Clark Kent Flying Simulator

LOG · WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT DOES

A virtual reality flight simulator built in Unreal Engine 5: you fly as Clark Kent anywhere on Earth, over a real-world map streamed in through the Google Maps Platform API and the Cesium plug-in, with the daylight matching the time of day in each place. Flying around a whole planet would take forever, so famous places are checkpointed: tap the spacebar to teleport to the nearest one.

WHY

The original idea was to fly the Millennium Falcon through it, but I eventually landed on Clark Kent, for more dynamic movement and a more immersive point of view.

WHAT I WORKED ON

You can visit anywhere in the world as Superman, with accurate daylight hours and conditions. I made it in Unreal Engine 5, porting in Google Earth data to create an accurate, real-time world with a time function built in.

WHAT CAME OF IT

Just a fun assignment. I had zero experience with UE5 going in and learned a lot. Animating Superman's cape caused multiple crashes and bugs, so the character became Clark Kent: a simple model in a suit, and easy to animate. And the Google API's free trial limits requests, so the flight speed is capped to stay under it, which took a little of the joy out of flying. I later became close with the professor, and we discussed possibly doing a more in-depth VR immersion research project, but I graduated.