RELATIVISTIC RAYTRACER DOWNLOAD SITE
Click to view 640x480 version
NOTICE
These resources may be freely downloaded but not distributed or made available for distribution in either modified or unmodified form.


IMAGES
Images can be downloaded directly from the pages they are displayed on, and some images link to larger versions of themselves. Further images may be available in the future from this location.

ANIMATIONS
Animations are available in a variety of sizes, with some having a reduced number of frames or resolution to save space and download time.  .FLI and .FLC format players can be found on most archive sites, such as sunsite.anu.edu.au, for most systems. For IBM-compatible PC systems, I recommend the Autodesk Animator Player for Windows provided on this site. For Macintosh systems try MacAnimViewer.

Before downloading, I strongly recommend that you read the Seminar and explanation of the Head-up Display present in the animations. This will give you a better chance to fully understand & appreciate the nature and significance of the effects present.
 
HWnewton.flc
160x120 - 2.54Mb - 250 frames
Highway without relativistic effects
The camera accelerates along a highway without relativistic effects, effectively a universe where c >> v
 
HWaberra.flc
160x120 - 4.10Mb - 250 frames
Highway with relativistic aberration
The camera moves with constant proper acceleration along a highway in a world where c = 1 m/s. Note that objects behind the camera appear to be still in front of it and to rotate as we move past them
HWdopple.flc
160x120 - 3.75Mb - 250 frames
Highway with aberration and doppler effects
The camera moves as above. Note that objects ahead are significantly blueshifted, and objects behind the camera are significantly redshifted.
HWheadli.flc
160x120 - 2.37Mb - 250 frames
Highway with full relativistic effects
The camera moves as above. Note that objects ahead are brightened, and objects behind the camera are dimmed.
Bycube.fli
320x200 - 1.94Mb - 1000 frames
Flyby of a cubic structure
The camera moves past an object which appears to rotate. Full effects.
Thrucube.flc
160x120 - 1.68Mb - 250 frames
Flythrough of a cubic structure
The camera flies through the centre of a cubic structure at high speed. As each bar 'rotates' independently the object becomes highly distorted, exhibiting the effects of extreme velocity. Aberration only.
Orbit2.flc
160x120 - 3.68Mb - 250 frames
Near-Earth orbit at speed
The camera orbits close to the earth at 0.95c. While the earth remains spherical, it appears much smaller than we would expect and angular contraction distorts the size and position of surface features.
Pinwheel.flc
160x120 - 3.63Mb - 250 frames
Camera undergoes UCM
The camera moves in a vanishingly small circle at a fixed distance from the earth, effectively simply rotating the velocity vector. However, the angular expansion and contraction give the illusion of rapid and significant motion.
Aberration & Doppler effects.
Observe.flc
320x240 - 744kb - 250 frames
Purely symbolic representation
Here we take the position of observation, rather than sight. A photon (bright object) emitted from the far side of a moving (length-contracted) cube can still reach the camera as the cube recedes faster than the component of the photon's motion in that direction.
Tana.fli
320x200 - 689kb - 100 frames
Aberration angle relation
Relates the angles of photons to the velocity vector in both frames, aiding a qualitative understanding of angular contraction.



TEXT
The raytracer source code for UNIX and DOS under Windows 95 is available. Please not that the code is subject to frequent change and, if compiled, will not function without several data files not present here. It is presented only for inspection at present; an installation package for IBM-compatible PCs may be available at a later date.
 
rrdos.cpp
 Source code for DOS under Windows 95 
rrunix.cpp
 Source code for IRIX (and UNIX) 
 highway.rrs   Scene source for the highway sequence 
 highway.rrc   Camera sequence for highway animation 

 Raytracer page
Seminar page
e-mail Antony Searle