N-Body is a personal project I started in the summer before my first year of university, in order to build familiarity with C++ in preparation for one of my year-1 courses. That preparation was ultimately redundant (it was an introductory course), but I enjoyed the work, and I’ve continued to add to the project during off periods, since.

The n-body problem is the algorithmic challenge of modeling the interactions between a very large number of point masses – for example, when simulating the formation of galactic clusters.

My first version of the n-body project focused on the algorithmic aspects. I explored multithreading using OpenMP and implemented a Barnes-Hut solver to improve performance, inspired by articles like this one and guided by this course curriculum.

In addition to further optimization, later versions added improved rendering with Magnum and a user interface built with Gtk 4.

The latest version fully decouples the simulation and UI threads, for smooth interaction even with very large simulations. Some other features include:

• Simulation data saved & loaded from JSON files
• UI for viewing and modifying parameters of individual particles
• Runtime-selectable algorithm, with adjustable algorithm parameters
• Movable camera, with arcball controls or numeric inputs
• Runtime selectable shader for different rendering styles
• Live statistics about the particles and simulation performance

To take a closer look at the techniques used in this project, see the open source (GPLv3) repo on Github: