A cosmology PhD student uses Blender Geometry Nodes as a free SIMD computation engine to visualize and process CMB sky maps in real time.
Key Takeaways
GeoNodes treats mesh faces/vertices as data storage slots and parallel processing threads, enabling SIMD-style computation without CUDA or compute shaders.
HEALPix spheres (equal-area, isolatitude pixelation) serve as the mesh substrate; face attributes store per-pixel CMB temperature data.
Attribute projection enables pixelation-preserving map rotation, Doppler aberration simulation, and weak gravitational lensing without manual index bookkeeping.
The pipeline produced square sky-patch image datasets for ML training by projecting a sliding plane onto the HEALPix sphere and capturing pixel indices.
GeoNodes’ built-in visualizer makes it preferable to CUDA for small-scale algorithm validation where instant visual feedback matters more than raw throughput.
