Satellite Golden Book
Made with Unity 3D, this application is supposed to be used with a server connected to a big screen, and some clients with smaller screens. On the main screen is displayed a scene in space, with satellites orbiting around the earth and carrying a message. Users can leave their own messages using one of the clients, and it will create a satellite on the main screen.
Key points
- Client-Server
- Database
- Unity
The server
An average computer can run more than 1000 satellites at the same time at 60 fps easely. It was important to make sure a lot of satellites could be displayed on screen at the same time, because the user has to feel that his message is somewhere, orbiting around the earth. I used a low poly style, to make the rendering faster.
The satellites use a "real" gravitionnal system. The satellites are stored in an SQLite local database, and are respawned each time with the same orginal velociaty, direction, and distance from earth.
The client
The most important part of the client was to be "fun" to use. I wanted to avoid making a boring interface, so I made every element scale up/down, or move to the sides when they appear/disappear.
While the server is supposed to be watched by multiple persons, the client is supposed to be used by one user at a time. It sends commands to the server, and the server executes them when he can.
