BlackHolesHD vs Black Hole Vision
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BlackHolesHD
Experience a realistic simulation of a black hole with smooth, high-fidelity animation. This educational tool brings the fascinating physics of celestial bodies directly to your device.
- Realistic black hole simulation
- Smooth animation
- High-fidelity rendering
- Educational tool
- Pocket-sized celestial physics
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Real simulated Blackhole, simple and efficient ... smooth animation rendered in 24 bits.
Black Hole Vision
Experience the universe through the lens of a black hole. This app simulates how a black hole would warp your camera's view, revealing a photon ring and offering a glimpse into advanced astronomical concepts. Explore the science behind black hole lensing with open-source code and educational resources.
- Live camera feed simulation
- Black hole lensing effect
- Photon ring visualization
- Open-source code available
- Educational insights into astrophysics
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What would the world around you look like if you were staring at a black hole? This application places a black hole in the field of view of your iPhone’s camera and gravitationally "lenses" the resulting live video feeds just as a black hole would warp the light from surrounding stars. The resulting "Black Hole Vision" reveals interesting features of black hole lensing, including a "photon ring" of strongly lensed images around the black hole. The measurement of this photon ring will be the target of future astronomical observations from space with the Black Hole Explorer: an orbit satellite that will take the sharpest images in the history of astronomy! To learn more about BHEX, head over to https://www.blackholeexplorer.org/. The code is open source and freely available on GitHub at https://github.com/graveltr/BlackHoleVision, along with documentation that explains the underlying black hole lensing equations and how they are implemented in Black Hole Vision. The code was written at Vanderbilt University by Trevor Gravely with input from Dr. Roman Berens and Prof. Alex Lupsasca. We also acknowledge Dominic Chang for useful input and comments. This project was supported by CAREER award PHY-2340457 and grant AST-2307888 from the National Science Foundation. The lensed image of the spiral galaxy Messier 101 was generated using material produced by NASA and STScI and can be found here: https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2006/10/1865-Image.html?news=true. License: This app includes a port of the GNU Scientific Library's (GSL) implementation of Jacobi elliptic functions and the elliptic integrals to Metal. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0). You can view the full license and obtain a copy of the source code at: https://github.com/graveltr/BlackHoleVision.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Black Hole Vision at 100% against BlackHolesHD's 27%. Black Hole Vision also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.4). BlackHolesHD's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.5). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Black Hole Vision holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 41 and 24 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 27% of BlackHolesHD's written reviews are positive against 100% of Black Hole Vision's.
| Parameter | BlackHolesHD | Black Hole Vision |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (41 ratings) | 4.8 (24 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 27.3% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 41 — better | 24 |
| Update frequency | — | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 37 MB | 64 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Francois PIEDNOEL | Alexandru Lupsasca |
Customer experience
BlackHolesHD
Black Hole Vision
In-app purchases
BlackHolesHD
No in-app purchases
Black Hole Vision
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is BlackHolesHD free?
Is Black Hole Vision free?
Which has better reviews, BlackHolesHD or Black Hole Vision?
Do BlackHolesHD or Black Hole Vision have ads?
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