Project Kickoff: Lunar Environment Development

This week marked the beginning of our Global Horizons University VR project, with a focus on establishing the foundational elements of our Lunar Exploration Laboratory environment. Our goal is to create an immersive learning experience that teaches adaptation in unfamiliar physical conditions through a realistic lunar simulation.

Lunar Environment Setup

We made significant progress on building our lunar environment, focusing on creating an authentic representation of the moon's surface:

• Moon Surface Map: Configured detailed lunar surface texturing and materials to match actual lunar regolith properties. All surface mapping textures are stored in Content/SpaceScene/Moon/Textures/Color/
• Moon Surrounding Map: Created the surrounding environment to enhance immersion, including accurate starfields and an Earth view as would be seen from the lunar surface. These elements provide important visual context for the user. Files location: Content/SpaceScene/
• Moon Heightmap: Implemented a realistic heightmap for accurate terrain rendering, including proper crater formations and geological features. The heightmap also includes collision systems for proper player interaction with the surface. Files stored in Content/SpaceScene/Moon/Textures/Displacement/

Physics Implementation

One of the most critical aspects of our lunar simulation is accurate physics modeling to create an authentic experience:

• Lunar Gravity World Setting: Successfully configured the global physics system to simulate lunar gravity (approximately 1/6 of Earth's gravity, set to -162 on the z-axis). This is essential for creating the proper feeling of movement and adaptation challenges.
• Locomotion System: Implemented joystick-based walking to replace teleportation mechanics, creating a more immersive and realistic movement experience while maintaining comfort in the low-gravity environment.
• Movement Mechanics Planning: Started planning for "Spiderman-like" movement mechanics that will be used for terrain traversal, particularly useful in the reduced gravity environment. This system will be crucial for later interaction designs.
• Simulated Astronaut Hopping: Introduced head movement intended to simulate the way astronauts walk by hopping in low gravity, adding realism to lunar locomotion.

Technical Platform

After evaluating our options, we selected Unreal Engine 5.3.2 as our primary development environment. UE5's advanced rendering capabilities, particularly Nanite and Lumen technologies, will allow us to create highly detailed environments while maintaining performance on VR hardware.

Next Steps

With the basic lunar environment established, our focus for the coming weeks will include:

• Developing interactive scientific equipment for the lunar laboratory
• Implementing player movement and interaction systems optimized for VR in low-gravity conditions
• Creating initial learning scenarios focused on adaptation to lunar physics