I’m a retired software developer and entrepreneur. Now that I have time, I’ve started learning and exploring various programming algorithms and concepts. I’m doing everything from scratch. For the most part, I’m not using any code libraries except for the standard Java libraries provided with the compiler. My goal is to learn the details as opposed to using what others have done.
LinkedIn ProfileHere’s a 3D VR 360 tour of the International Space Station (ISS).
BEFORE you click, be aware it has to download 225Mb of images so it will take a minute or so.
The tour consists of 12 views (images, each 8000x4000 per eye). You will see floating red balls, move your phone/headset or use your mouse to position the center violet ring on the red ball, it will turn green, and in 1 second, will move the camera there.
I’m using WebXR (A-Frame) for the tour navigation but I wrote the Java code using a ray-tracing algorithm to generate all the images. I downloaded the ISS model from Nasa. The solar panels track the sun (except for the first image). The ISS is 400km above earth. All objects are to scale. I downloaded a database of a couple million stars from ESA and used about 10,000 of them to generate the sky (Ursa Major, left of the sun, and Orion, right of the sun, are colored red to help spot them). I calculated the Sun from a single point. I also calculated the atmosphere. The earth and moon are just spheres with textures I downloaded. I also created signposts for a few major cities from the Long/Lat coordinates.
Start your ISS TourLearning about 3D graphics using ray tracing.
Learning about computer generated sound, music notes, and components of music synthesizers.