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Sample Screen Shots of XStarHere are some samples of what XStar looks like when it is running. It is hard to capture the feel of a dynamic system with just a few pictures, but I still think they look nice.
By the very nature of physics, it is impossible to tell which direction these stars are traveling. If you place the stars at either end of the lines, with the right velocities, they will trace the exact same lines. In this particular case, the stars are moving from the greenish blue end to the dark blue end.
In this picture you can tell which direction the stars are moving because some of them have collided.
Here is one of the "special star configurations" that XStar generates. It starts a bunch of stars in a circle and they all orbit each other. Unfortunately, the very slightest errors in placing the stars or in moving the stars make this pattern turn into chaos. Since computers only have a limited number of bits to store each number, errors can't be eliminated
The two dots in the center are called "collapsars". The are really just unmovable gravity wells. These can't be created in nature because everything is effected by gravity and so these collapsars would have to move.
Here is another "special star configuration". This one creates two lines of stars that are slightly offset from each other. The results are lots of very symmetric patterns that look somewhat like the designs on the dollar bill or on award certificates.
One more "special star configuration". This one has just one line of stars, but the stars "bounce"! The patterns get more interesting as they go along.
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