ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ® & COPYRIGHT © 2025 Kavan010
Documentation updated and repository maintained by: Kavicastelo
This is a fork of Kavan010's original repository.

This repository contains a simulation of black holes, originally developed by Kavan010. I (Kavicastelo) have updated the documentation, added additional features like GitHub Pages, and created a social preview banner. The goal is to simulate and visualize black hole phenomena using ray tracing, accretion disks, and spacetime curvature.

1. Ray-tracing simulation
2. Accretion disk visualization
3. Spacetime curvature demonstration
4. [Optional] Real-time simulation feature

For more details, check out the original project.

1. C++ Compiler supporting C++ 17 or newer
2. CMake
3. Vcpkg
4. Git

1. Clone the repository:
   • git clone https://github.com/kavicastelo/black_hole.git (or the original repo if using that)
2. CD into the newly cloned directory:
   • cd ./black_hole
3. Install dependencies with Vcpkg:
   • vcpkg install
4. Get the vcpkg cmake toolchain file path:
   • vcpkg integrate install
   • This will output something like: CMake projects should use: "-DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=/path/to/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake"
5. Create a build directory:
   • mkdir build
6. Configure the project with CMake:
   • cmake -B build -S . -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=/path/to/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake
7. Build the project:
   • cmake --build build
8. Run the program:
   • The executables will be located in the build folder

If you don't want to use vcpkg, or you just need a quick way to install the native development packages on Debian/Ubuntu, install these packages and then run the normal CMake steps above:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential cmake \
	libglew-dev libglfw3-dev libglm-dev libgl1-mesa-dev

This provides the GLEW, GLFW, GLM and OpenGL development files so find_package(...) calls in CMakeLists.txt can locate the libraries. After installing, run the cmake -B build -S . and cmake --build build commands as shown in the Build Instructions.

for 2D: simple, just run 2D_lensing.cpp with the nessesary dependencies installed.

for 3D: black_hole.cpp and geodesic.comp work together to run the simuation faster using GPU, essentially it sends over a UBO and geodesic.comp runs heavy calculations using that data.

It should work with the necessary dependencies installed; however, I have only run it on Windows with my GPU, so compatibility with other setups might vary.

Let me know if you'd like an in-depth explanation of how the code works!

• Original Code: Kavan010
• Fork and Documentation Updates: Kavicastelo

This repository does not currently have an official license. Please refer to the original project for usage and licensing details.