Described, not running here

What this page is

These pages are static documents. They do not mount a live shader field. There is no Pause control in the header because nothing here is running one.

If your system is set to reduce motion, that does not change this page: there is no shader animation to still.

The seven elements

An element changes optical behaviour, not colour. Each carries its own specular exponent and weight, which is what makes the surfaces read differently.

Ice

Specular exponent 112.0, weight 0.55. The tightest, hardest highlight of the seven.

Water

Exponent 52.0, weight 0.45. A bright, tight highlight with strong falloff.

Acid

Exponent 34.0, weight 0.28. Roughly two thirds of water's exponent, so the highlight is broader and duller — thick and viscous, droplets that cling rather than run.

Sunbeam

Exponent 18.0, weight 0.10. Low specular and high spread, so it reads as radiance rather than a lit surface.

Electricity

Exponent 14.0, weight 0.08. Almost no surface highlight; the light comes from the arc itself.

Fire

Exponent 12.0, weight 0.05. Soft and diffuse, reading as glow rather than surface.

Earth

Exponent 9.0, weight 0.04. The most matte of the seven.

How the orb moves

The orb in the application runs a fluid simulation each frame. Velocity is advected through itself, swirl is added back after it would otherwise be lost, pressure is solved and subtracted so the field stops compressing, and colour is then carried through the corrected field and shaded.

Forty-eight settings drive it. Each has a fixed range and is clamped when set, so a value outside its range is rejected rather than stored.

What is not here yet

Recorded captures of the application itself are not published on this page. When they are, they will carry the version they were captured from.