USS Saratoga (CV-60)

The history of this website goes back to 2018 when I was inspired to construct a virtual 3D model of a large vessel and then place it in a virtual gaming environment to explore. At that point, I had no idea how to achieve that goal. I spent most of 2019 watching YouTube videos to see if I could learn how to build the environment on my own in a gaming engine called: Unity. I also spent a lot of time studying various vessel plans to decide what to construct. By late 2019 I had made two decisions; I would work with an artist studio to build the model and the environment, and the vessel I would build would be the USS Saratoga (CV-60).

I focused on the USS Saratoga for several reasons; I had obtained and printed the Booklet of General Plans for the vessel and also found a series of YouTube videos walking through the interior passages of a sister vessel, USS Ranger (CV-61), shortly before it was scrapped. This information, along with many reference images available online, gave me plenty of reference information to pull from. I expand on several other reasons for the focus on this vessel in the museum display boards within the environment itself.

The image below is an overhead shot of the completed model. Scroll through the slideshow below this image to see screenshots showings the various stages of developing the model and the environment starting in March 2020 until work on this environment was stopped in October, 2023. At the bottom of this page are two videos that give some information about the construction of the USS Saratoga, its service history, and some background on the name of the vessel. Please go to the TOURS tab to watch videos of the USS Saratoga environment, or go to the DOWNLOADS tab to load the environment on your system and walk through it on your own.

By late 2023, I had reached a level of knowledge about model and environment creation to begin a project on my own. Please go to the tab about the USS Enterprise (CV-6) to read about the next phase in my journey.

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The Vessel

This video walks you through the display boards in the museum hall that give some basic background on the history of the vessel, and describes future areas of the vessel to be modeled and opened for tours. Pause the video at each display board to read. Make the video full screen by pushing the Fullscreen button in the lower right-hand corner of the video.

The Saratoga Campaign

The video below describes the events and significance behind the name of the vessel.