Astera - Gamifying the Extra-Galactic Universe for educational fun

Astera - 将银河外宇宙游戏化以获取教育乐趣

• 批准号: ST/V002945/1
• 负责人: Francesco Shankar
• 金额: $ 11.3万
• 依托单位: University of Southampton
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FV002945%2F1
• 关键词: Astera; Gamifying; Extra; Galactic; Universe

Galaxies are truly the most astounding places in the universe. Colossal systems of stars (of which our sun is just one among trillions), these truly colossal objects have been rightly dubbed `island universes' in their own right. If you were to do the impossible and 'zoom out' our view of the universe to perceive it on the largest scales, you would see billions of galaxies scattered like glittering jewels on a pall of dark velvet. You would see the vast diversity in galaxy structure ('morphologies') with colossal, ancient elliptical galaxies and intricate, tightly wound spiral galaxies. This 'God's eye view' of the universe has existed only in the minds of Astronomers, until now. We call this project 'Astera'. Developed in-house at the University of Southampton, Astera generates a dazzlingly beautiful, but also scientifically accurate, interactive view of the universe on unimaginably large scales. Developed using the popular game engine Unreal Engine, Astera allows the user to voyage through the cosmos with dynamic and immersive first-person control. In this project, we will take Astera to the next level, by leveraging cutting-edge, STFC-funded research into computer modelling of galaxy evolution, to develop our project into an exciting and engaging video game. The player will have the ability to not only observe, but also influence, the evolution of galaxies themselves, in a fun and gamified way that will make players always want to come back for more. In this project, we will develop a prototype version of this game, which we will use to pitch for additional investment or partnership with an existing game studio. This project will also be shared with a group of preliminary testers, to secure feedback that is customer driven. Finally, we will further develop our contacts within the industry, to pave the way for a full commercial release of Astera.

银河系确实是宇宙中最令人震惊的地方。巨大的恒星系统（我们的太阳只是数万亿颗恒星中的一颗），这些真正巨大的物体被正确地称为“岛屿宇宙”。如果你要做不可能的事情，“缩小”我们对宇宙的看法，以便在最大的尺度上感知它，你会看到数十亿个星系分散在黑暗的天鹅绒上，就像闪闪发光的珠宝一样。你会看到星系结构（“形态”）的巨大多样性，有巨大的、古老的椭圆星系，也有错综复杂的、紧紧缠绕的螺旋星系。直到现在，这种“上帝视角”的宇宙观只存在于天文学家的头脑中。我们称这个项目为“Astera”。Astera由南安普顿大学内部开发，它可以在无与伦比的大尺度上生成一个令人眼花缭乱的美丽，但也是科学上准确的交互式宇宙视图。Astera使用流行的游戏引擎虚幻引擎开发，允许用户通过动态和身临其境的第一人称控制在宇宙中航行。在这个项目中，我们将把Astera带到一个新的水平，通过利用尖端的STFC资助的星系演化计算机建模研究，将我们的项目开发成一个令人兴奋和引人入胜的视频游戏。玩家不仅有能力观察星系本身的演变，还能以一种有趣且游戏化的方式影响星系本身的演变，这会让玩家总是想回来获取更多。在这个项目中，我们将开发这个游戏的原型版本，我们将使用它来与现有的游戏工作室进行额外的投资或合作。该项目还将与一组初步测试人员共享，以确保客户驱动的反馈。最后，我们将进一步发展我们在行业内的联系，为Astera的全面商业发布铺平道路。