Contour field
The living map behind every page of this site, with the controls exposed. Point to raise the ground; click, tap or drag to drop peaks.
Terrain #1337 · everything stays saved in this browser.
- fps
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- cells
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- line segments
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Three ideas, one canvas
- 01
Noise
A 3D Perlin noise field is sampled on a grid of cells: two octaves for the landscape, and the third dimension is time, so the terrain drifts instead of jumping.
- 02
Marching squares
Each cell compares its four corners against every height level that crosses it. Sixteen cases decide where a line enters and leaves the cell, and interpolating along the edges keeps the lines smooth.
- 03
Off the main thread
Behind the rest of the site the same idea runs in a Web Worker on an OffscreenCanvas: coarser grid on phones, paused when the tab is hidden, frozen for visitors who ask for reduced motion. Scrolling never waits on it.