Overview
70% off
Christmas 2021 update
A cosmic summer in VR
"Overview: a Walk through the Universe"
- Best Education Experience (HTC Viveport Awards)
- 32mn room-scale experience through the Cosmos
- Extra-time with exclusive mind-opening activities
Available in English, French and Chinese (German soon!)
Feedback from our fans:
"This is why you buy VR." - Oculus Rift Reviews
"A feast for the eyes." - VR Focus
"Carl Sagan would be proud." - Moon Watcher
"Do not miss it if you like astronomy." - xrp24
"You will want to share this with anybody." - FastLawyer
"Everyone should experience this." - Grejin2
"Your life will never be the same." - Kikos
Grab a ticket for Space, and kiss the Earth goodbye :)
[previewyoutube="pO1DsSwPyw4;full"]
Spring cleaning
Improved UX with HTC Vive controllers and Oculus Touch
Updated nebula model (using raymarching shader)
Fix for launch issues on some systems
Fix for UI visible only on PC screen
Fix for Milky Way excessive brightness
Nvidia driver update bug fix released
Support requests around that bug showed a significant number of Valve Index users in this group, which made us wonder if it was not related to this specific hardware.
It was actually only a correlation: Valve Index owners often use recent GPUs ^^
In any case, bug fixed: we can all resume our contemplation of the vastness of the Universe.
Latest update
The changelist for this release (1.2) is mostly internal: new exe, repacking of existing assets, but your experience should remain the same (we did fix one annoying bug on some systems where a SteamVR update had inverted the Y-axis in the menu).
This update is the first step to our upcoming content addition. Next we will release a new activity, similar to the Solar System activity, but this one will be at the scale of the Milky Way (fasten your seat belt).
As always, if you experience problems please report on the community hub for our help.
All the best from the Overview team :)
[Update] Improved UX and locomotion
We pushed an update for Rift, Vive and WMR headsets just before Christmas. You should now see a "Home Edition" tagline under the Overview logo in the menu.
WHAT'S NEW
Locomotion has been greatly improved in the Activity "Explore the Solar System." Instead of selecting a planet then pressing a button to Zoom In on it, you now just approach it at the Interplanetary Scale and it will automatically Zoom In past a certain proximity and bring you to the Planetary level. You can then roam freely around the planet and Increase/Decrease TimeScale as usual.
Thank you for relaying any issue you may encounter through this Forum or at support@overviewexperience.com. We have more updates planned in 2019 and we can't wait to share them with you!
The science behind Overview
Is OVERVIEW scientifically accurate?
When designing Overview, accuracy was one of our main concerns. We did not want Overview to end up being just a beautiful, awesome, virtual reality experience. We wanted astronomers and astrophysicists to be able to enjoy the show without any reservation. We wanted educators and parents to feel confident that their charges were in good (scientific) hands. We wanted the general public to enjoy the experience knowing that every single celestial body – the planets, the comets, the moons – was right where it should be, on a correct orbit, and perfectly to scale.
How is it possible?
This was no simple feat. In fact, it was astronomically difficult – but that was to be expected! Overview is powered by SpaceEngine, which is developed by Vladimir Romanyuk and relies on the data gathered by its community and many different sources, such as ESA’s star machine, Hipparcos, or NASA’s Solar System Dynamics group.
Where does the data come from?
We mostly have to thank the JPL HORIZONS on-line solar system data and ephemeris computation service for the orbits and scale of Solar System objects, such as the 8 planets and their 190 satellites, the Sun, and hundreds of asteroids and comets, but for additional thoroughness, Overview also relies on astrometric observations validated by the International Astronomical Union Minor Planet Center.
Stars mainly come from Hipparcos, Europe’s very first astrometry mission; its goal was to measure the positions, distances, motions, brightness and colours of over 100 thousand stars. The results were published as a set of catalogues which we’ve used, in particular, as the backdrop of our Solar System. A precise and accurate backdrop, as seen from the Earth or any other point of our system, and a realistic basis for the content of our galaxy the Milky Way!
So everything in OVERVIEW is real?
To be fully honest, we did add a few more stars in the Milky Way chapter, to avoid traveling through unrealistically empty spaces, and we also used an artificial nebula to illustrate the life cycle of stars. Yet even this is faithful to our current knowledge of space. In fact, the only true inaccuracy in Overview is the speed at which you move around the Universe (up to billions of times faster than the speed of light!), but considering how vast it is, this is exactly where the added value of virtual reality lies. Like we had envisioned, Overview lets you comprehend the scale of our Milky Way and feel awed by the beauty and intricacy of it all from the comfort and safety of your home!
Major update + Oculus compatibility
- Oculus Rift compatibility
- Solar System exploration
- Full Chinese translation
- Reduced price
NOW ON OCULUS RIFT
The awakening VR experience OVERVIEW: Scale of our Universe is now compatible with all major headsets: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality. OVERVIEW is designed for room-scale, so you can stand up and move around!
SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION
In Explore the Solar System, you can visit the 8 planets of the Sun at your own pace, see all their moons from up close in great detail, fly through the asteroids belt, and even spot real comets.
CHINESE TRANSLATION
The audio narration was recorded with a professional Chinese actor. By the way, French voice acting is performed by Jean-François Clervoy, an astronaut who spent 28 days in space repairing the Hubble telescope.
REDUCED PRICE
Summer sales are over, but OVERVIEW maintains its discounted price at 9.99$
Sooooooo... we WON!!!
After a long wait, Viveport announced the winners during GDC (Game Developer Conference) in San Francisco.
Our VR space experience -powered by Space Engine- reached 1st place in the Education category, a great recognition for our involvement in creating high-quality content.
Now we are back in Paris, enjoying jetlag, and we need to know more on the community hardware in order to better support Oculus Rift. If you own a Rift, please head to this thread, and tell us if you have Touch controllers.
Woohoo!
