Scene of an Alien Planet
This was a third-year project in which students had to create a real-time interactive graphical simulation of an alien planet's surface. The project was accomplished using Unity.
As I was still new to Unity at the start of this project, I first did some research into how a scene could be created. I soon discovered that when generating terrain, a height map could be used to indicate where the high and low areas of land should be. Having found this out, I set to work creating a heightmap that would define a clear area for the scene. With a map made and used to generate the main terrain, I then followed up by making smaller-scale adjustments for certain features I knew I wanted to include as well as applying various types of textures depending on the area.
Following that, I then began to add various features to the scene such as plant life, water, and clouds. While I had created the sprite for the clouds myself, which was then applied to multiple planes rotating above the scene, the other elements that were added were available free from the Unity Asset store, and as such I had to modify the colouring of some items to better fit into the colour scheme I had established.
With all the other features added, I began to focus on the main element in the scene - the exploding crystal. This was set up to be in the centre of the scene, in the middle of the lake that I had previously created. As one of the main requirements for this project was to feature rotating/spinning elements, I decided to accentuate the main crystal by creating multiple other smaller crystals that would orbit it. I had intended for there to be a permanent effect applied to this crystal, which I decided would be the explosion that sends the orbiting crystals and parts of the centre crystal flying over the scene. I initially left the island in the lake empty following the explosion, but it left the scene without the main focus, and as such, I added in a ‘ghost’, or hologram of the original crystal, but now in a colour that fit in with the changed scene. The other main difference between the pre and post-explosion is the black, blank sky that vanishes when the explosion occurs revealing the clouds. This, along with the falling snow, which was implemented with the particle system, were some of the last additions to the scene in order to tie it together.
This was my first main project using Unity. All assets featured in the video, excluding the clouds, were available free on the Unity Asset store.
