CYBER SPARKS

Creates cybernetic sparks that come from the bottom of whatever you attach it to!

Here are some things you can do with them:

• make them small & few in number, to simulate sparks from a fire
• give them high horizontal speeds to make them seem more like data moving back & forth
• turn the sideways-turning multiplier to 0, so they only move in one direction, like they're being blown upward by wind
• lower the framerate to 15 so they get a retro stuttering effect

DEVELOPER COMMENT

This was the first visual-effect script I ever made, first created for my main page, about 2 days after this site's creation on July 25th, 2023.

TWINKLING STARS

Colored lights twinkle randomly on whatever you attach this effect to!

Here are some things you can do with them:

• combine with the starfield effect for a complete star experience
• have multiple instances of this effect to get multicolored stars
• give them small sizes & long lifespans, so visitors won't even be sure the stars are twinkling until they've been on the page for a little while

DEVELOPER COMMENT

This was the second visual-effect script I ever made, inspired by this silly youtube video. It's original use is for my main page!

WANDERING PLANETS

Creates "planets" (circles) that move in from the sides of whatever you it to!

Here are some things you can do with them:

• have one instance of this effect with planet speeds above 0, along with another that has planet speeds below 0, so you get planets moving both ways at the speeds you want them to
• having lots of these big things moving across the screen changes lots of pixels at a time, which is what can make this effect lag; make them smaller, faster, or less plentiful to reduce lag!
• have lots of small planets moving quickly to sort-of simulate moving through an asteroid field; you might even be able to make a game out of trying to avoid them with your mouse...

DEVELOPER COMMENT

This was the third visual-effect script I ever made, created for my About page, to create an eclipse effect by moving these planets in front of a star.

STARFIELD

A colored starfield shines on whatever you attach this effect to.

Here are some things you can do with them:

• combine with the twinkling stars effect for a complete star experience
• use this as a background, so it can be a different star field every time you load the page
• try a low density of large stars, to simulate something more like nighttime lights in the distance

DEVELOPER COMMENT

This was the fourth visual-effect script I ever made, created for my About page. A lot of people use stars as their background, but I thought it might be cooler if the stars were different every time, so I made this!

I may also revisit this effect, just to add one-pixel stars or stars' bodies instead of just their glows. I might revisit EVERY effect, but for this one, I already know something I'd add.

GRIDLINES

A grid room, for your virtual-world-creation needs!

Here are some things you can do with it:

• remove the glow and make the line thicknesses 1px, so you get an effect that looks more retro while still being just as striking
• set the back-wall grid lines to off
• try turning off the back-wall lines, giving the back wall a negative distance from the left, making the back wall wider than the page, turning z-flow on, and turning forced perspective off, to get a vaporwave effect

DEVELOPER COMMENT

This was the fifth visual-effect script I ever made, created for this very page! I thought a grid room would be appropriate for a page where people can craft their own virtual spaces, so it was the first form this page took.

This effect took me the very longest to develop, as even though it looks 3D, I created it using entirely 2D lines, with lots of math. It's actually a mathematical translation of a basic art tutorial on perspective. I have several pages of math I did to come up with general formulas for where everything should go, so this effect hardly has to do any calculations itself. This makes it set itself up and run quickly, in spite of being arguably the most powerful effect yet!

GLOWFLAKES

Shining flakes fall from above...

Here are some things you can do with it:

• if they're flashing too quickly, try changing the flakes' size-change speed or lowering their glow threshold
• you can make these fall like rain by setting the horizontal speeds to 0, raising the vertical speeds upward, and raising their spawn rate
• keep them slow, small, and subtle for a marine-snow effect, or give them a dark flake color with a bright glow color for a more electric effect
• combine this with an instance of cybersparks that has its sideways-turning multiplier set to 0, and you can get pieces that rain both upward and downward from both ends of the page, without needing to do any transforms!

DEVELOPER COMMENT

This is the sixth visual-effect script I've made, created for my links page, to create a serene snow to accent the silence between realms.

It's a sort of fusion between the first 3 effects, so this one was quick to actually develop. It inherits much of its motion from Cybersparks, it takes on the glow-animating properties of Twinkling Stars, and each piece continues until it reaches the other end, like Wandering Planets.

STARDUST GENERATOR

Every bit of stardust is a fragment of creation...

Here are some things you can do with it:

• If you set a high contrast (like between 4 and 40) and use different colors for the body & dust, you can get lava-lamp-like color interactions
• If you turn off the solid bits of stardust, use similar colors, and turn the spawn rate up, the generator begins to look like fire, and it may look more fiery as you turn the blur up, turn the gaseous-dust size up, and lower the speed of the stardust
• Making it rectangular and putting it behind a normal HTML element can add extra flair to that element
• Making stardust move inward and setting a negative spawn offset gives the appearance that the body is sucking in stardust instead of generating it
• Using a dark body with almost-grey stardust, a short stardust lifespan, high blur, no solid bits, low speed, and inward stardust motion can give the effect of looking like a thundercloud at night, especially if you use another dark element to obscure the stardust

DEVELOPER COMMENT

This is my seventh visual-effect script, made for my creation index page, to visualize the stars as engines for creation.

This effect was begun as a reverse-engineer of this pure-CSS lava lamp effect by Janos Szudi. I sort of turned it up by a couple of dimensions, though, with the configurable colors and amounts and speeds and lots of other things. My original vision for it was to make it look like a re-colorable fireball, like a flaming star, but as I continued to experiment with the effect, it became that and much more!

CUSTOM SCANLINES

The barrier between layers of digital realities...