Web-Orbits

A 3D, interactive N-body simulation that runs in web browsers. This program leverages GPU acceleration through WebGL (for both graphics and computation) to deliver ultra fast performance! Runs best on computers with a discreet GPU.

Live demo is available here

Quick Start

Prerequisites

1. Install Node.JS. You can verify your Node.JS version by running node -v.
2. Install Python 2. You can verify your Python version by running python --version.
3. Optional: If you are running Windows and don't have Visual Studio installed, you will need to install windows-build-tools using npm install -g --production windows-build-tools

Setup and start

1. Clone the project and navigate into the base directory
2. Run npm install to install dependencies
3. Run npm run build to build the project
4. Run npm start to launch node
5. Open your browser to localhost:3000

Development

Open another terminal instance and run npm run watch. This will watch the interface files for changes and recompile on the fly.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter this error on Windows: Error: Node Sass does not yet support your current environment: Windows 64-bit with Unsupported runtime when performing the npm run build step, run the following command to rebuild node-sass: npm rebuild node-sass. Ensure you either have Visual Studio or windows-build-tools installed when doing this.