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01. Demoscene · 1992

Plasma

Colors and knobs

These rewrite the live file. Copy HTML picks up whatever you set.

About

A demoscene plasma is a sum of sine fields in the plane, sampled through a cycling palette. This one is a single WebGL 1 fragment shader: two triangles, a time uniform, no textures. Drop the file on a page and it fills the window. Reduce motion and it holds a still frame.

Browser APIs

  • WebGL 1
  • GLSL ES 1.0
  • requestAnimationFrame
  • matchMedia

If WebGL is missing, the demo draws a message on the canvas instead of a blank frame. prefers-reduced-motion freezes the first still.

Source

(function () {
  const PARAMS = {
    color: "#6ee7b7",
    speed: 1,
    scale: 1
  };
  function hexToRgb(hex) {
    const n = parseInt(String(hex).replace("#", ""), 16);
    if (isNaN(n)) return [0.43, 0.91, 0.72];
    return [(n >> 16 & 255) / 255, (n >> 8 & 255) / 255, (n & 255) / 255];
  }

  const canvas = document.getElementById("c");
  const fallback = document.getElementById("fallback");

  function fail(message) {
    fallback.hidden = false;
    fallback.textContent = message;
  }

  const gl = canvas.getContext("webgl", { alpha: false, antialias: false, powerPreference: "high-performance" });
  if (!gl) {
    fail("WebGL is not available in this browser. Try a current Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.");
    return;
  }

  const VERT = `attribute vec2 a_pos;
void main() {
  gl_Position = vec4(a_pos, 0.0, 1.0);
}`;

  const FRAG = `precision mediump float;
uniform float u_time;
uniform vec2 u_resolution;
uniform vec3 u_color;
uniform float u_speed;
uniform float u_scale;

void main() {
  vec2 uv = (gl_FragCoord.xy - 0.5 * u_resolution) / min(u_resolution.x, u_resolution.y);
  uv *= u_scale;
  float t = u_time * 0.55 * u_speed;

  float v = 0.0;
  v += sin(uv.x * 9.0 + t);
  v += sin(uv.y * 8.0 + t * 1.15);
  v += sin((uv.x + uv.y) * 6.0 + t * 0.7);
  vec2 c = uv + vec2(sin(t * 0.31), cos(t * 0.27)) * 0.45;
  v += sin(length(c) * 14.0 - t * 1.4);
  v *= 0.25;

  float r = 0.55 + 0.45 * sin(v * 6.28318 + t);
  float g = 0.45 + 0.45 * sin(v * 6.28318 + t * 1.3 + 2.1);
  float b = 0.55 + 0.45 * sin(v * 6.28318 + t * 0.7 + 4.2);
  vec3 col = vec3(r, g, b);
  col = mix(vec3(0.05, 0.18, 0.22), col, 0.92);
  col = mix(col, vec3(0.43, 0.91, 0.72), 0.12 * (0.5 + 0.5 * sin(v * 12.0)));

  vec2 q = gl_FragCoord.xy / u_resolution;
  col *= 0.65 + 0.35 * pow(16.0 * q.x * q.y * (1.0 - q.x) * (1.0 - q.y), 0.32);
  col = mix(col, u_color, 0.32);
  gl_FragColor = vec4(col, 1.0);
}`;

  function compile(type, src) {
    const sh = gl.createShader(type);
    gl.shaderSource(sh, src);
    gl.compileShader(sh);
    if (!gl.getShaderParameter(sh, gl.COMPILE_STATUS)) {
      throw new Error(gl.getShaderInfoLog(sh) || "Shader compile failed");
    }
    return sh;
  }

  const prog = gl.createProgram();
  gl.attachShader(prog, compile(gl.VERTEX_SHADER, VERT));
  gl.attachShader(prog, compile(gl.FRAGMENT_SHADER, FRAG));
  gl.linkProgram(prog);
  if (!gl.getProgramParameter(prog, gl.LINK_STATUS)) {
    throw new Error(gl.getProgramInfoLog(prog) || "Program link failed");
  }
  gl.useProgram(prog);

  const buf = gl.createBuffer();
  gl.bindBuffer(gl.ARRAY_BUFFER, buf);
  gl.bufferData(gl.ARRAY_BUFFER, new Float32Array([-1, -1, 1, -1, -1, 1, -1, 1, 1, -1, 1, 1]), gl.STATIC_DRAW);
  const loc = gl.getAttribLocation(prog, "a_pos");
  gl.enableVertexAttribArray(loc);
  gl.vertexAttribPointer(loc, 2, gl.FLOAT, false, 0, 0);

  const uTime = gl.getUniformLocation(prog, "u_time");
  const uRes = gl.getUniformLocation(prog, "u_resolution");
  const uColor = gl.getUniformLocation(prog, "u_color");
  const uSpeed = gl.getUniformLocation(prog, "u_speed");
  const uScale = gl.getUniformLocation(prog, "u_scale");
  const reduced = window.matchMedia("(prefers-reduced-motion: reduce)").matches;
  let raf = 0;

  function resize() {
    const dpr = Math.min(window.devicePixelRatio || 1, 2);
    const w = Math.max(1, Math.floor(canvas.clientWidth * dpr));
    const h = Math.max(1, Math.floor(canvas.clientHeight * dpr));
    if (canvas.width !== w || canvas.height !== h) {
      canvas.width = w;
      canvas.height = h;
    }
    gl.viewport(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
  }

  function frame(now) {
    resize();
    const t = reduced ? 2.4 : now * 0.001;
    const rgb = hexToRgb(PARAMS.color);
    gl.uniform1f(uTime, t);
    gl.uniform2f(uRes, canvas.width, canvas.height);
    gl.uniform3f(uColor, rgb[0], rgb[1], rgb[2]);
    gl.uniform1f(uSpeed, PARAMS.speed);
    gl.uniform1f(uScale, PARAMS.scale);
    gl.drawArrays(gl.TRIANGLES, 0, 6);
    if (!reduced) raf = requestAnimationFrame(frame);
  }

  canvas.addEventListener("webglcontextlost", function (e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    cancelAnimationFrame(raf);
    fail("The WebGL context was lost. Reload to restore the demo.");
  });

  try {
    raf = requestAnimationFrame(frame);
  } catch (err) {
    fail(err && err.message ? err.message : String(err));
  }
})();