A real-time, physically accurate visual simulation of a Schwarzschild black hole and its accretion disk.
This project uses WebGL (via Three.js) and custom GLSL fragment shaders to solve the geodesic equations that describe how light curves around a massive object — all inside your browser.
Note: The physics engine, shader math, and rendering logic were generated using Google Gemini.
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Raymarching in Curved Spacetime
Simulates non-Euclidean geometry by integrating geodesics instead of using standard 3D rays. -
Gravitational Lensing
Produces Einstein Rings & realistic space-warping around the black hole. -
Volumetric Accretion Disk
Not a flat texture — a fully volumetric sampled field with noise-based turbulence. -
Relativistic Beaming (Doppler Shift)
Approaching side appears bright/blue; receding side becomes dim/red. -
Gravitational Redshift
Light near the event horizon fades to deep red as it loses energy. -
Photon Ring Visualization
Shows the unstable orbit at ~1.5 Schwarzschild radii. -
Adaptive Step-Size Integration
Higher precision near the event horizon; faster simulation in empty space.
- HTML5 / JavaScript – Core structure
- Three.js – WebGL setup & user interaction
- GLSL (Fragment Shader) – 99% of the physics + rendering pipeline runs on GPU
Traditional 3D engines assume straight-line light travel.
This simulation instead performs raymarching with geodesic integration:
- Camera emits a ray for each pixel
- Ray marches forward in tiny steps
- At every step:
- Gravity is computed from the Schwarzschild metric
- Ray velocity is updated (curved path)
- If the ray intersects the accretion disk:
- Gas density, rotation velocity & temperature determine pixel color
Simplified gravitational acceleration
- Left Click + Drag → Orbit camera
- Scroll Wheel → Zoom (get dangerously close!)
- Concept & Prompt Engineering: DÁNISH
- Physics & Shader Code Generation: Google Gemini
Created as part of an exploration into AI-assisted GPU graphics and relativistic rendering.