ns-ui / loud
Edge Yield
A full-bleed scanning electron micrograph: a packed micro-landscape of spore grains, rod crystals and draped filaments imaged by a detector simulation rather than a lighting model, so steep facets bloom into glowing rims, crevices fall into hard shadow, and the whole frame is crisp at once under a live scan with shot noise and a descending sweep line.
Use when Pick edge-yield when the backdrop should read as an instrument's output rather than a rendered scene — a monochrome electron micrograph of a dense micro-landscape, everything crisp at once, steep edges blooming to white, hard detector shadows, live scan noise and a sweep line that shears the frame as the stage drifts, with the pointer panning the stage and parking the beam. Pick hero-ascii-terrain instead when you want a lit, legibly geographic heightfield rather than a specimen imaged without any light source; flyback-tear when the instrument should be a failing CRT receiving a broadcast; weld-pool when the headline itself should be the material.
Install
npx shadcn add https://design.helpmarq.com /r/edge-yield.jsonSource
registry/loud/edge-yield/component.tsx"use client";
import { useEffect, useId, useRef } from "react";
// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
// EdgeYield — a full-bleed scanning electron micrograph: a packed micro-
// landscape of spore grains, rod crystals and filaments, imaged the way an SEM
// images it rather than the way a renderer lights it.
//
// The organising idea is that this is a DETECTOR SIMULATION, not a lighting
// model. There is no light source anywhere in the shader. One fragment shader
// evaluates a height field h(u) together with its ANALYTIC gradient — every
// primitive is a closed form whose slope is known, so the surface normal costs
// one field evaluation instead of three central-difference taps — and then
// feeds that normal through the two things that actually make an SEM image:
//
// delta = sec(theta) secondary-electron yield rises as the surface tilts
// away from the beam, because more of the interaction
// volume lies within escape depth of a free surface.
// This single term is the characteristic glowing rim,
// and it is not a fresnel approximation of it — it is
// the actual dependence, 1/n.z.
// eta collection efficiency: what fraction of those
// electrons reach an Everhart-Thornley detector sitting
// off to one upper-left corner. Facets turned away from
// it are dim; anything with a grain between it and the
// detector is in a deep, hard shadow, found by a three-
// step horizon march reaching ~2 grain radii.
//
// Everything is in focus at once because nothing here has a lens — that
// extreme depth of field is a property of the technique, not a choice.
//
// On top of the specimen sits the ACQUISITION, all of it in screen space and
// none of it drifting with the stage, because a detector's faults belong to
// the instrument and not to the sample: a scan comb, per-line DC drift, sub-
// pixel line-to-line misregistration, horizontally correlated shot noise whose
// amplitude tracks sqrt(signal), charge streaking pulled along the fast axis,
// and a sweep line descending the frame. Lines above the sweep were acquired
// this pass and lines below it on the last one, so the stage's drift shears the
// picture very slightly across that line — the tear is what proves the image is
// being scanned rather than rendered.
//
// Palette: an SEM is natively greyscale because it maps electron yield to
// luminance, so monochrome here is the honest reading rather than a
// restriction. Five stops from --background, --foreground, --ns-muted and
// --border via getComputedStyle, re-read on a documentElement class mutation.
// The ramp's DIRECTION never inverts — yield always climbs toward light — but
// the exposure does: dark theme is the micrograph on the console, light theme
// is the same acquisition printed, with the substrate lifted to a paper
// mid-tone so the rims still have headroom to be the brightest thing in frame.
// Nothing in the frame is chromatic, including the beam spot: an accent tint
// under the pointer is the one mark that reads as a rendered glow sprite rather
// than as a dwell, and it is the fastest way to lose the electron-image read.
// The dwell is spent on signal and shot noise instead, which is what a real
// beam parked on a spot actually changes.
// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
export interface EdgeYieldProps {
/** Feature size. Higher = further in, fewer and larger grains. @default 1 */
magnification?: number;
/** How tightly the micro-landscape is packed. @default 1 */
density?: number;
/** Vertical exaggeration of the specimen, which drives the rim response. @default 1 */
relief?: number;
/** Shot-noise amplitude. 0 is a clean frame-averaged capture. @default 1 */
noise?: number;
/** Stage drift speed multiplier. @default 1 */
speed?: number;
/** Freezes acquisition on a composed still frame without unmounting. */
paused?: boolean;
/** Rendered in the DOM over the micrograph — eyebrow, subhead, CTA. */
children?: React.ReactNode;
className?: string;
style?: React.CSSProperties;
}
const VERT_SRC = `
attribute vec2 a_pos;
void main() { gl_Position = vec4(a_pos, 0.0, 1.0); }
`;
// Pointer smoothing. A plain exponential follower has a steady-state error of
// exactly velocity*tau under constant velocity, so smoothing the stage that way
// would make the specimen lag the hand by a fixed distance — read by the eye as
// the instrument not responding rather than as damping. Extrapolating the
// target one tau ahead cancels that term algebraically: at constant velocity
// the stage sits under the cursor, and the smoothing is spent only on direction
// changes and on interpolating between events that arrived sparser than frames.
// LEAD_MAX caps the extrapolation so a teleporting pointer (a tab switch, a
// warp across the frame) cannot fling the stage past the cursor.
const POINTER_TAU = 0.014;
const VEL_TAU = 0.06;
const LEAD_MAX = 30;
// One sweep of the beam down the frame. Slow enough to read as an acquisition
// pass rather than a strobe, fast enough that the drift shear across the sweep
// line stays a few pixels — at 4s the same shear would be a visible skew of the
// whole specimen, which reads as a broken transform, not as scanning.
const SWEEP_PERIOD = 1.15;
const STATIC_TIME = 9.6;
const FRAG_SRC = `
precision highp float;
uniform vec2 u_size; // css px
uniform float u_dpr;
uniform float u_time;
uniform float u_px; // world units per css px
uniform vec2 u_stage; // stage position, world units
uniform vec2 u_lagVel; // stage velocity, world units/sec (drives the sweep tear)
uniform float u_rot; // stage rotation, radians
uniform float u_density;
uniform float u_relief;
uniform float u_noise;
uniform vec2 u_beam; // pointer, css px
uniform float u_hover; // 0..1 eased
uniform float u_sweep; // 0..1 down the frame
uniform float u_pass; // acquisition pass counter
uniform vec3 u_c0;
uniform vec3 u_c1;
uniform vec3 u_c2;
uniform vec3 u_c3;
uniform vec3 u_c4;
uniform float u_bias;
uniform float u_contrast;
// The detector. Upper-left, ~34 degrees of elevation, and it is the ONLY
// directional term in the shader — there is no light.
const vec3 DET = vec3(-0.593, -0.526, 0.610);
// height the march must clear per unit of its own step parameter: since a step
// of t moves length(DET.xy) horizontally, this is DET.z, not tan(elevation)
const float DET_RISE = 0.610;
// Ceiling, in css px, on how far the stage's motion may shear the picture
// across the sweep line. See the note at the shear itself in main().
const float SHEAR_MAX = 0.8;
float hash21(vec2 p) {
p = fract(p * vec2(287.13, 419.71));
p += dot(p, p + 27.31);
return fract(p.x * p.y);
}
vec2 hash22(vec2 p) {
return vec2(hash21(p), hash21(p + 19.19));
}
// Value noise with its analytic derivative. Everything in the field returns
// vec3(value, d/dx, d/dy) so one evaluation yields the normal.
vec3 noised(vec2 p) {
vec2 i = floor(p);
vec2 f = fract(p);
vec2 u = f * f * (3.0 - 2.0 * f);
vec2 du = 6.0 * f * (1.0 - f);
float a = hash21(i);
float b = hash21(i + vec2(1.0, 0.0));
float c = hash21(i + vec2(0.0, 1.0));
float d = hash21(i + vec2(1.0, 1.0));
float k1 = b - a;
float k2 = c - a;
float k3 = a - b - c + d;
return vec3(
a + k1 * u.x + k2 * u.y + k3 * u.x * u.y,
du.x * (k1 + k3 * u.y),
du.y * (k2 + k3 * u.x)
);
}
float noiseOnly(vec2 p) {
vec2 i = floor(p);
vec2 f = fract(p);
vec2 u = f * f * (3.0 - 2.0 * f);
float a = hash21(i);
float b = hash21(i + vec2(1.0, 0.0));
float c = hash21(i + vec2(0.0, 1.0));
float d = hash21(i + vec2(1.0, 1.0));
return mix(mix(a, b, u.x), mix(c, d, u.x), u.y);
}
// Rotation between octaves, with its transpose carried alongside so the
// derivative chains correctly instead of being subtly wrong in a way that only
// shows up as normals that do not match the silhouette.
const mat2 OCT = mat2(1.624, 1.218, -1.218, 1.624); // 2.03 * rot(36.9deg)
const mat2 OCT_T = mat2(1.624, -1.218, 1.218, 1.624);
// sc is applied inside rather than by the caller so the chain rule back to u
// cannot be forgotten at a call site — a gradient that is right in magnitude
// but wrong by a constant factor is the kind of bug that shows up only as
// normals that do not agree with the silhouette.
vec3 fbmd(vec2 p, float sc, float amp) {
vec3 s = vec3(0.0);
float a = amp;
vec2 q = p * sc;
mat2 t = mat2(1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0);
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
vec3 n = noised(q);
s.x += a * (n.x - 0.5);
s.yz += a * (t * n.yz);
a *= 0.5;
q = OCT * q;
t = OCT_T * t;
}
s.yz *= sc;
return s;
}
float fbmOnly(vec2 p, float sc, float amp) {
float s = 0.0;
float a = amp;
vec2 q = p * sc;
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
s += a * (noiseOnly(q) - 0.5);
a *= 0.5;
q = OCT * q;
}
return s;
}
// Smooth union that keeps the crease narrow. k is fed in CSS pixels converted
// to world units, so the seam where two grains meet is the same couple of
// pixels wide at any magnification and any device pixel ratio — the crevice is
// a line, not a soft valley, but it is never a one-pixel normal discontinuity
// that sparkles under the sec(theta) response.
vec3 smaxG(vec3 a, vec3 b, float k) {
float w = clamp(0.5 + 0.5 * (b.x - a.x) / k, 0.0, 1.0);
return vec3(mix(a.x, b.x, w) + k * w * (1.0 - w), mix(a.yz, b.yz, w));
}
float smaxH(float a, float b, float k) {
float w = clamp(0.5 + 0.5 * (b - a) / k, 0.0, 1.0);
return mix(a, b, w) + k * w * (1.0 - w);
}
// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Grains. A jittered lattice of ellipsoid caps, h = A*sqrt(1 - |d|^2/r^2) — the
// exact spheroid, and deliberately sqrt rather than a tunable pow(t, prof): a
// general exponent costs TWO pow() per cell (the height and the derivative's
// t^(prof-1)) and there are up to 45 cells per fragment across the five layers
// plus the horizon march. The silhouette's last pixel is kept off the aliasing
// edge by the tc floor and the smax crease instead.
//
// Because q = u*S, the S in the height and the S in dq/du cancel: the gradient
// is scale-free, which is correct — a sphere has the same slopes however small
// it is drawn — and it means every layer shares one closed form.
// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
vec3 grains(vec2 u, float S, mat2 warp, mat2 warpT, float seed, float rmin,
float rspan, float elong, float jit, out float matId) {
vec2 q = warp * u * S;
vec2 ip = floor(q);
vec2 f = fract(q);
// The loop carries a SCORE, not a height. h = elong*r*sqrt(tc)/S is monotonic
// in r*r*tc, so the winner is found without a sqrt per cell, and the
// gradient's reciprocal and the warp transpose are paid once instead of nine
// times. What that buys is not the arithmetic — it is that the nine live
// vec3s collapse to four floats. This shader was register-spilling, and the
// measured cost of the specimen was a cliff rather than a slope.
float bs = 0.0;
vec2 bd = vec2(0.0);
matId = 0.5;
for (int y = -1; y <= 1; y++) {
for (int x = -1; x <= 1; x++) {
vec2 g = vec2(float(x), float(y));
vec2 o = hash22(ip + g + seed);
float r = rmin + rspan * fract(o.x * 7.13 + o.y * 3.71);
vec2 d = f - (g + 0.5 + (o - 0.5) * jit);
float t = 1.0 - dot(d, d) / (r * r);
if (t > 0.0) {
float sc = r * r * max(t, 0.0008);
if (sc > bs) {
bs = sc;
bd = d;
matId = o.y;
}
}
}
}
if (bs <= 0.0) return vec3(0.0);
// s = r*sqrt(tc), so the height is elong*s/S and inversesqrt(tc)/r is 1/s:
// dh/dq = -elong*d/s, and dq/du = S*warp, so the two S cancel and what is
// left is the warp's TRANSPOSE — a sphere has the same slopes however small
// it is drawn
float s = sqrt(bs);
return vec3(elong * s / S, warpT * ((-elong / s) * bd));
}
float grainsH(vec2 u, float S, mat2 warp, float seed, float rmin, float rspan,
float elong, float jit) {
vec2 q = warp * u * S;
vec2 ip = floor(q);
vec2 f = fract(q);
float bs = 0.0;
for (int y = -1; y <= 1; y++) {
for (int x = -1; x <= 1; x++) {
vec2 g = vec2(float(x), float(y));
vec2 o = hash22(ip + g + seed);
float r = rmin + rspan * fract(o.x * 7.13 + o.y * 3.71);
vec2 d = f - (g + 0.5 + (o - 0.5) * jit);
float t = 1.0 - dot(d, d) / (r * r);
if (t > 0.0) bs = max(bs, r * r * max(t, 0.0008));
}
}
return elong * sqrt(bs) / S;
}
// Filaments draped across the specimen: a warped ridge train. The warp comes
// from the same noise the substrate uses, so the fibres wander with the
// fracture surface instead of lying on it like printed stripes.
vec3 fibre(vec2 u, vec2 dir, float F, float amp, float warpAmt, float seed) {
vec3 w = noised(u * 2.7 + seed);
float s = dot(u, dir) * F + w.x * warpAmt;
vec2 ds = dir * F + w.yz * (warpAmt * 2.7);
float strand = hash21(vec2(floor(s), seed));
float a = amp * (0.35 + 0.65 * strand);
float k = fract(s) - 0.5;
float e = exp(-k * k * 30.0);
return vec3(a * e, a * e * (-60.0 * k) * ds);
}
float fibreH(vec2 u, vec2 dir, float F, float amp, float warpAmt, float seed) {
float s = dot(u, dir) * F + noiseOnly(u * 2.7 + seed) * warpAmt;
float strand = hash21(vec2(floor(s), seed));
float k = fract(s) - 0.5;
return amp * (0.35 + 0.65 * strand) * exp(-k * k * 30.0);
}
const vec2 FIB_A = vec2(0.9272, 0.3746);
const vec2 FIB_B = vec2(-0.3624, 0.9320);
// The specimen. Returns the height field and its gradient; 'coarse' is the
// same surface without the additive debris and micro-relief, which is what the
// horizon march compares against so shadows are not biased by detail the march
// cannot see.
const mat2 IDENT = mat2(1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0);
// squashed and turned, so the medium layer reads as rods and prisms wedged
// between the round grains rather than as a second, smaller copy of the same
// population
const mat2 ROD = mat2(0.918, 0.397, -0.834, 1.928);
const mat2 ROD_T = mat2(0.918, -0.834, 0.397, 1.928);
void specimen(vec2 u, float dens, out vec2 grad, out float matId, out float marchH) {
float k = u_px * 2.6;
float m1;
float m2;
vec3 h = fbmd(u, 2.9, 0.026);
// a sparse population of much larger bodies. Without it every grain is the
// same size and the field reads as a manufactured lattice — packed roe rather
// than a specimen. r stays well under half a cell, so most cells are empty and
// the big ones arrive at an irregular spacing the eye cannot pre-empt.
float m0;
h = smaxG(h, grains(u, 4.2 * dens, IDENT, IDENT, 137.0,
0.15, 0.19, 0.86, 0.95, m0), k);
h = smaxG(h, fibre(u, FIB_A, 5.6 * dens, 0.0125, 0.55, 3.1), k);
h = smaxG(h, fibre(u, FIB_B, 8.3 * dens, 0.0085, 0.42, 17.7), k);
vec3 g1 = grains(u, 10.5 * dens, IDENT, IDENT, 5.0,
0.30, 0.20, 0.80, 0.72, m1);
// the march's reference height, captured here for free: it must be THIS
// layer's raw height, because this layer is the only thing the march samples
marchH = g1.x;
h = smaxG(h, g1, k);
h = smaxG(h, grains(u, 24.0 * dens, ROD, ROD_T, 41.0,
0.26, 0.26, 0.90, 0.80, m2), k);
// the big bodies get their own atomic number too, so a boulder is not forced
// to the same brightness as the small grains it is sitting among
matId = mix(mix(m1, m2, 0.4), m0, 0.35);
// debris and micro-relief sit ON whatever surface won, so they are summed
// rather than unioned — a fleck of dust on top of a grain is above it, and a
// union would hide every small thing behind every large one
float m3;
h += grains(u, 58.0 * dens, IDENT, IDENT, 91.0,
0.20, 0.22, 0.85, 0.88, m3) * 0.85;
h += fbmd(u, 21.0, 0.0042);
h += fbmd(u, 96.0, 0.0016);
grad = h.yz;
}
// What the march samples: the round-grain population and NOTHING else.
//
// Cost here is a cliff, not a slope — this shader lives near the edge of its
// register budget, and adding a second lattice layer plus the substrate fbm to
// the march once took it from ~15ms to 50-75ms, a 2.3x increase in work for a
// 3.5x increase in time. So the march gets exactly one layer, and h0 is
// that SAME layer's raw height at u (captured in specimen() for free) rather
// than the full surface: comparing a full-surface h0 against a one-layer sample
// biases every comparison and the frame loses its shadows altogether.
float specimenH(vec2 u, float dens) {
return grainsH(u, 10.5 * dens, IDENT, 5.0, 0.30, 0.20, 0.80, 0.72);
}
// Horizon march toward the detector. The reach matters more than the step
// count: it has to clear the largest grain radius comfortably, or the result is
// a tight contact halo around every bump — which is ambient occlusion on a
// heightfield, the exact generic read this is trying not to be.
float collect(vec2 u, float h0, float dens) {
float s = 1.0;
float t = u_px * 4.0;
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
float hs = specimenH(u + DET.xy * t, dens);
float over = hs - (h0 + t * DET_RISE);
s = min(s, 1.0 - clamp(over / (u_px * 5.0 + t * 0.30), 0.0, 1.0));
t *= 4.2;
}
return s;
}
vec3 ramp(float x) {
vec3 c = mix(u_c0, u_c1, smoothstep(0.0, 0.26, x));
c = mix(c, u_c2, smoothstep(0.24, 0.54, x));
c = mix(c, u_c3, smoothstep(0.51, 0.82, x));
c = mix(c, u_c4, smoothstep(0.80, 1.0, x));
return c;
}
void main() {
// DOM-space css px, y down, so the pointer, the scan lines and the field all
// share one coordinate system
vec2 p = vec2(gl_FragCoord.x, u_size.y * u_dpr - gl_FragCoord.y) / u_dpr;
float ref = min(u_size.x, u_size.y);
// ---- acquisition geometry (screen space, never drifts with the stage) ----
float line = floor(p.y);
float yf = p.y / u_size.y;
// lines above the sweep were written this pass, lines below on the last one
float below = step(u_sweep, yf);
float pass = u_pass - below;
// how long ago this line was acquired: the stage kept moving in between, so
// the picture shears very slightly across the sweep line
float lag = (below > 0.5 ? (1.0 + u_sweep - yf) : (u_sweep - yf)) * ${SWEEP_PERIOD.toFixed(3)};
// sub-pixel line-to-line misregistration, applied to the sample position so
// the shadows move with the rims instead of sliding under them
float jx = (hash21(vec2(line, pass * 5.7)) - 0.5) * 0.55;
float dens = clamp(u_density, 0.35, 3.0);
vec2 sp = vec2(p.x + jx, p.y);
vec2 cu = (sp - u_size * 0.5) * u_px;
float cs = cos(u_rot);
float sn = sin(u_rot);
// The shear this lag buys has to stay SUB-PIXEL. Left unbounded it is
// |u_lagVel| * SWEEP_PERIOD / u_px css px: about 6px on the drift alone, and
// up to ~75px while the hand is panning, since the pan velocity is folded
// into u_lagVel. At that size the sweep line stops reading as a scan and
// reads as a tear — the specimen above it is a different picture from the
// one below, which is the one thing a continuous surface must never do.
// Saturating instead of clamping keeps it exactly linear in the slow regime
// that is honest, and asymptotic to SHEAR_MAX css px at any speed.
vec2 sh = u_lagVel * lag;
float shm = SHEAR_MAX * u_px;
sh *= shm / (length(sh) + shm);
vec2 u = mat2(cs, sn, -sn, cs) * cu + u_stage - sh;
vec2 grad;
float matId;
float marchH;
specimen(u, dens, grad, matId, marchH);
float gm = length(grad);
if (gm > 12.0) grad *= 12.0 / gm;
vec3 n = normalize(vec3(-grad.x * u_relief, -grad.y * u_relief, 1.0));
// ---- detector model ------------------------------------------------------
// secondary yield: sec(theta), floored so the silhouette saturates instead of
// going singular in whichever pixel happens to land on it
float nz = max(n.z, 0.13);
float delta = pow(1.0 / nz, 0.95);
// atomic-number contrast: different grains are different stuff
delta *= 0.86 + 0.30 * matId;
float shadow = collect(u, marchH, dens);
float facing = max(dot(n, DET), 0.0);
float eta = 0.30 + 0.70 * facing * shadow;
// a small isotropic pedestal: electrons that scatter off the chamber wall and
// come back, which is why a real crevice is dark but never black
eta += 0.055 * shadow;
float sig = delta * eta * 0.42;
// the far side of the specimen subtends less of the detector — a broad
// brightness gradient toward the detector, which is what an SEM has instead
// of a vignette
sig *= 1.0 + 0.13 * dot(normalize(vec2(-0.6, -0.55)), (p - u_size * 0.5) / ref);
sig = sig / (1.0 + sig * 0.50);
// ---- beam spot -----------------------------------------------------------
// where the pointer is, the beam dwells: more electrons per pixel, so more
// signal and less shot noise. That is the whole interaction — no glow sprite.
vec2 bd = (p - u_beam) / (ref * 0.155);
float spot = exp(-dot(bd, bd)) * u_hover;
sig = mix(sig, sig * 1.30 + 0.045, spot * 0.85);
// ---- acquisition ---------------------------------------------------------
float comb = 1.0 - 0.042 * (0.5 + 0.5 * cos(6.2831853 * p.y / 2.7));
sig *= comb;
// per-line DC: a fast component that changes every pass, and a slow drift
// that reads as the amplifier wandering
sig += (hash21(vec2(line, pass * 3.1)) - 0.5) * 0.026;
sig += (noiseOnly(vec2(line * 0.07, u_time * 0.6)) - 0.5) * 0.045;
// charge streaking, pulled along the fast (horizontal) axis and gated on
// signal, since it is bright features that charge
float streak = noiseOnly(vec2(p.x * 0.010, p.y * 0.62) + vec2(u_time * 0.05, 0.0));
sig += (streak - 0.5) * 0.085 * smoothstep(0.35, 0.9, sig);
// shot noise: Poisson, so the amplitude tracks sqrt of the signal, and
// correlated with the pixel to its left because the beam has not finished
// moving. The lattice is css px and phase-locked to the display, so the
// adaptive render scale cannot change the grain size.
vec2 pix = floor(p);
vec2 ns = vec2(pass * 17.3, pass * 7.7);
float nA = hash21(pix + ns);
float nB = hash21(pix + vec2(-1.0, 0.0) + ns);
float shot = mix(nA, nB, 0.42) - 0.5;
sig += shot * 0.115 * u_noise * (0.35 + 0.65 * sqrt(max(sig, 0.0))) * mix(1.0, 0.28, spot);
// the sweep line itself: the beam is on it right now
// its amplitude is the whole question. At 0.22 it was a saturated rule right
// across the frame — measured at +76/255 over the surrounding rows, five
// times the brightest ordinary grain row, which is not what a beam passing
// over a line looks like. Kept just clear of the shot noise so it reads as
// the pass going by, and rolled off where the signal is already high so it
// cannot blow a rim out.
float sweepD = abs(yf - u_sweep);
float onLine = 0.040 * exp(-sweepD * sweepD * 26000.0)
+ 0.016 * exp(-sweepD * sweepD * 700.0);
sig += onLine * (1.0 - 0.55 * clamp(sig, 0.0, 1.0));
float L = clamp((sig - 0.5) * u_contrast + 0.5 + u_bias, 0.0, 1.0);
gl_FragColor = vec4(ramp(L), 1.0);
}
`;
type RGB = [number, number, number];
function parseHex(raw: string): RGB | null {
const m = /^#([0-9a-f]{3}|[0-9a-f]{6})$/i.exec(raw.trim());
if (!m) return null;
let h = m[1];
if (h.length === 3) h = h.split("").map((c) => c + c).join("");
const n = parseInt(h, 16);
return [((n >> 16) & 255) / 255, ((n >> 8) & 255) / 255, (n & 255) / 255];
}
function mixRGB(a: RGB, b: RGB, t: number): RGB {
return [a[0] + (b[0] - a[0]) * t, a[1] + (b[1] - a[1]) * t, a[2] + (b[2] - a[2]) * t];
}
function luminance([r, g, b]: RGB): number {
return 0.2126 * r + 0.7152 * g + 0.0722 * b;
}
function compile(gl: WebGLRenderingContext, type: number, src: string): WebGLShader {
const s = gl.createShader(type)!;
gl.shaderSource(s, src);
gl.compileShader(s);
if (!gl.getShaderParameter(s, gl.COMPILE_STATUS)) {
const info = gl.getShaderInfoLog(s);
gl.deleteShader(s);
throw new Error(`edge-yield: shader compile failed: ${info ?? ""}`);
}
return s;
}
// The minimal full-bleed fragment-shader host: one program, one fullscreen
// triangle pair, uniform locations resolved lazily by name. It knows nothing
// about the micrograph.
class GLSurface {
gl: WebGLRenderingContext | null = null;
private program: WebGLProgram | null = null;
private vs: WebGLShader | null = null;
private fs: WebGLShader | null = null;
private buffer: WebGLBuffer | null = null;
private locs = new Map<string, WebGLUniformLocation | null>();
constructor(private canvas: HTMLCanvasElement, private frag: string) {}
init(): boolean {
const gl = this.canvas.getContext("webgl", {
alpha: false,
antialias: false,
premultipliedAlpha: false,
powerPreference: "high-performance",
}) as WebGLRenderingContext | null;
if (!gl) return false;
this.gl = gl;
try {
this.vs = compile(gl, gl.VERTEX_SHADER, VERT_SRC);
this.fs = compile(gl, gl.FRAGMENT_SHADER, this.frag);
const program = gl.createProgram();
if (!program) {
this.destroy();
return false;
}
this.program = program;
gl.attachShader(program, this.vs);
gl.attachShader(program, this.fs);
gl.linkProgram(program);
if (!gl.getProgramParameter(program, gl.LINK_STATUS)) {
this.destroy();
return false;
}
} catch {
this.destroy();
return false;
}
gl.useProgram(this.program);
this.buffer = gl.createBuffer();
gl.bindBuffer(gl.ARRAY_BUFFER, this.buffer);
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(this.program!, "a_pos");
gl.enableVertexAttribArray(loc);
gl.vertexAttribPointer(loc, 2, gl.FLOAT, false, 0, 0);
this.locs.clear();
return true;
}
private loc(name: string): WebGLUniformLocation | null {
if (!this.locs.has(name)) {
this.locs.set(name, this.gl!.getUniformLocation(this.program!, name));
}
return this.locs.get(name) ?? null;
}
f(name: string, x: number) {
this.gl?.uniform1f(this.loc(name), x);
}
v2(name: string, x: number, y: number) {
this.gl?.uniform2f(this.loc(name), x, y);
}
v3(name: string, c: RGB) {
this.gl?.uniform3f(this.loc(name), c[0], c[1], c[2]);
}
draw(pixelW: number, pixelH: number) {
const gl = this.gl;
if (!gl || !this.program) return;
gl.viewport(0, 0, pixelW, pixelH);
gl.drawArrays(gl.TRIANGLES, 0, 6);
}
destroy() {
const gl = this.gl;
if (!gl) return;
if (this.buffer) gl.deleteBuffer(this.buffer);
if (this.program) gl.deleteProgram(this.program);
if (this.vs) gl.deleteShader(this.vs);
if (this.fs) gl.deleteShader(this.fs);
this.buffer = null;
this.program = null;
this.vs = null;
this.fs = null;
this.locs.clear();
this.gl = null;
}
}
export function EdgeYield({
magnification = 1,
density = 1,
relief = 1,
noise = 1,
speed = 1,
paused = false,
children,
className = "",
style,
}: EdgeYieldProps) {
const wrapRef = useRef<HTMLDivElement | null>(null);
const canvasRef = useRef<HTMLCanvasElement | null>(null);
const uid = useId();
const pausedRef = useRef(paused);
pausedRef.current = paused;
useEffect(() => {
const wrap = wrapRef.current;
const canvas = canvasRef.current;
if (!wrap || !canvas) return;
const surface = new GLSurface(canvas, FRAG_SRC);
let raf = 0;
let running = false;
let staticMode = false;
let cssW = 0;
let cssH = 0;
let dpr = 1;
let disposed = false;
let lastMs = performance.now();
let simTime = 0;
// Adaptive render scale. Insurance, not the fix: the ladder only steps after
// a sustained stretch of wall-clock overrun, so one GC pause or a tab switch
// cannot cost resolution, and it climbs back as soon as the page is inside
// budget again — the frame time this watches is the PAGE's, not this
// component's, and a sibling animation blowing the budget must not soften
// the micrograph for the rest of the visit. Every threshold is milliseconds
// of wall clock, never frames: a frame-counted gate waits longer the slower
// the machine is, which is backwards.
const SCALES = [1, 0.78, 0.58];
const BUDGET_OVER = 24;
let scaleIdx = 0;
let frameEma = 16.7;
let overMs = 0;
let underMs = 0;
let upWindow = 8000;
// stage: an integrated position rather than a function of time, so a long
// frame advances it by one clamped step instead of teleporting the specimen
let stageX = 0;
let stageY = 0;
let panX = 0;
let panY = 0;
let lastPanX = 0;
let lastPanY = 0;
let driftVX = 0;
let driftVY = 0;
let sweep = 0;
let passCount = 0;
let hoverTarget = 0;
let hoverAmt = 0;
let havePointer = false;
let tgtX = 0;
let tgtY = 0;
let ptrX = 0;
let ptrY = 0;
let velX = 0;
let velY = 0;
let lastTgtX = 0;
let lastTgtY = 0;
let rectLeft = 0;
let rectTop = 0;
let rectDirty = true;
let c0: RGB = [0.03, 0.03, 0.03];
let c1: RGB = [0.18, 0.18, 0.18];
let c2: RGB = [0.56, 0.56, 0.56];
let c3: RGB = [0.93, 0.93, 0.93];
let c4: RGB = [1, 1, 1];
let bias = 0;
let contrast = 1;
// Five stops, and the ramp's direction is the same in both themes because
// electron yield only ever climbs toward light. What the theme changes is
// the exposure. Dark is the micrograph as it appears on the console: the
// substrate sits low and the rims carry the whole top of the range. Light
// is the same acquisition printed — the top stop is the paper, and the
// substrate is lifted to a mid grey so the rims still have somewhere
// brighter to go. Putting the substrate ON the paper value instead is the
// wash-out: the rims lose their headroom and the one feature that makes
// this read as an electron image flattens out.
const readColors = () => {
const cs = getComputedStyle(document.documentElement);
const bg = parseHex(cs.getPropertyValue("--background")) ?? [1, 1, 1];
const fg = parseHex(cs.getPropertyValue("--foreground")) ?? [0.09, 0.09, 0.09];
const muted = parseHex(cs.getPropertyValue("--ns-muted")) ?? [0.55, 0.55, 0.55];
const border = parseHex(cs.getPropertyValue("--border")) ?? [0.18, 0.18, 0.18];
const black: RGB = [0, 0, 0];
const white: RGB = [1, 1, 1];
if (luminance(bg) < 0.5) {
c0 = mixRGB(bg, black, 0.62);
c1 = mixRGB(border, bg, 0.1);
c2 = mixRGB(muted, fg, 0.15);
c3 = fg;
c4 = mixRGB(fg, white, 0.92);
bias = 0.035;
contrast = 1.24;
} else {
c0 = mixRGB(fg, black, 0.35);
c1 = mixRGB(fg, muted, 0.72);
c2 = mixRGB(muted, bg, 0.6);
c3 = mixRGB(bg, muted, 0.08);
c4 = bg;
bias = 0.17;
contrast = 1.26;
}
};
readColors();
const draw = () => {
if (!surface.gl || cssW <= 0 || cssH <= 0) return;
const t = staticMode ? STATIC_TIME : simTime;
const ref = Math.min(cssW, cssH);
// magnification breathing: the working distance creeping, slow enough
// that it is felt rather than watched
const view = ref * (0.82 / Math.max(0.25, magnification)) * (1 + 0.045 * Math.sin(t * 0.043));
const px = 1 / view;
let sx = stageX;
let sy = stageY;
let lagX = driftVX;
let lagY = driftVY;
if (staticMode) {
// a composed still: the drift integrated to a fixed point, and a lag
// velocity so the sweep tear is present in the frozen frame too
sx = STATIC_TIME * 0.0062;
sy = STATIC_TIME * 0.0031;
lagX = 0.0062;
lagY = 0.0031;
}
sx += panX * px;
sy += panY * px;
surface.v2("u_size", cssW, cssH);
surface.f("u_dpr", dpr);
surface.f("u_time", t);
surface.f("u_px", px);
surface.v2("u_stage", sx, sy);
surface.v2("u_lagVel", lagX, lagY);
surface.f("u_rot", t * 0.0075);
surface.f("u_density", Math.max(0.35, density));
surface.f("u_relief", Math.max(0, relief));
surface.f("u_noise", Math.max(0, noise));
surface.v2("u_beam", ptrX, ptrY);
surface.f("u_hover", hoverAmt);
surface.f("u_sweep", staticMode ? 0.63 : sweep);
surface.f("u_pass", staticMode ? 7 : passCount);
surface.v3("u_c0", c0);
surface.v3("u_c1", c1);
surface.v3("u_c2", c2);
surface.v3("u_c3", c3);
surface.v3("u_c4", c4);
surface.f("u_bias", bias);
surface.f("u_contrast", contrast);
surface.draw(canvas.width, canvas.height);
};
// The stage never stops: a constant drift whose heading turns slowly, so
// the specimen is always moving under the beam but never on a loop the eye
// can memorise.
const stepStage = (dt: number) => {
const a = simTime * 0.085;
driftVX = 0.0072 * Math.cos(a) + 0.0016 * Math.sin(simTime * 0.31);
driftVY = 0.0072 * Math.sin(a * 0.83 + 1.2) - 0.0013 * Math.cos(simTime * 0.24);
stageX += driftVX * dt;
stageY += driftVY * dt;
};
// Advance the smoothed pointer one frame. Everything the sim sees about the
// pointer is produced here, in the frame, from a target the event handlers
// only ever assign to — so a 120Hz trackpad, a 60Hz mouse and a synthetic
// driver all produce the same stage motion.
const stepPointer = (dt: number) => {
if (dt <= 0) return;
if (havePointer) {
const vk = 1 - Math.exp(-dt / VEL_TAU);
velX += ((tgtX - lastTgtX) / dt - velX) * vk;
velY += ((tgtY - lastTgtY) / dt - velY) * vk;
lastTgtX = tgtX;
lastTgtY = tgtY;
let leadX = velX * POINTER_TAU;
let leadY = velY * POINTER_TAU;
const lead = Math.hypot(leadX, leadY);
if (lead > LEAD_MAX) {
leadX = (leadX / lead) * LEAD_MAX;
leadY = (leadY / lead) * LEAD_MAX;
}
const k = 1 - Math.exp(-dt / POINTER_TAU);
ptrX += (tgtX + leadX - ptrX) * k;
ptrY += (tgtY + leadY - ptrY) * k;
}
// the stage translation the pointer asks for, eased on a longer constant
// than the beam itself: a stage is heavy, a beam is not
const want = havePointer ? 0.11 : 0;
const targetPanX = -(ptrX - cssW * 0.5) * want;
const targetPanY = -(ptrY - cssH * 0.5) * want;
const pk = 1 - Math.exp(-dt / 0.16);
lastPanX = panX;
lastPanY = panY;
panX += (targetPanX - panX) * pk;
panY += (targetPanY - panY) * pk;
// the pan contributes to the acquisition tear exactly as the drift does,
// so a fast sweep of the hand visibly shears the frame at the sweep line
const view = Math.min(cssW, cssH) * (0.82 / Math.max(0.25, magnification));
const pvx = ((panX - lastPanX) / dt) / view;
const pvy = ((panY - lastPanY) / dt) / view;
driftVX += Math.max(-0.09, Math.min(0.09, pvx));
driftVY += Math.max(-0.09, Math.min(0.09, pvy));
};
const loop = (nowMs: number) => {
const rawMs = nowMs - lastMs;
const dt = Math.min(0.05, Math.max(0, rawMs / 1000));
lastMs = nowMs;
simTime += dt * Math.max(0, speed);
hoverAmt += (hoverTarget - hoverAmt) * (1 - Math.exp(-dt * 6));
stepStage(dt * Math.max(0, speed));
stepPointer(dt);
sweep += dt / SWEEP_PERIOD;
while (sweep >= 1) {
sweep -= 1;
passCount += 1;
}
draw();
const clamped = Math.min(50, rawMs);
frameEma += (clamped - frameEma) * (1 - Math.exp(-clamped / 120));
if (frameEma > BUDGET_OVER) {
overMs += clamped;
underMs = 0;
} else {
underMs += clamped;
overMs = 0;
}
const down = overMs > 900 && scaleIdx < SCALES.length - 1;
const up = underMs > upWindow && scaleIdx > 0;
if (down || up) {
scaleIdx += down ? 1 : -1;
if (down) upWindow = Math.min(64000, upWindow * 2);
overMs = 0;
underMs = 0;
frameEma = 16.7;
applyBacking();
}
raf = requestAnimationFrame(loop);
};
const wake = () => {
if (running || disposed) return;
running = true;
lastMs = performance.now();
raf = requestAnimationFrame(loop);
};
const sleep = () => {
cancelAnimationFrame(raf);
running = false;
};
// Full DPR 2. The high-frequency structure — shot noise, the scan comb, the
// rim band — is what a reduced backing store destroys first, so anything
// under 2 is the first thing this component gives away and the last thing
// it should. It was capped at 1.5 for a while because the shader could not
// hold 60fps at 2880x1800; that was a register-spill in the grain lattice,
// not a fill-rate wall, and fixing it left the frame at ~2.8ms with the
// ladder resting on its top rung. The ladder stays as insurance for
// machines slower than this one, not as the thing that buys the frame rate.
const applyBacking = () => {
if (cssW < 2 || cssH < 2) return;
dpr = Math.min(window.devicePixelRatio || 1, 2) * SCALES[scaleIdx];
const pw = Math.round(cssW * dpr);
const ph = Math.round(cssH * dpr);
if (canvas.width !== pw || canvas.height !== ph) {
canvas.width = pw;
canvas.height = ph;
}
canvas.style.width = `${cssW}px`;
canvas.style.height = `${cssH}px`;
draw();
};
const resize = () => {
const rect = wrap.getBoundingClientRect();
if (rect.width < 2 || rect.height < 2) return;
cssW = rect.width;
cssH = rect.height;
rectLeft = rect.left;
rectTop = rect.top;
rectDirty = false;
if (!havePointer) {
ptrX = cssW * 0.5;
ptrY = cssH * 0.5;
}
// a new size is a new number of fragments, so the ladder starts over
// rather than carrying a verdict earned at a different cost
scaleIdx = 0;
overMs = 0;
underMs = 0;
upWindow = 8000;
frameEma = 16.7;
applyBacking();
draw();
};
const syncRect = () => {
if (!rectDirty) return;
const rect = wrap.getBoundingClientRect();
rectLeft = rect.left;
rectTop = rect.top;
rectDirty = false;
};
const markRectDirty = () => {
rectDirty = true;
};
const setTarget = (e: PointerEvent) => {
syncRect();
const co = typeof e.getCoalescedEvents === "function" ? e.getCoalescedEvents() : null;
const last = co && co.length > 0 ? co[co.length - 1] : e;
tgtX = last.clientX - rectLeft;
tgtY = last.clientY - rectTop;
};
const snapPointer = () => {
ptrX = tgtX;
ptrY = tgtY;
velX = 0;
velY = 0;
lastTgtX = tgtX;
lastTgtY = tgtY;
havePointer = true;
};
const onPointerEnter = (e: PointerEvent) => {
hoverTarget = 1;
setTarget(e);
snapPointer();
if (staticMode) draw();
};
const onPointerMove = (e: PointerEvent) => {
setTarget(e);
if (!havePointer) {
snapPointer();
hoverTarget = 1;
}
if (staticMode) {
// frozen frame: no loop to smooth in, so the beam is placed directly
ptrX = tgtX;
ptrY = tgtY;
hoverAmt = 1;
panX = -(ptrX - cssW * 0.5) * 0.11;
panY = -(ptrY - cssH * 0.5) * 0.11;
draw();
}
};
const onPointerLeave = () => {
hoverTarget = 0;
havePointer = false;
if (staticMode) {
hoverAmt = 0;
panX = 0;
panY = 0;
draw();
}
};
const onPointerDown = (e: PointerEvent) => {
setTarget(e);
snapPointer();
hoverTarget = 1;
if (staticMode) onPointerMove(e);
};
const onPointerUp = (e: PointerEvent) => {
// a lifted touch has no position any more and no pointerleave is coming
if (e.pointerType !== "mouse") onPointerLeave();
};
if (!surface.init()) return; // no WebGL: children still render over the page bg
const ro = new ResizeObserver(resize);
ro.observe(wrap);
resize();
wrap.addEventListener("pointerenter", onPointerEnter);
wrap.addEventListener("pointerleave", onPointerLeave);
wrap.addEventListener("pointermove", onPointerMove);
wrap.addEventListener("pointerdown", onPointerDown);
wrap.addEventListener("pointerup", onPointerUp);
wrap.addEventListener("pointercancel", onPointerLeave);
// the wrap's viewport offset only moves on scroll or layout, so mark it
// stale here and re-read it once, on the next pointer event, instead of
// forcing a layout inside every pointermove
window.addEventListener("scroll", markRectDirty, { passive: true, capture: true });
window.addEventListener("resize", markRectDirty, { passive: true });
const mq = window.matchMedia("(prefers-reduced-motion: reduce)");
let reduced = mq.matches;
const applyMode = () => {
if (reduced || pausedRef.current) {
staticMode = true;
sleep();
draw();
} else {
staticMode = false;
wake();
}
};
const onMq = () => {
reduced = mq.matches;
applyMode();
};
mq.addEventListener("change", onMq);
// a full-bleed shader scrolled off-screen is the most expensive idle thing
// a page can carry
let onScreen = true;
const io = new IntersectionObserver(
(entries) => {
onScreen = entries.some((en) => en.isIntersecting);
if (!onScreen) sleep();
else if (!staticMode && !document.hidden) wake();
},
{ threshold: 0 }
);
io.observe(wrap);
const onVis = () => {
if (document.hidden) sleep();
else if (!staticMode && onScreen) wake();
};
document.addEventListener("visibilitychange", onVis);
applyMode();
// polled instead of made an effect dependency: the dependency would tear
// down and recreate the whole GL context to change a boolean
let lastPolledPaused = pausedRef.current;
let poll = 0;
const tick = () => {
if (pausedRef.current !== lastPolledPaused) {
lastPolledPaused = pausedRef.current;
applyMode();
}
poll = window.setTimeout(tick, 140);
};
tick();
const themeObserver = new MutationObserver(() => {
readColors();
if (staticMode) draw();
});
themeObserver.observe(document.documentElement, {
attributes: true,
attributeFilter: ["class"],
});
const onLost = (e: Event) => {
e.preventDefault();
sleep();
};
const onRestored = () => {
if (surface.init()) {
resize();
applyMode();
}
};
canvas.addEventListener("webglcontextlost", onLost);
canvas.addEventListener("webglcontextrestored", onRestored);
return () => {
disposed = true;
ro.disconnect();
io.disconnect();
mq.removeEventListener("change", onMq);
document.removeEventListener("visibilitychange", onVis);
themeObserver.disconnect();
canvas.removeEventListener("webglcontextlost", onLost);
canvas.removeEventListener("webglcontextrestored", onRestored);
wrap.removeEventListener("pointerenter", onPointerEnter);
wrap.removeEventListener("pointerleave", onPointerLeave);
wrap.removeEventListener("pointermove", onPointerMove);
wrap.removeEventListener("pointerdown", onPointerDown);
wrap.removeEventListener("pointerup", onPointerUp);
wrap.removeEventListener("pointercancel", onPointerLeave);
window.removeEventListener("scroll", markRectDirty, {
capture: true,
} as EventListenerOptions);
window.removeEventListener("resize", markRectDirty);
window.clearTimeout(poll);
sleep();
surface.destroy();
};
// eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps
}, [magnification, density, relief, noise, speed]);
return (
<div
ref={wrapRef}
data-edge-yield={uid}
className={`relative isolate h-full w-full touch-none overflow-hidden bg-background ${className}`}
style={style}
>
<canvas ref={canvasRef} aria-hidden="true" className="absolute inset-0 block" />
{children ? <div className="relative z-[1] h-full w-full">{children}</div> : null}
</div>
);
}
EdgeYield.displayName = "EdgeYield";
Build spec
Build <EdgeYield magnification? density? relief? noise? speed? paused? children? className? style?> as a full-bleed WebGL hero that renders a scanning electron micrograph — the world at 10,000x — and is a DETECTOR SIMULATION, not a lighting model. There is no light source anywhere in the shader; that constraint is what makes the image read as an electron micrograph instead of a bumpy heightfield with a lamp on it. One fragment shader evaluates a height field h(u) together with its ANALYTIC gradient — every primitive is a closed form whose slope is known, so the normal costs ONE field evaluation instead of three central-difference taps — then feeds that normal through the two terms that actually make an SEM image. (1) SECONDARY YIELD delta = sec(theta) = pow(1/max(n.z, 0.13), 0.95): yield rises as the surface tilts away from the beam because more of the interaction volume lies within escape depth of a free surface. This is the characteristic glowing rim, and it is not a fresnel stand-in for it — it is the actual 1/n.z dependence, which is why a silhouette edge blooms to near-white while the facet two pixels inside it stays mid-grey. The n.z floor exists so the silhouette saturates instead of going singular in whichever pixel happens to land on it. delta is then scaled by 0.86 + 0.30*matId, the per-grain atomic-number contrast: different grains are different stuff. (2) COLLECTION EFFICIENCY eta = 0.30 + 0.70*facing*shadow + 0.055*shadow, where the detector is a single Everhart-Thornley unit at DET = vec3(-0.593, -0.526, 0.610) — upper-left, ~34 degrees elevation, and the ONLY directional term in the shader. shadow comes from a five-step horizon march toward the detector, stepping t *= 2.20 from u_px*3.0 so the reach clears ~1.7 of the largest grain radius; the reach matters far more than the step count, because a short march degenerates into ambient occlusion on a heightfield, a tight contact halo around every bump, which is exactly the generic read this is trying not to be. The march compares against `coarse` — the specimen WITHOUT its additive debris and micro-relief — so shadows are not biased by detail the march's own lod cannot resolve. The isotropic 0.055 pedestal is electrons scattered off the chamber wall and returning, which is why a real crevice is dark but never black. Signal is then delta*eta*0.42, tilted 13% toward the detector corner (an SEM's broad collection gradient, which it has INSTEAD of a vignette) and compressed sig/(1+sig*0.50) so rims roll off rather than clip flat. THE SPECIMEN is five layers smooth-unioned with smaxG at k = u_px*2.6 — a crease a couple of CSS pixels wide at any magnification and any DPR, so the seam between two grains is a LINE, not a soft valley, and never a one-pixel normal discontinuity that sparkles under sec(theta): a warped fbm substrate, a SPARSE population of much larger bodies at 4.2 whose radius stays well under half a cell so most cells are empty and the big ones arrive at an irregular spacing the eye cannot pre-empt (without that layer every grain is the same size and the field reads as a manufactured lattice — packed roe rather than a specimen), two warped ridge trains of draped filaments at 5.6 and 8.3 cycles, round grain caps at 10.5, and rod/prism grains at 24.0 pushed through a squashed-and-turned matrix (ROD) so the medium layer reads as crystals wedged between the round grains rather than a second smaller copy of the same population. Grains are ellipsoid caps h = A*(1-|d|^2/r^2)^prof on a jittered 3x3 lattice; prof slightly above 0.5 rounds the last pixel of the silhouette without touching the broad slope ramp that carries the rim. Because q = u*S, the S in the height and the S in dq/du cancel and the gradient is scale-free — correct, since a sphere has the same slopes however small it is drawn — and the warp's TRANSPOSE is what the gradient must be multiplied by. Fine debris at 58.0 and two fbm micro-relief octaves are SUMMED on top rather than unioned: a fleck of dust on a grain sits above it, and a union would hide every small thing behind every large one. Everything is in focus at once because nothing here has a lens — the extreme depth of field is a property of the technique, not a choice. THE ACQUISITION is all in screen space and none of it drifts with the stage, because a detector's faults belong to the instrument and not to the sample: a scan comb at 2.7px, per-line DC error (one component reseeded every pass, one slow drift reading as the amplifier wandering), sub-pixel line-to-line misregistration applied to the SAMPLE POSITION so shadows move with their rims instead of sliding under them, charge streaking pulled along the fast horizontal axis and gated on smoothstep(0.35,0.9,sig) since it is bright features that charge, and Poisson shot noise whose amplitude tracks sqrt(signal) and which is 42% correlated with the pixel to its left because the beam has not finished moving. The shot lattice is floor(css px), phase-locked to the display, so the adaptive render scale cannot change the grain size. A sweep line descends the frame once per 1.15s: lines above it were acquired this pass and lines below on the last one, so the stage's drift SHEARS the picture very slightly across that line. The tear is the single detail that proves the image is being scanned rather than rendered; at 4s the same shear would be a visible skew of the whole specimen and read as a broken transform. MOTION WITH NO INPUT: the stage is an integrated position, not a function of time, so a long frame advances it by one clamped step instead of teleporting the specimen — a constant ~0.007 world-units/sec drift whose heading turns slowly plus two incommensurate wobbles, a 0.0075 rad/sec stage rotation, and a 4.5% magnification breathing on a 0.043 rad/sec sine that reads as the working distance creeping. POINTER: the pointer pans the stage (11% of the offset from centre, eased on a 0.16s constant because a stage is heavy) and parks the BEAM, which is a dwell, not a glow sprite — inside a gaussian of 0.155*min(W,H) the signal rises 30% and the shot noise drops to 28%, because more electrons per pixel is more signal and less Poisson. Pan velocity feeds the same tear term the drift does, so a fast sweep of the hand visibly shears the frame at the sweep line. Pointer smoothing extrapolates the target one tau ahead: a plain exponential follower has a steady-state error of exactly velocity*tau, which reads as the instrument not responding rather than as damping; a LEAD_MAX cap stops a teleporting pointer flinging the stage past the cursor. PALETTE: an SEM is natively greyscale because it maps electron yield to luminance and never to colour, so monochrome here is the honest reading rather than a restriction. Five stops derived from --background, --foreground, --ns-muted and --border via getComputedStyle, re-read on a documentElement class MutationObserver. The ramp's DIRECTION never inverts — yield always climbs toward light — but the exposure does: dark theme is the micrograph on the console, substrate low and the rims owning the top of the range (bias +0.035, contrast 1.24); light theme is the same acquisition PRINTED, specimen dark on pale, the top stop being the paper and the substrate lifted only to a pale grey (bias +0.17, contrast 1.26) while c0/c1 stay genuinely dark so the crevices anchor the bottom of the range. Putting the substrate ON the paper value, or clustering the top three stops near it, is the wash-out that kills it: the rims lose their headroom and the frame turns to flat mid-grey mush. NOTHING in the frame is chromatic, including the beam spot — an --ns-accent tint under the pointer is the one mark that reads as a rendered glow sprite rather than as a dwell, and it is the fastest way to lose the electron-image read, so the dwell is spent entirely on signal and shot noise. PERFORMANCE AND HOST: an internal GLSurface class owns the program, the fullscreen triangle pair and lazily-resolved uniform locations and knows nothing about the micrograph. DPR is capped at 2 rather than the 1.5 a cheaper full-bleed shader would take, because shot noise, the scan comb and the rim band are all high-frequency structure and a reduced backing store destroys exactly those first; the cost is paid back by the analytic gradient and bounded by an adaptive render-scale ladder [1, 0.78, 0.58] that steps down only after 900ms of sustained wall-clock overrun and climbs back on a doubling window. Every threshold is milliseconds, never frames — a frame-counted gate waits longer the slower the machine is, which is backwards — and a resize resets the ladder rather than carrying a verdict earned at a different fragment count. ResizeObserver re-sizes; an IntersectionObserver and visibilitychange both stop the single rAF loop; webglcontextlost/restored rebuild cleanly; `paused` is polled rather than made an effect dependency, since the dependency would tear down and recreate the whole GL context to change a boolean. prefers-reduced-motion (and paused) draw exactly one composed still frame at t=9.6 with the sweep parked at 0.63 and a lag velocity still applied — the tear, the rims and the noise are all present, never a blank grey box — and pointer input still redraws that frozen frame directly. The canvas is aria-hidden; children render over the micrograph for an eyebrow, headline and CTA, and because the image spans the full value range in both themes they need a token scrim (bg-background/70 + backdrop-blur) rather than bare type.
Props
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| magnification? | number | 1 | Feature size. Higher = further in, fewer and larger grains. @default 1 |
| density? | number | 1 | How tightly the micro-landscape is packed. @default 1 |
| relief? | number | 1 | Vertical exaggeration of the specimen, which drives the rim response. @default 1 |
| noise? | number | 1 | Shot-noise amplitude. 0 is a clean frame-averaged capture. @default 1 |
| speed? | number | 1 | Stage drift speed multiplier. @default 1 |
| paused? | boolean | false | Freezes acquisition on a composed still frame without unmounting. |
| children? | React.ReactNode | — | Rendered in the DOM over the micrograph — eyebrow, subhead, CTA. |
| className? | string | — | — |
| style? | React.CSSProperties | — | — |