Progress on Gal3D at last! I now have the best looking real-time galaxy collision simulation that Ive come across. Its currently happily churning along with about 8000 stars at 30fps all rendered using DirectX 9. It's no PPP3 quality algorithm, but it captures the best bits and the graphics have come a long way Alar and Juri Toomre created their version in 1972.



There is only one hard-coded set of start parameters at the moment and very little user control, but if you want a sneak peak of what it'll be like then download the demo...galaxy.zip (454kb)
Camera controls:Gaze=Arrow Keys. Move=Q/A W/S Z/X
I tend to use the arrow keys and Z/X to pan around the scene....enjoy!

I think this might make a nice screensaver, with random collision scenarios playing out? Comments welcome!

Ive given the site a new 'astro' look and feel, since the standard Blogger template wasnt exactly what I wanted. Now Im happy enough to start putting something interesting on here...

This week I have been mostly working on a new type of pattern matcher which can match patterns even when they are distorted and on curved surfaces. Still in MATLAB though, no C code yet.

Now to work on my galaxy crasher....