Singularity

Inspiration

AR gives us the opportunity to bring anything to reality. This can be fantastic things from our imagination or, in our case, something that does exist, it is just out of reach for us. Recent science comes closer and closer to what black holes look like, and yet besides tons of simulations we have only one real (and blurry) picture of a black hole. Those simulations are mind-blowing and difficult to understand. The advantage of AR is that it's an interactive experience from which you can actively learn something. We wanted to convey the physics and beauty of a black hole through this filter to learn from it about its amazing characteristics.

What it does

The filter simulates a Schwarzschild black hole including the event horizon, the photon ring, the accretion disk, the effect called Doppler beaming and the gravitational lens that distorts the light coming from behind the black hole. All this is very difficult to understand, but through the effect and how it interacts with its surrounding, we want people to experiment, discover and understand those phenomena.

Reference image by NASA

How we built it

Although the filter appears very three-dimensional, the entire black hole except for the disk of clouds and dust around it is done in a shader on a 2D plane. Through several texture distortions that react to the angle of the phone, we achieved the accretion disk, that is bend around the black hole due its strong gravity.

Challenges we ran into

First of all, understanding the physics of a black hole was a challenge itself. After reading every article and watching every video that explains how traveling to a black hole might be like, we had to transfer all that knowledge into one filter. While trying to achieve an effect that is physically as correct as possible, we ran into several challenges connected to shaders, uv maps and others.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are especially proud about how well we worked together. We are a Japanese software engineer and a German architect with very different skill sets. We combined our knowledge and created a filter we could have never accomplished alone.

Adrian Steckeweh @omega.c + Hayato Kuno @kuno.fell.asleep

The whole filter grew over time. Each time we learned something new, we implemented it into the filter and tackled each challenge. We achieved a very physically correct look that shows the fascinating beauty of a black hole. Because we made the filter mostly from 2D planes and shaders, the final file is very small. In fact, all the distortion and the bent accretion disk is done in a single patch group and can be easily imported into another project.

What we learned

We learned about shaders, distortion, uv maps, sound and many other features. We also achieved that the filter reacts to how close you are to the black hole. We taught each other things we didn’t know and are very satisfied with the end result and how much we grew through the process.

What's next for „Singularity“

We enjoyed bringing science and the fascination that comes with it to this filter. JAXA, ESA, NASA… Please feel free to contact us.

Built With

• javascript
• sparkar