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Install & requirements
Photonica is a single Windows application with no installer and no account. Unzip it, run it, and you are in the lab.
Requirements
| Needs | |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit |
| Graphics | A GPU with DirectX Raytracing 1.1: NVIDIA RTX 20-series or newer, AMD Radeon RX 6000-series or newer, or Intel Arc |
| Disk | About 4 MB unzipped |
| Optional | ffmpeg on your PATH for mp4 export (winget install Gyan.FFmpeg). Without it, video renders are written as numbered image frames. |
That GPU requirement is real, not a recommendation: the whole simulation runs as inline ray tracing on the graphics card. A laptop with only integrated graphics from before Intel's Arc line will not be able to start it.
Install
- Download Photonica-v0.2.4-win64.zip (about 1.4 MB).
- Unzip it anywhere — your Desktop is fine. Keep the folder together: the
shaders,catalogsandsamplesfolders sit next to the executable and are needed. - Run
Photonica.exe.
Windows may show a SmartScreen warning the first time, because the build is not code-signed yet. More info → Run anyway if you are happy to.
What is in the folder
| File | What it is |
|---|---|
Photonica.exe | The application itself. |
photonica-mcp.exe | The bridge that lets an AI assistant drive the app. See assistant control. |
shaders\\ | Compiled GPU shaders. The app will not start without them. |
catalogs\\ | A sample Zemax glass catalogue you can load from the material panel. |
samples\\ | Sample .zmx lens prescriptions used by two of the demos. |
First run
Photonica opens on an empty bench: a white laser at the left, a screen to the right, and a beam between them. The fastest way to see what it does is the Demos menu — seventeen finished experiments, from a single prism to a designed achromat.