Demeter
A downloadable game for Windows
What is Demeter?
An application designed for scientific terrain (DEM/DTM) visualization from a simulator aspect. You can discover the real shape (and atmosphere) of our planets and moons and visit places where no one has been before. All this at the time of your choice including time lapsing.
How to run
- You need an installed copy of Celestia. You can download it from here.
- Extract the content of the executable package below (there's no installer)
- Optional - copy the desired celestial data packages into the data/celestia folder (only copy, no need to extract)
- Optional - copy mars2020_sensors.zip archive into the data/ folder if you want to enable "real" cameras (only copy, no need to extract)
- Optional - copy issi.zip archive into the data/ folder if you want to explore the Interior of the Internal Space Station (only copy, no need to extract)
- Run DEMETER.exe
System requirements, prerequisites
- Vulkan 1.0 capable GPU with at least 1 GB VRAM
- An installed copy of Celestia. The application tries to detect its installation directory.
Notes
- The package is tested on GeForce 1650M and Intel UHD.
- All screen shots and video are captured on that GeForce at real time
Visualization
Global DEM visualization
Several global elevation maps are available about the celestial bodies of our solar system. Since these maps consume a significant storage (even in compressed format) those are accessible as separate data packages..
Demeter enables the followings to examine:
Celestial body | Data package URL |
Sol/Mercury | mercury_mod.zip |
Sol/Venus | enus_mod.zip |
Sol/Earth | earth_mod.zip |
Sol/Earth/Moon | earthmoon_mod.zip |
Sol/Mars | mars_mod.zip |
Sol/Mars/Phobos | marsphobos_mod.zip |
Sol/Ceres | ceres_and_vesta_mod.zip |
Sol/Vesta | ceres_and_vesta_mod.zip |
Sol/Jupiter/Ganymedes | ganymedes_mod.zip |
Sol/Jupiter/Io | io_mod.zip |
Sol/Saturn/Enceladus | titan_and_enceladus_mod.zip |
Sol/Saturn/Titan | titan_and_enceladus_mod.zip |
Sol/Pluto | pluto_and_charon_mod.zip |
Sol/Pluto/Charon | pluto_and_charon_mod.zip |
Sol/Bennu | extras.zip |
In addition some spacecrafts are also available
Spacecraft name | Description | Data package URL |
Messenger | Flyby at Mercury, 2007 | extras.zip |
Messenger | Flyby at Mercury, 2008 | extras.zip |
Magellan | Orbit around Venus | extras.zip |
VEX (Venus Express) | Orbit around Venus | extras.zip |
ISS (International Space Station) | Orbit around Earth | extras.zip |
LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) | Orbit around Moon | extras.zip |
Dawn | Flyby at Ceres, 2011 | extras.zip |
Dawn | Flyby at Vesta, 2015 | extras.zip |
MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) | Orbit around Mars | extras.zip |
MEX (Mars Express) | Orbit around Mars | extras.zip |
Cassini-Huygens | Landing of Huygens on Titan, 2005 | extras.zip |
New Horizons | Flyby at Pluto and Charon, 2015 | extras.zip |
Local DEM visualization
You can explore alien terrains from a close up point of view of an astronaut or a free fly camera. You can download those from various sources; currently IMG and GeoTIFF files (in raster formats) are supported. If it's necessary, the application automatically tries to scale down the terrain to fit into the memory. The terrain is visualized after a stereographic projection.
Here are some useful links:
Celestial body | URL |
Sol/Earth | OpenDEM |
Sol/Earth/Moon | Index of /data/LRO-L-LROC-5-RDR-V1.0/LROLRC_2001/DATA/SDP/NAC_DTM (asu.edu) |
Sol/Mars | HiRISE | Digital Terrain Models (uahirise.org) |
Sol/Mars | MEX HRSC (wustl.edu) |
Sol/Jupiter/Europa | Europa DEMs and Orthoimages in Support of Bland et al. 2021 (Remote Sensing) (figshare.com) |
Sol/Jupiter/Io | Io Galileo SSI Tvashtar Paterae DEM and Orthoimages 900m v1 | USGS Astrogeology Science Center |
Sol/Saturn/Titan | Index of /psa/ftp/Guest-Storage-Facility/IPGP_Titan_Huygens_V1.0 (esa.int) |
After you found and downloaded the terrain data, you can easily load it into Demeter. You might want to check the compatibility before. When the terrain is loaded, the whole scene is teleported to the center of it (and possibly to a new planet or moon).
Simulation
Astronomy simulation
Celestia 1.6.1 is responsible for this. This also means you can freely play with time. You can read more about this complex simulator here
Drone (helicopter) simulation
You can control Ingenuity aka the Mars Helicopter while the wind also affects its flight.
Quad bike (vehicle) simulation
This simulation uses the built-in vehicle simulation of the Bullet physics engine. You can feel how the gravity affects the driving experience.
IFOPE (cloth) simulation
The International Flag of Planet Earth is a part of the scene if you enable it in the main menu. This is also a built-in feature of the Bullet physics. The wind affects this, too.
Lighting and acoustic simulation -Interior of ISS
A huge part of ISS is discoverable with zero-gravity experience in first person view. The scene is illuminated with photometric direct and indirect lighting (even Earth illuminates the interior). There are crew lock bags to play with and ColorChecker boxes can be spawned to play with. You can also find Neil Armstrong Spacesuit. Sounds are fictional but may resemble the original ones. Acoustic simulation is also included in this scene: frequency based sound obstruction, Doppler effect, HRTF for binaural 3D surround sounds.
Physically based lighting
Every computation obeys (more likely approximates) the laws of photometry and are performed in 32 bit floats. The main light source is always the nearest star, the calculation starts with its black body spectrum then the rendering equation is applied where the diffuse BRDF is the Lambertian and the specular BRDF is the Cook-Torrance model or Blinn-Phong. The implementation is based on Google Filament.
In a scattering medium like atmosphere or cloud, one of these phase functions is used: Rayleigh, Cornette-Shanks or a look up table. The scattering and extinction coefficients are calculated from the material composition of the medium.
Physically based camera model
The well-known parameters such f-stop, shutter speed and sensitivity defines the exposure characteristics of a camera in Demeter. The implementation is based on Google Filament. The result of the depth of field is approximated (with the calculated focal length) as well as the motion blur.
Camera lens distortion and image color transfer
By the default, the Carpentier distortion method is used but you can meet real cameras (meaning the distortion is calculated from an intrinsic calibration). These cameras are:
Name | Long name | xxx | Distortion model |
HELI_RTE | Return to Earth camera | Ingenuity | CAHVORE |
HELI_NAV | Navigation camera | Ingenuity | CAHVORE |
NAVCAM_LEFT | Left navigation camera | Perseverance | CAHVORE |
NAVCAM_RIGHT | Right navigation camera | Perseverance | CAHVORE |
MCZ_LEFT | Left Mastcam-Z | Perseverance | CAHVOR |
MCZ_RIGHT | Right Mastcam-Z | Perseverance | CAHVOR |
SUPERCAM | SuperCam (Remote Micro-Imager) | Perseverance | CAHV |
PIXL_MCC | PIXL (Micro-Context Camera) | Perseverance | CAHVOR |
SHERLOC_WATSON | SHERLOC (WATSON) | Perseverance | CAHVOR |
Image color transfer method is utilized in order to enhance realism of these cameras.
Other features
- Free fly camera: during exploration, this camera is free to move anywhere even under the ground.
- Magic carpet camera: during exploration, this camera is always hovering above the terrain at a constant height.
- Astronaut: during exploration, you can navigate (walk or run) or look around with an astronaut
- Telescope: you can lock the free camera at a certain celestial object
- You can see the asterisms from any point in the solar system at any time.
- You can make traditional screenshots but can also take HDR or HDR sphere pictures.
- Celestial exploration - you can visit any celestial object by entering its name.
Updated | 14 days ago |
Status | In development |
Platforms | Windows |
Author | aalberik |
Genre | Simulation |
Tags | edutainment |
Average session | A few minutes |
Languages | English |
Inputs | Keyboard, Mouse |
Download
Install instructions
There's no installer but you need an installed copy of Celestia. You can download it from here.
Please follow the instructions at the "How to run" for full experience.
Development log
- Demeter 1.014 days ago
- Image color transfer81 days ago
- Different Sun shadow penumbra size - different planetsOct 01, 2024
- A new release is on the waySep 08, 2024
- Past in the presentMay 15, 2024
- Khronos PBR Neutral tone mapperApr 21, 2024
- Sunrise in spaceApr 15, 2024
- Night in spaceApr 14, 2024
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