milky way home galaxy 3d model - Milky Way Galaxy. Our Space Home. by ScientificPrecision

Scientifically correct detailed 3D model of Milky Way, our home galaxy.

Model is a set of particle systems with elements of different types. Since real Milky Way contains hundreds of billions stars, there are no way of simulate realistic view of galaxy directly. So here used textured particles with complex materials, placed along structural parts of Galaxy. Some of them are “clouds” of stars, others are light absorbing dust, emitting hydrogenous clouds, individual super-giant stars, etc. Multi-layered complex shaders was specifically designed to retain detailed and realistic view with extreme closeup and inside-the-galaxy views

Model scale: 1 World unit = 70 light years. It's about 22 Kpc (kiloparsecs), 6.8x1014 km or 4.2x1014 mi.
Solar System's approximate position is marked by dummy object with corresponding name.

Renderings by Mental Ray and Default Scanline are similar. Not tested with 3d-party renderers, but no problems expected. Rendering time by scanline is about 1min for outside 1200x1200pix full galaxy view (measured on Intel i7 3GHz, 8Gb RAM, 32-bit OS)