Virtual Rover Simulator Demo

However impossible it may sound, humans have managed to build and program robots to perform tasks on a different planet for a few years without a break. There are a couple of rovers on Mars already, gathering data and researching previous samples, while also sending the information back to Earth to be analyzed by scientists.

Virtual Rover Simulator aims to be a tool students can use to get acquainted with the specifics when it comes to controlling and programming such machinery to perform on the surface of other planets. However, this can also be played like a regular car game, using the WASD keys to accelerate and steer, while accomplishing a variety of tasks and missions as well.

In the demo at hand, you are tasked with investigating a few places across a section of the planet, some of which are suspected of being the perfect grounds to uncover signs of life. Hence, you must travel to the exact coordinates and try to collect either soil or rock samples, which are to be analyzed by the rover using the tools it has on board.

Since this is mostly aimed at students and teachers, it’s not really supposed to be fun, so don’t expect break-neck speeds and drifts. In fact, the rover is quite slow and you may find it rather boring to drive it around from place to place, especially since it is rather difficult to steer and the terrain is not exactly friendly either, given the large assortment of rocks you can stumble into.

The graphics are not state-of-the-art either, although they do not look too bad either. The rover is quite detailed and you can see that the designers put a lot of effort into portraying the vehicle as close to reality as possible. On the other hand, the environments are rather dull and everything lacks the proper ingredienst to make the atmosphere memorable or have any impact on the players.

In the end, Virtual Rover Simulator’s greatest feat is the fact that it allows students to use their programming and engineering knowledge to code the rover to accomplish the missions automatically. Hence, it can be a great way to notice who has the required talent for the real job.