Special-relativistic visualization makes use of different rendering tecniques. The most simple one is the image based approach where only a 4pi-background image is needed that will be distorted according to the special-relativistic aberration formula. In that case, only the observer is allowed to move.
In a more general case, where also scene objects will move, the polygon rendering can be applied. Every vertex will be converted according to the Lorentz-transformation between the object's and the observer's reference frames. The finite speed of light has also to be taken into account.
The most general and most realistic rendering technique is four-dimensional ray tracing. For each pixel of the observer's image plane, a ray is traced back into the scene and backwards in time until it hits and object or leaves the region of interest.
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Moving Die A die moves with different velocities above a row of dice slightly inclinded to the observer. The higher the velocity of the die is, the more rotated it appears such that at 99% speed of light even its backside is visible. |
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Relativistic flight past Saturn (2015) If one passes Saturn with relativistic velocity, the silhouette of Saturn keeps circular. However, the rings become heavily distorted. |
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Flight through a three-dimensional grid When flying through a three-dimensional grid the distortions of the rods due to the light travel effect become apparent. Rods perpendicular to the direction of motion appear hyperbolically distorted whereas rods alongside the direction of motion look either compressed or stretched. Hier, the length contraction is partially compensated by the light travel effect. We show the view for 50%, 90%, and 99% speed of light. |
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Rolling Wheels The center of the whell moves with 80% speed of light. The point of the wheel that currently has contact to the floor does not move. The uppermost point moves with 93% speed of light with respect to the center of the wheel. |
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Special-relativistic aberration The observer resides in the center of a sphere which has a grid attached to it on the inner side. The faster the observer moves, the stronger the aberration effect is. Here, the full sky panorama (4pi) view is shown. |
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Flight through the Eiffel Twoer The special-relativistic aberration effect becomes particualarly clear when moving through a three-dimensional scene. In 2005, Oliver Fechtig has manually build a 3D model of the Eiffel Tower and rendered multiple flight throughs with different velocities.
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