Our Version of Black Hole

Standalone Schwarzschild line-path simulation with the custom editor and bloom work preserved from the Three.js study.

Live site: https://malikahed.github.io/our-version-of-black-hole/

The authored geodesic paths and randomized ray segments are rendered as linear HDR emitters, then passed through the official Three.js post-processing chain: RenderPass, UnrealBloomPass, and OutputPass with ACES filmic tone mapping. The required Three.js r185 add-ons are vendored locally, so the project does not depend on the portfolio or a CDN.

Run locally

Use Node.js 22 or newer. There are no npm dependencies to install and no build step. Run commands from the repository root:

npm start

Then open http://127.0.0.1:4180/. This project uses port 4180 so it remains independent from the portfolio development server. Keep that terminal open while using the simulation, and stop it with Ctrl+C.

To use a different port on macOS/Linux:

BLACK_HOLE_PORT=4181 npm start

In PowerShell, set $env:BLACK_HOLE_PORT = '4181' before npm start. BLACK_HOLE_HOST changes the bind address; it defaults to 127.0.0.1 for local-only access. Use the HTTP URL rather than opening the HTML as a file:// page, because the browser loads local ES modules through the import map.

Controls and saved settings

Use left-drag or one-finger touch to orbit around the black hole. Use the mouse wheel, trackpad, or pinch gesture to zoom. The precise editor sliders remain synchronized with the direct camera controls.

Camera motion uses a lightweight ray-map preview and then refines the unchanged full-resolution result in tiles after movement settles. Rendering also pauses when the browser tab is hidden.

Editor values are saved in this browser's local storage. reset saved values restores the authored defaults; localhost and the published site keep separate settings. If rendering is slow, lower performance → render scale. The slider covers 0.5–1; the numeric field accepts 0.25–1. This changes GPU workload, not the simulation's physical scale.

Checks and hosting

npm run check

This checks the syntax of server.mjs only. It does not compile the browser shaders or test the simulation visually.

Static hosting must preserve index.html, examples/, and build/ together. The root index redirects into examples/webgl_postprocessing_unreal_bloom.html; its import map resolves Three.js from build/ and add-ons from examples/jsm/. server.mjs is for local development and is not needed by the static site.

The Git tag pre-official-unreal-bloom restores the state immediately before the official bloom integration.

License

Original contributions by Malik Abuallatta are licensed under the MIT License. Third-party code, adaptations, dependencies, and assets retain their existing licenses and notices. This license does not grant new rights to third-party material.