Kosmos : a virtual 3-D universe

Abstract

Kosmos is an application enabling interactive visualization of a fictional 3D universe. It offers users the opportunity to explore and experience an aesthetically pleasing virtual environment complete with billions of high-resolution planets and stars. Kosmos integrates several novel 3D rendering techniques in terrain rendering, large-scale particle systems, etc. to make this level of graphical realism and scale possible. The efficiency of the algorithms developed for this project enables average hardware (such as almost any modern laptop) to run Kosmos smoothly. Moreover, through the use of the recent WebGL standard, Kosmos may be viewed online in any modern web browser on any major operating system, with no large downloads or additional software installation necessary. Moreover, the author has released the full source code for Kosmos online for free under the BSD Open Source License