Unreal Mars

Create a custom world map generator module using a gaming framework or engine of your choice that leverages altimeter, terrain and imagery data to render realistic worlds.  This will involve the use of a World Map Tile Service client to leverage over 1 TB of Mars and Vesta data for use in world generation.

Most of us will never walk on the surface of Mars, but the proliferation of VR hardware and realistic computer graphics might allow us to experience the next best thing.

Unreal Mars generates Martian landscapes using real data. A python server queries the NASA API to download and cache height data from the Mars Orbital Lander Altimeter and color image data from the Viking program and compresses the data as a stream that can be rendered in the Unreal video game engine.

The uniqueness of this method of generating virtual mars environments is that, because the meshes are generated at runtime when a player enters the environment, and only cached for as long as that player is in the environment, the player does not need to store gigabytes of data on their computer, or wait a long time for the game to load. In addition, because the data are being queried from the NASA API, which has coverage for the entire red planet, it is possible to walk all the way around Mars in one session.

The NASA API, specifically the Viking color images of Mars and the Mars Orbital Lander Altimeter