The project is developed using the Unity Engine (C#, 2018.3.0) and is built for the HTC Vive virtual reality headset; it will be ported to the C.A.V.E. upon completion and when the C.A.V.E.’s software is next updated.