HephaestusAchilles
The Instanced Forge
Four thousand ingots drawn in a single call, with the draw-call figure published next to the frame time so the cost of the scene is stated rather than implied.
Learning value: 5 of 5
Chamber 05
Nyx
Backgrounds & Atmosphere
Depth, mood, and environment produced within a defensible frame budget.
The field behind all things. Shader backgrounds, particle and noise systems, volumetric light and fog, cinematic gradients — atmosphere that creates place rather than colour.
8 entries · 4 run live
Lead exhibit · learning 5/5
- The Instanced ForgeAchillesFour thousand ingots drawn in a single call, with the draw-call figure published next to the frame time so the cost of the scene is stated rather than implied.
- The Rift in N-SpaceAchillesA bident built by subtraction — unlit black prongs with tone mapping disabled, and a simplex vortex between them that the cursor drags like a hand through smoke.
- The Hydro-Prismatic LeviathanHectorA trident where a single transmission material at an index of refraction of 2.42 does all the work, backed by 400 instanced cavitation bubbles it exists to distort.
- The Struck IngotHectorAn object with no vertices — a signed distance field marched per pixel, with the step budget exposed so the exact moment quality is bought back is visible.
- Scroll Velocity BusHectorOne RAF writes --scroll-progress and --scroll-velocity; every atmosphere and stage reads the bus without registering listeners.
- CSS Depth PlanesHectorParallax depth without a renderer — stacked planes, scroll velocity, and grain that still reads when WebGL never arms.
- Layered Depth FieldHectorFour translucent planes at different parallax depths producing depth with no canvas, no shader, and no main-thread cost.
- Film Grain RestraintCirceA named film layer that survives view transitions and never becomes a second animation competing with the aura.