the stimulation

The Environmental Simulator was a virtual reality system used by civilizations of the Planetary Union. The simulator's processing systems used force fields and holographic projections to generate virtual environments.

The simulator was able to generate sights, sounds, physical sensations, and even smells - although Doctor Claire Finn remarked that it was "never completely accurate."

Users designed programs containing interactive synthetic environments, objects, and virtual persons with customized personalities. The purpose of a simulator was primarily recreational.

Participants were protected from harm via safety settings, or "safeties", which could be turned off by the Chief of Security.

Some facilities hosted multiple simulation chambers, such as the USS Orville, which had at least three simulators, and Planetary Union Central, which had at least seven. Chambers were identified by number, such as 'Simulator 3.'

he Environmental Simulator was interactive with real-world consequences. Not only could users actually sense what is simulated through sight, hearing, smell, and touch, but a program could be adjusted to cause harm or even kill the user as well. The simulator was limited, however, as users did not have costumes projected onto them; they had to show up in non-simulated costume.

Simulated characters came with pre-programmed default personalities that could be re-programmed at will by the player.

Simulations were recorded in "playback layers" by time index and could be played back by by the Chief of Security.

One noteworthy program was Laura Alpha, a simulation set in the year 2015, created by Helmsman Gordon Malloy. The simulation recreated the historical person of Laura Huggins, her on-again, off-again boyfriend Greg, her friends Trisha, Lorenzo, Melissa, and Karl, and the world of Saratoga Springs, New York. Laura Alpha was simply an algorithmic reconstruction by the Computer based on the myriad text messages, photographs, and videos contained in Huggins' cell phone.

In the original version of Laura Alpha, Gordon fell in love with the simulation of Huggins, who had recently broken up with Greg, and the two began a brief relationship. However, as the real-world woman returned to her ex-boyfriend, simulated Huggins returned to Greg as well and broke things off with Gordon.

In a modified version of Laura Alpha, Gordon deleted all history of Greg. However, Greg had a profound impact on Huggins' personal growth, including her love of playing the guitar in public. Gordon realized that to remove Greg was tantamount to changing Huggins into a different person, and he discontinued using the program.

Laura Alpha was run in Environmental Simulator 2 of the Orville.