High-Level Project Summary
We developed a virtual reality game to educate people about the capabilities of James Webb Space Telescope. Our story line starts with a telescope being stolen by aliens, we embark on a journey in space to retrieve the telescope. The player enters into a maze looking for the scattered parts of the telescope which when collected, the user will be able to view and understand the images released by the telescope.It helps user to understand about the components of the telescope and images produced by the telescope through voiceover. It is important as it not only educates users but also provide an interactive game experience in virtual reality.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
We created a virtual reality game. Our story line starts with a telescope being stolen by aliens, we embark on a journey in space to retrieve the telescope. The player enters into a maze looking for the scattered parts of the telescope which when collected, the information will be provided to player as a voiceover. The player has to fight against aliens to sustain their health bar and collect all the components. The player has to collect all the required components of the telescope in the given time limit. When the player successfully collects all of the telescope parts then the user will be able to view the 3D model of the James Webb Space Telescope. The player will then have the access to explore various images captured by the telescope which will be heard in a voiceover.
BENEFITS
- It is an interactive 3D VR Game.
- Educates users about the capabilities of JWST.
- It is user-friendly.
FUTURE SCOPE
- To add a mini-map of the maze to help player to easily navigate.
- Initial tutorial to help players understand the keys of hand controllers.
- To build a Leaderboard .
- To make enemy attack user.
- To create further interesting and complex levels.
CODING LANGUAGES
- C#
HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
- Oculus Quest 2
- 8GB of Memory
SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
- Unity
- Android Studio
- SDK (Software Development Kit)
Space Agency Data
Image Source Data
- Southern Ring Nebula
- Stephan's Quintet
- Carina Nebula
- SMACS 0723
- WASP-96b
- Neptune
These are the images produced by the James Webb Space Telescope which is an open source data available on the official NASA website (https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages) and on the official CSA website (https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/jwst/science-images-from-james-webb-space-telescope.asp). These images are used to educate users on the information of them through voiceover. As the motive of our project is to educate people on images produced by the James Webb Space Telescope, these images serve the very purpose.
We also used blueprint of James Webb Space Telescope (https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/albums/72157624413830771) to educate users on the importance of the parts of the telescope through voiceover.
Hackathon Journey
It all started from Hyderabad - Chandigarh University in Train. On 1st October, we arrived at the Chandigarh University for Nasa Space Apps Challenge in the early morning before the reporting time. The excitement was out of bounds.
We choose Learning through the looking glass as our problem statement to give the players a fun and interactive learning experience. Our team equally divided all the work and was started working on it. Everyone was enthusiastically participating and learning with interest. All were so determined with their challenges and were working hard for the competition. As the hackathon was coming to an end, we couldn't develop some of the features we thought of to add. After all the efforts, we were ready with our virtual reality game. Next day, the presentations were held and we got a very energetic and great reactions and responses towards our project which was unexpected for us.
After all the presentations, Global Nominees were announced and our hard work payed off; we were selected as a Global Nominee and we were on cloud nine. As we were always very keen to develop a game and also to explore space this was a wonderful opportunity to do both.
We are thankful for the support provided by our college in experiencing and to be a part of this wonderful Hackathon.
References
- https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages
- https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/jwst/science-images-from-james-webb-space-telescope.asp
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/albums/72157624413830771
- https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/james-webb-space-telescope-f9e4b03e63624e7aa050a798b63bc9c4
- https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/textures-materials/brick/high-quality-bricks-walls-49581#content
- https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/creatures/little-aliens-3d-animated-characters-180353
- https://app.clipchamp.com/signup
- https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gCo1PaqqUQjVMqG2JUb3gfIQq-o=/0x0:2048x1186/1200x675/filters:focal(861x430:1187x756)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71100133/web_first_images_release.0.png
- https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/webb/main/index.html
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71100133/web_first_images_release.0.png){kind=link}
Tags
#VR, #Gaming, #JamesWebbTelescope, #Unity