Astro VR
Light-Year Simulations, LLC · 2024 · Exploration, Immersive Sim, Education, Science, Space
PC
Positive100% · 21
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About Astro VR
Travel among the stars and planets In this made for VR astronomy simulation. Within the solar system you can visit all the planets and moons as well as many asteroids, trans-Neptunian objects, and other small solar system bodies. Outside the solar system, go to thousands of stars and their exoplanets. Also works on flat screen with keyboard and mouse.
All the solar system objects sizes and locations are based on accurate and up to date information. Where actual images are available you will see the correct texture or, if detailed information is available, a reasonable extrapolation is used. The orientation of the planets is correct relative to the solar system and the solar system itself is oriented correctly to the background stars.
Star color, brightness, size and position are taken directly from available data or are calculated. There are thousands of stars and exoplanets to explore. The habitability zone of each star is calculated and the exoplanets within it are textured appropriately for size, age, and rotation. As you explore you will see text for stars that are known to have planets as well as planets that are within the habitability zone.
Black holes have mass from the latest sources, size and event horizon assume a rotating black hole. Accretion disk rotation speed and doppler beaming effect are simulated along with the gravitation distortion of the background stars.
Objects move with time. Set a time scale and observe planets, moons, asteroids, etc. move in orbits determined by ephemeris data from JPL. See the motion of moons around Jupiter or the Earth around the moon, or the entire system around the sun. Time can move forward or backward and positions are extrapolated for time before or after the dataset.
Every object is labeled with an option to turn off the text. In addition, detailed information on each object can be displayed. When available, we collect data on position and orbits, size, mass, temperature, magnitude, luminosity, inclination, and more. You can do side by side comparisons with the sun, Jupiter, Earth, and the moon.
Currently there are:
There will be more.
You may freely move among all the stellar objects with only two controls. Left controller thumbpad/stick for movement, right to zoom. Separate scales for object size and distance allow you to see the entire solar system within arms length or you may zoom in to where size and distance scales are the same.
Terrible. It is possible to set a webcam (including from some headsets) as the background. Typically this is fuzzy and laggy. Your results may vary, but probably not.
Currently:
Min Scale Distance: 1 meter = 2 light years.
Max Scale (both): 1 meter = 1,000 km
SIMULATION
All the solar system objects sizes and locations are based on accurate and up to date information. Where actual images are available you will see the correct texture or, if detailed information is available, a reasonable extrapolation is used. The orientation of the planets is correct relative to the solar system and the solar system itself is oriented correctly to the background stars.
Star color, brightness, size and position are taken directly from available data or are calculated. There are thousands of stars and exoplanets to explore. The habitability zone of each star is calculated and the exoplanets within it are textured appropriately for size, age, and rotation. As you explore you will see text for stars that are known to have planets as well as planets that are within the habitability zone.
Black holes have mass from the latest sources, size and event horizon assume a rotating black hole. Accretion disk rotation speed and doppler beaming effect are simulated along with the gravitation distortion of the background stars.
Objects move with time. Set a time scale and observe planets, moons, asteroids, etc. move in orbits determined by ephemeris data from JPL. See the motion of moons around Jupiter or the Earth around the moon, or the entire system around the sun. Time can move forward or backward and positions are extrapolated for time before or after the dataset.
DATA
Every object is labeled with an option to turn off the text. In addition, detailed information on each object can be displayed. When available, we collect data on position and orbits, size, mass, temperature, magnitude, luminosity, inclination, and more. You can do side by side comparisons with the sun, Jupiter, Earth, and the moon.
Currently there are:
- 6096 Star Systems
- 6720 Individual Stars, 16 black holes, 7 neutron stars
- 8 Planets
- 222 Moons
- 91 Minor Planets
- 5404 Exoplanets
- 9 Spacecraft
There will be more.
VR EXPERIENCE
You may freely move among all the stellar objects with only two controls. Left controller thumbpad/stick for movement, right to zoom. Separate scales for object size and distance allow you to see the entire solar system within arms length or you may zoom in to where size and distance scales are the same.
AR EXPERIENCE
Terrible. It is possible to set a webcam (including from some headsets) as the background. Typically this is fuzzy and laggy. Your results may vary, but probably not.
Currently:
Min Scale Distance: 1 meter = 2 light years.
Max Scale (both): 1 meter = 1,000 km
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Initially I could not launch it on Linux, but Developer came forward and made sure that I can. Fellow Linux Users, If you are reading this review consider supporting developer for not forgetting about us. For everyone esle: consider supporting educational projects such as this, to prove that humans can use VR for something other than degradation. For Developer: Consider enabling rotation by default and maybe ability to select what kind of locomotion to use. I feel like head orientated locomotion can be a good addition.20 found this helpful
Shut up and take my money. 10/105 found this helpful
movement left me confused, very cool app just needs a better system for travel and planet inspection.2 found this helpful
Video of my first dip in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o83hSWwGWmE For the price, this is a really enjoyable VR experience. While as of the time of writing I've only dipped into it for just under an hour, I was really impressed and sense there's a lot more to explore. That it works flat screen as well as in VR is a real bonus (no "points off" for this, but one small downside there is that it doesn't seem to work on the SteamDeck; a shame as this would have been perfect if it had worked fine there too). If astronomy is your thing, and especially if you're into VR, given the price it's impossible to not recommend this.1 found this helpful
I was waiting to give a review until the next big update, and I think it deserves one now. I think one of the biggest things that this sim didn't have before was the ability to walk on planetary surfaces. Just exploring different stars didn't have the same impact that other software like SE has. But now? The new update makes it possible. And I feel like that's one of the major stepping stones for this sim in terms of potential, we now have the ability to explore thousands of stars while having the ability to walk on planetary surfaces and just simply explore. I think this sim has a lot more potential and features to come in the near future. That said it isn't perfect, but its still a relatively simple sim for chill exploration. Highly recommended.
Works on Reverb G2. It is not the most visually impressive VR simulation of space, but it is by far the most photo-realistic(literally) and scientifically accurate.
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