A small milestone for my weekend project: the new Exoplanet expansion for Cosmic XR has now been released.
Over the past few weeks, I have shared parts of the design process behind this experience—how to represent thousands of light-years without losing spatial meaning, visualize planets whose surfaces have never been observed, and make 96 distant worlds understandable and approachable in XR.
The experience begins by moving from the Milky Way into a magnified section of one of its spiral arms, establishing where this small exoplanet neighborhood exists within the galaxy. From there, 96 planets across 41 star systems can be explored using data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive. Their appearances are procedurally generated from known characteristics such as size, mass, temperature, orbit, and planetary classification—data-informed interpretations rather than observed surface reconstructions.
Many of the most time-consuming improvements are less visible: logarithmic-scale mapping, exploration filters, ray snapping, marker states, graph manipulations, Earth-size comparison, interaction timing, localization, performance optimization, and countless adjustments to scale and readability. Design iteration in XR remains deeply physical work. AI agents, simulators, and Quest Link accelerated implementation and testing, but none could replace repeatedly putting on the headset and experiencing the distance, scale, timing, and interactions firsthand.
Even this entire collection—spanning star systems separated by thousands of light-years—occupies only a small portion of one spiral arm of the Milky Way. That perspective still brings a sense of awe every time.
Cosmic XR: https://www.meta.com/experiences/cosmic-xr-space-in-your-room/9293405654102503/
#CosmicXR #MixedReality #AugmentedReality #VR #MetaQuest #Quest3 #Quest3S #HandTracking #SpatialComputing #XR #AR #SpatialInteraction #STEM #XRforEducation #PassionProject #Astrophysics #Astronomy #SpaceScience #MadeWithUnity #Unity3D #SpaceExploration #Exoplanets #InteractionDesign #UXDesign
Disclaimer: Cosmic XR was designed and developed entirely in my personal time using personal resources as a passion project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by my employer.
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