A VR astronomy app, based on the groundwork laid in my iOS app Cor Leonis. Implemented in Unity, the app was released to the Oculus store 2016 for Samsung Gear VR. It’s not available anymore, but there still is a Google Cardbox version in the Apple Store.
Here is a video demonstrating an early version – it changed quite a bit after that, but the general idea is there:
Screenshots from the released version:
Some of the features in detail:
Set time and date from a console on the observation platform.
Scrub time using the Gear VR’s touchpad while looking up at the sky.
Rise and set times for sun and moon, as well as a pointer to their current position.
Red filter for users who like to take their VR glasses out at night.
Ecliptic and galactic equator display options.
Sky view from GPS location, or the Earth’s poles – demonstrating polar day and night.
Voice chat with another user, visiting each other’s location.
I even got to show off Pocket Observatory at local maker’s faire Make Munich in 2017! Here is me and my wonderful girlfriend working the crowd at our tiny desk 🙂 Two very stressful days of non-stop talking, but I can’t complain, response was great.
Pocket Observatory was, so far, my only foray into Virtual Reality applications, and I learned a lot from it! The technical challenges (optimizing the Unity build for 60 fps running on a phone!) aside, designing a user interface in VR required a lot of thought.