Flight Path Visualization

A stunning 3D interactive flight path visualization built with Three.js, featuring real-time flight simulation around a photorealistic Earth with GPU-accelerated rendering for optimal performance.

new-demo-2.mp4

Flight Path Demo

🌟 Features

🌍 Earth Visualization

• Photorealistic 3D Earth with high-resolution textures
• Atmospheric effects with dynamic scattering simulation
• Real-time day/night cycles based on actual sun positioning
• Interactive camera controls with smooth orbital navigation

✈️ Flight Simulation

• Real flight data visualization or procedurally generated paths
• GPU-accelerated rendering supporting thousands of simultaneous flights
• Dynamic flight paths with realistic parabolic trajectories
• Customizable aircraft models with SVG-based plane designs
• Return flight simulation with bidirectional path animation

🎮 Interactive Controls

Organized GUI interface with intuitive control panels:

Flight Controls

• Flight Count: Adjust number of visible flights (1-30,000)
• Return Flight: Toggle bidirectional flight animation

Flight Path

• Dash Length: Customize path line dash size
• Dash Gap: Adjust spacing between dashes
• Hide Path: Toggle flight path visibility

Plane Controls

• Plane Size: Scale aircraft models (50-500)
• Plane Color: Customize aircraft colors with color picker
• Fly Speed: Control animation speed (0.01-0.5)
• Plane Elevation: Adjust flight altitude above surface
• Plane Style: Switch between geometric shapes and SVG designs
• Hide Plane: Toggle aircraft visibility

Earth Controls

• Day/Night Effect: Enable realistic lighting simulation
• Atmosphere Effect: Toggle atmospheric visual effects
• Real-time Sun: Use current UTC time for sun positioning
• Time (UTC): Display current simulated time
• Time Slider: Manual time control (0-24 hours)

Brightness Controls

• Day Brightness: Adjust daylight intensity (0-3.0)
• Night Brightness: Control ambient lighting (0-2.0)

🚀 Performance Features

• GPU Instance Rendering: Optimized for thousands of flights
• Custom Shader Implementation: High-performance graphics pipeline
• Real-time Performance Monitoring: Built-in FPS counter
• Memory Efficient: Intelligent resource management
• Responsive Design: Smooth 60fps animation on modern hardware

🎨 Visual Effects

• Gradient Flight Paths: Color-coded routes based on geographic regions
• Smooth Animations: Interpolated aircraft movement along curves
• Dynamic Lighting: Realistic sun positioning and shadows
• Starfield Background: Immersive space environment
• Coordinate Display: Real-time lat/lng positioning

🛠 Installation & Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v16 or higher)
• npm or yarn package manager
• Modern web browser with WebGL support

Quick Start

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/jeantimex/flight-path.git
   cd flight-path

2. Install dependencies

   npm install

3. Start development server

   npm run dev

4. Open in browser

   http://localhost:5173
   

Build for Production

# Build optimized production bundle
npm run build

# Preview production build locally
npm run preview

# Deploy to GitHub Pages
npm run deploy

🎯 Usage

Basic Navigation

• Mouse drag: Rotate camera around Earth
• Mouse wheel: Zoom in/out
• GUI panels: Adjust visualization parameters in real-time

Performance Tips

• Start with fewer flights (1000-5000) and increase gradually
• Use "Hide Path" or "Hide Plane" to focus on specific elements
• Enable performance monitoring with 'P' key (development mode)

Customization

• Modify flight data in src/Data.js for custom routes
• Add new aircraft designs by placing SVG files in public/ directory
• Adjust shader parameters in src/shaders/ for visual effects

🏗 Technical Architecture

Core Technologies

• Three.js: 3D graphics and WebGL rendering
• Vite: Fast build tool and development server
• dat.GUI: Real-time control interface
• Custom Shaders: GLSL vertex/fragment shaders for performance

Key Components

• src/main.js: Application entry point and scene setup
• src/Controls.js: Organized GUI control system
• src/PanesShader.js: GPU-accelerated aircraft rendering
• src/Curves.js: Optimized flight path rendering
• src/Earth.js: Planet visualization with atmosphere
• src/Flight.js: Individual flight simulation logic

Performance Optimizations

• Instanced Rendering: Single draw call for multiple aircraft
• Geometry Batching: Merged meshes for reduced GPU overhead
• Shader-based Animation: GPU-computed movement and rotation
• Level of Detail: Adaptive quality based on camera distance

📊 Browser Support

• Chrome 60+ (recommended)
• Firefox 55+
• Safari 12+
• Edge 79+

WebGL 2.0 support required for optimal performance

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit pull requests or open issues for bugs and feature requests.

Development Setup

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature-name
3. Make your changes and test thoroughly
4. Commit with clear messages: git commit -m "Add feature description"
5. Push to your fork: git push origin feature-name
6. Submit a pull request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Three.js community for excellent 3D graphics framework
• OpenFlights.org for flight route data
• NASA for Earth texture resources
• dat.GUI for developer-friendly controls

🔗 Links

• Live Demo: https://jeantimex.github.io/flight-path/
• Repository: https://github.com/jeantimex/flight-path
• Issues: https://github.com/jeantimex/flight-path/issues

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Made with ❤️ by jeantimex