CurVis is a Rust package designed for rendering images and videos in curved spacetimes. By leveraging equations from General Relativity, it simulates light propagation to create stunning visuals, including wormholes. Perfect for astrophysics enthusiasts, CurVis offers intuitive CLI usage and powerful rendering capabilities.
CurVis is a powerful Rust package designed for visually exploring curved spacetimes by simulating the propagation of light through the lens of General Relativity. With CurVis, you can create stunning images and videos of fascinating cosmic structures, such as the iconic Ellis wormhole and other phenomena depicted in popular science fiction, including scenes from the movie Interstellar.
Key Features
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Rendering Capability: CurVis enables the rendering of high-quality images based on 360-degree backgrounds. Users can choose from a variety of images, including those from NASA's Deep Star Maps and the European Southern Observatory.
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User-Friendly Command-Line Interface: Perform tasks with simple commands. For example, create an image of a wormhole with:
curvis image <path_to_background_image_1> <path_to_background_image_2> <path_to_output_folder> -
Customizable Settings: Tailor your rendering experience by modifying various settings via .toml files. Configure parameters for simulation, camera positioning, and the type of spacetime metric you wish to work with.
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Camera Path Options: With CurVis, users can define camera movement paths through .csv files, allowing for dynamic video renderings that enhance storytelling in your visuals.
Getting Started
To dive into rendering with CurVis, simply set up your environment and ensure you have the necessary 360-degree images. Use the command-line interface for quick operations, such as creating images or assembling video frames.
Limitations and Future Developments
While CurVis provides a solid foundation for rendering simulations, it currently supports only spherical symmetry, limiting the range of cosmic phenomena that can be visualized. Notably, users should be aware of known issues such as single-threaded processing and the current lack of video assembly functionality. However, the roadmap for CurVis includes exciting features like support for black holes and multithreading, which promise to enhance rendering capabilities in future updates.
Explore the intersection of art and science with CurVis, transforming complex concepts of General Relativity into visually captivating representations!