Scale 1:10000
The scene is at a scale of 1 centimeter (Unreal's default unit) is 1 km. All distances are real; i.e.,each ring is at the correct distance from Saturn's equator and has the correct, known, radius.
A visual simulation made in Unreal Engine 4 By Horia Mut
The scene is at a scale of 1 centimeter (Unreal's default unit) is 1 km. All distances are real; i.e.,each ring is at the correct distance from Saturn's equator and has the correct, known, radius.
You are able to navigate through space, at a default speed of 300 km per second, and go as close to Saturn and the rings as you wish. Transitions are seamless, without any loading screens. One thing missing: collisions. Assume you are using cheat-mode and Obi-Wan is helping you. Click the image for a video.
All particles forming the rings have orbital and local rotations. They orbit around the planet at various speeds, and have their own rotations along random axis.
The contents of Saturn's rings are not really known, and we do not know how the particles forming them look like. We know most are made of water.
Some beauty shots captured in-engine.
Below is a list of content used from either the marketplace or other sources.
| Name | Author | Used content | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planetarium Planet Blueprint | MaxStudios |
|
57.21 |
| Unreal Engine assets from YouTube tutorials | Tech Art Aid | All rocky asteroids and respective LODs | Free |
Oskar's tutorial have been a god-send, as Unreal's documentation regarding Hierarchical Instanced Static Meshes (HISM) was pretty sparse at that time. Everything within the profiling tutorials is pure gold and a must-see for any Unreal Engine developer.
The Planetarium assets were used in the beginning of the project, as a starting point for how the planet will look and for its skybox. We have modified the skybox to better suit our needs, changed its lighting to dynamic, and used a different texture for the MilkyWay.
The prototype does not have any menus or screens, and you cannot change graphical settings. They are by default, put to Ultra. This means you may require a beefy computer to run the executable without hickups.
The following controls are available regardless of the platform:
Controls have been set up for Oculus Touch as the documentation for the Vive inputs was nowhere to be found.