Virtual Relativity for Windows

Introduction

Virtual Relativity was developed by Daniel Weiskopf, Visualization and Interactive Systems at the University of Stuttgart.

The Virtual Relativity homepage is http://www.vis.uni-stuttgart.de/~weiskopf/relativity

Installation

Virtual Relativity for Windows runs on Windows 9x and Windows NT. These two steps are required for the installation of Virtual Relativity:

Unzip VR_WIN.ZIP into a temporary directory
SETUP.EXE

Short Manual

Virtual Relativity for Windows can be started from the START menu.

The supplied demo "box.par" shows a box-shaped test scene. If your graphics hardware does not support textures, you can use wireframe mode for higher frame rates.

Control during the Flight

Keyboard and mouse are supported input devices for flight control. Furthermore, keyboard and mouse are used to change display options.

Input Action
s starts/stops relativistic flight
q quit
left mouse button accelerate to left or right in order to steer the spaceship
middle mouse button accelerate to front or back in order to change the velocity of the spaceship
left mouse button + SHIFT accelerate to front or back in order to change the velocity of the spaceship
right mouse button turn head

Known Bugs

Don't press the left mouse button while the spaceship is NOT in fly mode. Otherwise the screen will turn black. In this case, please restart (in the File menu) the simulation.

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:

Transformation and rendering in real-time
User interactive environment

For a more detailed presentation see 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

Copyright

Permission to use, copy, and distribute 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.

Availability

The Virtual Relativity homepage is http://www.vis.uni-stuttgart.de/~weiskopf/relativity.

Input	Action
s	starts/stops relativistic flight
q	quit
left mouse button	accelerate to left or right in order to steer the spaceship
middle mouse button	accelerate to front or back in order to change the velocity of the spaceship
left mouse button + SHIFT	accelerate to front or back in order to change the velocity of the spaceship
right mouse button	turn head