NASA will create Mars in virtual reality on Unreal Engine 4

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration will create a video game based on the Unreal Engine 4 game engine from Epic Games. The game will be called the Mars 2030 Experience. Its distinctive detail will be the support of virtual reality in helmets Oculus Rift and others.



NASA is seriously working on landing a man on Mars and returning the crew to Earth. Date is considered in the thirties of this century. The program itself is experiencing a variety of problems: the launch of the super-heavy SLS rocket with the Orion ship has not yet been carried out, the design of the ship-station for the flight has not been developed. In fact, there is no intelligible program; unsystematic research is being conducted with a reserve for the future. At least that's what the US Congress thinks , which allocates money.



The task itself requires an enormous effort: it is necessary to create a ship for the long months of flight to the red planet, an apparatus for landing on Mars and taking off from its surface, as well as a system for launching such cargoes into the reference orbit of the Earth. Existing space stations are associated with a constant supply of resources and equipment, which the Martian ship cannot afford. You need to understand how to safely land several tons of a ship with people on Mars. Finally, the required carrier for launching all systems from Earth will be huge. This and much more remains to be created if we want the human foot to set foot on Mars.





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However, work is underway. Including NASA need to enlist the support of ordinary people. And this is really important. Today, almost anyone hearsay about the history of space exploration will be able to name the first man on the moon. But just a year after the landing in 1969, the Americans lost interest in space flights. In 1970, a survey showed that 70% of Philadelphians could not name the author of the legendary words about a step for humanity. Other telephone surveys revealed an even deeper ignorance. The landing on the moon turned out to be an instrument of the race with the USSR, and after reaching the goal, the public quickly lost interest in space exploration. For landing on Mars you need completely different money - according to some estimates, about half a trillion dollars. Therefore, it is important to infect the idea of ​​flying to another planet as many people as possible.



NASA is mastering many ways to get your message across. Like some other US government agencies, the space agency resorts to using video games. This is logical. If the flight really takes place in the thirties, then the future explorers of Mars are still young - they are anywhere in the education system: from kindergarten to the last classes of school.



There were not very successful attempts igrostroya. For example, this is Starlite: Astronaut Rescue , which received negative reviews. There were some good ones. In 2010, NASA, in collaboration with a number of organizations, released Moonbase Alpha , a game based on the Unreal Engine 3. The Army Game Studio, which in the past created America's Army shooter, helped develop the game. Moonbase Alpha aimed to create a realistic simulation of the elimination of the accident in a colony on a natural satellite of the Earth. The resulting game received mixed reviews, even if it was smoothed by the free product. The Moonbase Alpha players remembered with the built-in version of the Fonix DECtalk voice synthesizer, which was made to be misused and simply spammed .







The new game Mars 2030 Experience will be created by experts from NASA, the laboratory of space systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Fusion Media, and the developers from the now-dissolute studio Irrational Games. The goal is to create a cross-platform game that will support virtual reality in a variety of helmets. Among those listed are the main ones already existing: Oculus Rift, Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR. There are also plans to enter the not yet released: Sony PlayStation VR and HTC Vive. Including the game will be available on Android and iPhone, it will stream on Twitch. Cross-platform will help the Unreal Engine 4.



Development is already underway. For example, on the first day, it was possible to collect data from the Mars Telescope HiRISE project at the University of Arizona and launch a group of tester players for a walk around Mars. A post on the Unreal Engine blog focuses on engine technologies that developers have commended: it's cross-platform with a wide range of target systems of different performance and speed of the process of creating the game world.



In general, little is known about the Mars 2030 Experience, not even large screenshots. It is indicated that the plot will consist of several mini-missions both in the dwelling blocks and on the surface of Mars itself. More details about the game will be available at the festival South by Southwest 2016, which will be held from 11 to 20 March this year.