Introduction

The GeodesicViewer realizes exocentric two- and three-dimensional illustrations of light-like and time-like geodesics in the general theory of relativity. By means of an intuitive graphical user interface, all parameters of a space-time as well as the initial conditions of the geodesics can be modified interactively. This makes the GeodesicViewer a useful instrument for the exploration of geodesics in four-dimensional Lorentzian space-times.


Installation

The GeodesicViewer (v1.1) is based on the Qt framework (version 4.7), the open graphics library (OpenGL), and the Motion4D-library (v1.3). On standard Linux machines, OpenGL is already installed via the graphics board drivers. Qt 4.7 can be downloaded from the developer site as a LGPL-licensed version. The Motion4D-library also needs the GNU Scientific Library (GSL).

Note that you need a graphics card that supports the OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL). If you start the GeodesicViewer from a console, a message will be print on the standard output whether your graphics card supports GLSL or not.

The system was tested with the following graphics cards:
NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT, GeForce 8800 GTX, GeForce GTX 460, QuadroFX 4800; ATI Radeon HD 5800.

on 'ubuntu 10.04', 'openSUSE 11.3', 'Windows XP', and 'Windows 7' systems.

Requirements:


Installation:

  1. Start the QtCreator, open the "gviewer_m4d.pro" or "gviewer_win.pro"(Windows) project and select the Qt 4.7.* target.

  2. Double-click on the "gviewer_m4d.pro" or "gviewer_win.pro"(Windows) file and edit the following variables in "gviewer_m4d.pro" depending on your system: When finished, the QtCreator should look similar to
  3. Switch to the "Projects" tab and deselect the 'Shadow build':
  4. Build All.

    The compilation could take a few minutes - see the progress bar in the left panel. You can also follow the compilation in the 'Compile Output' tab.

  5. Start the GeodesicViewer by clicking on the play button or by pressing 'Ctrl-R'.
    On Windows systems you can also use winstart.bat. Maybe you have to adjust the Qt-bin and Qt-mingw-bin paths according to your Qt installation.
  6. To check the installation, click on the 'File' menu and select 'Load all'. Select the Tutorial directory and open 'first_example.ini'. Now, the GeodesicViewer should look like this:

Please consider the tutorials for an introduction to the GeodesicViewer.

Details about the metrics can be found in the Catalogue of Spacetimes: arXiv:0904.4184 [gr-qc].


Licence

Copyright © 2009-2011 by Thomas Müller and Frank Grave

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation under the terms of the GNU General Public License is hereby granted. No representations are made about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty. See the GNU General Public License for more details.


Contact

Visualisierungsinstitut der Universität Stuttgart (VISUS)
Allmandring 19
70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Email: Thomas.Mueller[at]vis.uni-stuttgart.de