Big picture, big data: Swiss unveil VR software of universe

By JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Researchers at one of Switzerland’s leading universities are releasing open-source beta software that allows for virtual visits through the cosmos including up to the International Space Station, past the Moon, Saturn or exoplanets, over galaxies and beyond. The VIRUP project blends observed data with computer simulations in a project billed as the most extensive of its kind to allow extensive visualization of the heavens. Software engineers, astrophysicists and experimental museology experts at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne have come together to concoct the virtual map for individual VR gear, panoramic cinema with 3D glasses, planetarium-like dome screens or just on a PC.