CosmoScout VR: A Modular 3D Solar System Based on SPICE

Abstract

We present CosmoScout VR - a modular 3D Solar System for interactive exploration and presentation of large space mission datasets. This paper describes the overall architecture as well as several core components of the frame-work. To foster the application in various scientific domains, CosmoScout VR employs a plugin-based architecture. This not only reduces development times but also allows scientists to create their own data visualization plugins without having to modify the core source code of CosmoScout VR. One of the most important plugins - level-of-detail terrain rendering - is described in greater detail in this paper. Another key feature of CosmoScout VR is the scene graph which is tightly coupled with NASA's SPICE library to allow for high-precision positioning of celestial objects, such as planets, moons, and spacecrafts. SPICE is also used for the seamless navigation throughout the Solar System in which the user automatically follows the closest body. During navigation, the virtual scene is scaled in such a way, that the closest celestial body is always within arm's reach. This allows for simultaneous exploration of multiple datasets in their spatial context at diverse scales. However, the navigation uses all six degrees of freedom which can induce motion sickness. In this paper, we present some counter measures as well as evaluate their effectiveness in a user study. CosmoScout VR is open source, cross-platform, and while it can run on conventional desktop PCs, it also supports stereoscopic multi-screen systems, such as display walls, DOMEs or CAVEs.