GARGANTUA Black Hole Raytracer

A real-time Schwarzschild black hole raytracer built with Three.js, WebGL 2, and GLSL.

Features

• Real-time Schwarzschild gravitational lensing
• Null-geodesic ray integration
• Procedural accretion disk rendering
• Relativistic Doppler beaming
• Gravitational redshift
• Lensed procedural star field
• Multiple camera presets
• Cinematic camera mode
• Adjustable physical and optical parameters
• HDR bloom and post-processing
• Debug visualization modes
• Screenshot capture

Demo

A browser with WebGL 2 and hardware acceleration is required.

If GitHub Pages is enabled, the live demo will be available at:

https://INFP-coder.github.io/BlackHoleRaytracer/

Run Locally

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/BlackHoleRaytracer.git
cd BlackHoleRaytracer

Start a local HTTP server:

python3 -m http.server 8080

Open the following URL:

http://localhost:8080/

Do not open index.html directly with a file:// URL because the project uses JavaScript modules.

Controls

Control	Action
Mouse drag	Orbit camera
Mouse wheel	Zoom
1–4	Select camera preset
Space	Toggle cinematic mode
Alt+0–Alt+9	Select debug view
Q	Change rendering quality
P	Toggle parameter panel
M	Toggle ambient audio
H	Toggle HUD
S	Save screenshot
R	Reset parameters

Rendering Modes

The application includes three quality profiles:

• Standard: Lower resolution and fewer integration steps
• High: Balanced quality and performance
• Cinematic: Higher resolution and additional integration steps

For troubleshooting, start the application in safe mode:

http://localhost:8080/?safe=1&post=0

Run the built-in startup test:

http://localhost:8080/?selftest=1

Requirements

• A modern browser with WebGL 2 support
• Hardware-accelerated graphics
• JavaScript ES module support
• Python 3 or another static HTTP server for local development

Project Structure

BlackHoleRaytracer/
├── assets/
├── js/
│   ├── main.js
│   └── shaders.js
├── vendor/
│   ├── three.module.js
│   └── addons/
├── index.html
├── styles.css
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

Technology

• Three.js
• WebGL 2
• GLSL
• JavaScript ES Modules

Third-Party Software

This project includes or depends on Three.js and selected Three.js example modules. Three.js is distributed under the MIT License.

See the relevant third-party source files and license notices for details.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.