Everest

Overview

Mount Everest has always radiated magic. At 8848 meters it is the highest mountain on earth and is also known as the roof of the world. Many people set out to climb the mountain top year after year, but not all reach the summit. You can reach the summit via the north route located in Tibet. However, the southern route starting in Nepal is more popular.

The aim of this project is to convey the topology of Mount Everest to the user in an impressive way. In addition, the southern route is marked and the camps where the climbers are staying are displayed, which serve as a visualization of how many people are currently on each summit.

Instructions

The user starts in the so called overview as seen in the initial part of the video, in which the southern route is visible and the individual camps are visualized as spheres. The base camp, where all mountaineers start their tour, is colored yellow. The top, as the target, is colored green. All other camps are blue. To increase the sense of overview, the player, which is controlled by the user, is placed on a hill. There is a button field on the ground in front of the player which, when activated, displays informative text about climbing Mount Everest. In order to generate the greatest possible immersion, an icy wind noise can be heard in every scene. (Unfortunately, it was not possible to record the sound in the screen capture)

A permanent ray cast is visible on the player’s right hand, allowing the user to target interactive objects and select them through the trigger switch. In the overview scene, the camp spheres and the button on the ground can be selected. If a camp is targeted, the user receives feedback by highlighting the object and displaying the name. It’s similar with the button on the floor. This also changes the icon as soon as the text panel is visible. In general, it can be said that the user cannot move through the scene by teleporting or the like. So you can use the application in any real position, be it standing or sitting. By moving the head, the player can perceive the scene from different viewing angles and can use the controller to turn around the own axis in certain units.

Selecting a camp will change the scene for that destination. In all camps you always have some tents and a navigation menu in view. The player’s scaling is proportional to the elements in the scene, which are disproportionately large, giving the user a good overview of the environment. In our tests, we found out that in a real scaling of the player you get a better impression of the environment, but you easily lose the overview and thus the orientation of the overall scenery. For this reason we have found the best compromise between the two variables with the size of the player from our point of view.