The implementation record
A mystery experience with its source still visible.
The trail, canopy, boat, jetty, water and sky are built from geometry, shaders and seeded systems. The soundscape is synthesized in the browser. The technology stays in service of mood, pacing and reveal.
After the authored walk, the camera becomes yours. Ten director’s notes sit where the problem can be inspected: volumetric light inside the beam, hull geometry beside the boat, and the live audio graph out on the jetty.
Challenge log
The useful secrets are where the obvious answer failed.
Semantic geometry
The boat passed every topology check—and was still visibly open.
Why it fooled us: manifold validation proved there was no mathematical hole, not that a boat-shaped object closed correctly.
What fixed it: a transom, a stem where the inner skin meets the outer, and a breasthook over the forward sections.
← Back to NotesGPU performance
Five times fewer instances bought almost no frame time.
Why it fooled us: tree count was visible in the code, but the scene was fill-rate bound.
What fixed it: a shorter volumetric march, sky drawn last, cheap haze inputs and water submitted only when visible.
← Back to NotesAtmosphere
Making the sunset redder kept producing a white sun.
Why it fooled us: colour change alone clipped in tonemapping, so the red never survived.
What fixed it: Kasten–Young airmass drives both spectral loss and luminance; the sun genuinely darkens as it descends.
Procedural foliage
More branches did not stop leaves floating in mid-air.
The A/B switch: ?tp=9,6,0.27,ellipsoid versus ?tp=6,4,0.22,anchor.
What fixed it: placement on branch anchors mattered; branch count barely did. Only shoreline trees pay for the full budget.