Climate Station tried out: Through climate history with PSVR 2
Sony's free PS5 app "Climate Station" visualizes climate change. We tried it out and find out what added value Playstation VR 2 brings.
Climate Station invites you to explore the climate. On PS5 or PSVR 2.
(Image: Sony)
The Sony Climate Station app aims to bring decades of climate research to life as an interactive story and exciting journey. In our test, however, the app turned out to be a rather dry transfer of knowledge that primarily relies on 3D visualizations and a wealth of diagrams. This is intentional: Climate Station focuses on facts rather than emotions and offers factual, data-driven information without alarmism.
The app was developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment in collaboration with leading researchers from the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading, Berkeley Earth and the Playing for the Planet Alliance. It is based on data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Climate research with a difference
A 45-minute tour, narrated by climate activist Laura Tobin, takes you through the three main areas of the app. Alternatively, a German dubbing is available, which was convincing in the test.
- Weather year: Experience a year in the life of planet Earth in fast motion and follow bushfires, storms, floods and droughts in real time on a spinning globe.
- Observations: This view illustrates climate changes over more than a century.
- Projections: This section is dedicated to the future of the planet. Based on IPCC models, the app visualizes how the climate could change by the year 2100, depending on how global emissions develop over the next few decades.
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After completing the tour, users can interact freely with the 3D visualizations and diagrams, set their own data parameters and carry out their own research and analyses based on the databases. This means that Climate Station is more than just a linear learning app; it also serves as a learning and research tool.
The commentary library is helpful for those who are unfamiliar with the subject. It offers clear and entertaining introductions to greenhouse gases and many other key topics in climate research.
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Climate Station on Playstation VR 2
The app is available free of charge for Playstation 5. The support for Playstation VR 2 is a nice extra, but only provides a small visual gain.
Climate Station was primarily developed for screens: Flat menus, windows, videos and diagrams dominate and the interaction options are largely limited to simple point-and-click.
The climate station in which the user is located during use is a 3D environment, but cannot be explored and the floating globe, which is at the center of all three app areas, does not gain much depth through virtual reality.
The so-called dioramas come into their own: 3D models of a glacier landscape, a coral reef and a disaster area, which was captured using photogrammetry and shows the destruction caused by Hurricane Dorian. However, this largely exhausts the spatial aspect of the app.
So if you only use Climate Station on PS5, you're not missing much. At least not visually. However, the VR mode can be helpful when researching, as it offers significantly more space for the simultaneous display of different diagrams.
(vbr)
