GLPULSE3D

GLPULSE3D

Welcome to GLPULSE3D Home page

Visualising stellar pulsations in 3D

GLPULSE3D simulates and displays, in real time, the pulsations of a star in three dimensions. It shows how the surface of a star swells, ripples and shimmers as oscillation modes travel across it — turning abstract stellar physics into an intuitive, interactive image.

Originally developed for education and public outreach, and continuously refined since 2009, it is equally well suited to classroom demonstrations, public events, and research discussions in stellar pulsations and asteroseismology.

Check public releases

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Highlights

  • Real-time 3D rendering. A GPU-accelerated, interactive view of a pulsating star: rotate it, zoom in, and follow the oscillations as they evolve.
  • Interior and decomposition views. Split the display into the individual pulsation modes, or open up the star to look inside.
  • Built-in capture tools. Save a PNG screenshot or record an MP4 video of the animation directly from the keyboard.
  • Prepared examples. A collection of ready-to-run configurations — from main-sequence stars and hot subdwarfs to red giants.
  • Physical eigenfunctions. Load real eigenfunctions from stellar pulsation codes to visualise genuine oscillation modes.

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Getting started

  1. Install the dependencies: SDL3, OpenGL, GSL, zlib, FreeType 2 (and fontconfig when available).
  2. Build the program: ./build.sh
  3. Run an example: cd examples && ../glpulse3d glpulse3d-example1.conf

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A window opens and the star begins to pulsate. Press h to display the built-in help with the full list of keyboard controls.

Documentation

  • Full user guide: doc/glpulse3d-doc-v2.0.0.pdf
  • Keyboard reference: doc/KEYBOARD.md

Credits: Stéphane Charpinet, Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP), CNRS / Université de Toulouse, France.

GLPULSE3D is free software, distributed under the CeCILL v2.1 license.