V I R T U A L   R E L A T I V I T Y 


INTRODUCTION

Virtual Relativity was developed by Daniel Weiskopf,
Theoretical Astrophysics and Computational Physics 
at the University of Tübingen.
This work is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
with project D4 in SFB 382.

The Virtual Relativity homepage is
http://www.tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de/~weiskopf

Author's eMail:  weiskopf@tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de


THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

The appereance of fast moving objects can be calculated according 
to the Theory of Special Relativity. In addition to the Lorentz 
contraction the effects of finite light speed and aberration play 
an important role. There already exist systems with
relativistic ray tracing and polygon rendering. 

Virtual Relativity has implemented following improvements: 
 (1) Transformation and rendering in real-time 
 (2) User interactive environment 

For a more detailed presentation see the Vismath 97 paper on 
the Virtual Relativity homepage


TO DO

This is a very early beta version of Virtual Relativity. There are
still a lot of bugs. I apologize for any inconvenience.

What has to be done:

  - Improved user interface
  - Implementation of realistic illumination, such as the Doppler effect


INSTALLATION FOR WINDOWS 9x and WINDOWS NT

(1) Unzip VR_WIN.ZIP into a temporary directory
(2) Run SETUP.EXE


INSTALLATION FOR SILICON GRAPHICS

Choose a directory for Virtual Relativity and
(1) Unzip with:      gunzip vr_sgi.tar.gz
(2) Untar with:      tar xf vr_sgi.tar
(3) Set the following environment variables (let VRHOME denote the
    location of the Virtual Relativity directory):
        VIRTUAL_RELATIVITY=$(VRHOME)
    If you did not install Tcl/Tk 8.x:
        TCL_LIBRARY=$(VRHOME)/library/tcl8.0/
        TCLLIBPATH=$(VRHOME)/library/
        LD_LIBRARYN32_PATH=$(VRHOME)/library/
(4) Run relativity in $(VRHOME)


COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1997,1998   Daniel Weiskopf

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this
software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby
granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice
appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and
this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. I make 
no representationsabout the suitability of this software for any
purpose.  It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

I disclaim all warranties with regard to this software, including 
all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness, in no event 
shall I be liable for any special, indirect or consequential damages
or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, 
whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action,
arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of
this software.