Spaceinvaders

3D Fulldome Project for the Mediendom at Kiel University of Applied Sciences

“Spaceinvaders” is a fulldome video show designed for immersive dome-based projection environments. Such videos can be produced in various ways. In this case, a fictional space environment was created using “3ds Max,” through which the viewer is guided. After creating the camera movement and modeling and texturing the scene, 180-degree 4K renderings were generated and split into separate video streams using specialized software. These were then stitched together using the “Digistar” fulldome software and projected onto the fulldome dome of the Mediendom at Kiel University of Applied Sciences via multiple projectors. An alternative design method involves directly programming animations of individual images, videos, or transitions within Digistar. Since the production and rendering of the 180-degree video were very time-consuming, the programming effort for this project was limited to embedding and controlling the individual video streams, as well as implementing text information during playback at the Mediendom.

To better illustrate the project, I have also created a 360-degree YouTube stream. Within this video, you can look around the scene by moving the mouse. The 360-degree video described above is intended solely to give a first impression of how the dome video works. The actual projection in the Mediendom is significantly more detailed thanks to 4K resolution.