Screencap from wechoosethemoon.org
I wandered upon this site the other day and think it is a fun example of an immersive online experience. The site offers visitors the experience of a fly along on the original July 20th, 1969 lunar landing. It does so by giving the visitor simple controls to experience computer generated photo-realistic animated sequences of what the various stages of the voyage would have looked like (to the accompanying aliens in saucers anyway). I love it!
As I flew along I got more and more wrapped up in what was happening. I felt I learned a bit more about just what had to happen for them to pull this off. Some of the maneuvers are just astounding. When I realize the math involved in such a coordinated feat I am humbled.
The beautifully rendered animations are made even more compelling by the inclusion of actual recorded audio communications between the rocket and mission control. Not just immersive, but fascinating to get a glimpse into the “actual.” The final touches include a clock that informs you of mission time and pop up access to various media about the event itself (archival video and photos).
At first glance I would not have thought much of the idea apart from it being educational. But the way the designers delivered it almost gave me the feeling of playing the lunar landing as a game. I got lost in the drama! It left me wanting more and though they didn’t offer that “more,” they were very successful with hooking me in. Good form!
August 7th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
[...] side it is mostly made up of pre-rendered CG walk (or fly) through sequences (similar in essence to wechoosethemoon.org) that the visitor scrubs forward and backward through to give the illusion of walking around a 3D [...]