Simulating a Planet on the GPU: Part 1 (2022)

(patrickcelentano.com)

40 points | by Doches 2 hours ago ago

5 comments

  • janpmz 17 minutes ago

    I wish I had an intuitive understanding of how much I can do with a GPU. E.g. how many points can I move around? A simulation like this would be great for that.

    • lukan 11 minutes ago

      Well, to get that intuition, I guess you have to start experimenting. WebGPU is quite easy to get started with the concept. But in general it obviously depends what kind of GPU you have.

  • montebicyclelo an hour ago

    As a hobbyist, shaders is up there as one of the most fun types of programming.. Low-level / relatively simple language, often tied to a satisfying visual result. Once it clicks, it's a cool paradigm to be working in, e.g. "I am coding from the perspective of a single pixel".

    • lukan an hour ago

      I found them fun once they work, but if something did not work, debugging them I did not enjoy so much.

  • lukan an hour ago

    Ah yes, I dreamed about doing something like this, just with even more details ages ago, but concluded, I won't get even close to what I want, without having a big team at disposal and a supercomputer and/or a couple of universities collaborating interdisciplinary. But so far I was buisy with other things and reading about his experience unsurprisingly kind of confirms the challenge there is - mainly performance. But GPUs are on the rise and I am optimistic for the future. If the AI bubble bursts, I suppose lots of cheap GPU power will be avaiable for experiments like these and more elaborate ones. And if not, compute power/money will likely rise anyway.