Go play

An experimental WebGL playground: throw particle "liquids" into 3D space, drop a few gravity wells, watch clusters drift, merge, smear into something that kind of feels fluid if you squint. Mostly CPU worker physics + Three.js rendering. A bunch of knobs are exposed; nothing here is production‑grade. Have fun.

• Spawns particles with simple per‑type presets (mass / color / size tweaks).
• Simulates basic gravity + optional density / pressure effects in a Web Worker.
• Renders as point sprites with optional soft overlay and (prototype) screen‑space smoothing.
• Lets you place celestial bodies at depth (two placement modes).
• Provides a few debugging hooks in the global window.cosmoLiquid object.

Alpha / exploratory. Visual tricks > physical accuracy. Values are clamped defensively to avoid NaNs. Expect occasional resets if you push particle counts too high.

git clone <repo-url>
cd cosmo-liquid
python3 -m http.server 3030    # or any static server
# open http://localhost:3030

No build step required for the basic demo (plain modules + Three.js). Any optional npm scripts you see are experimental.

Depth placement keys:

• P – toggle mode (cameraDistance ↔ planeZ)
• [ / ] – adjust distance (cameraDistance mode) or planeZ (planeZ mode)

// Soft overlay (Gaussian-ish splats over points)
cosmoLiquid.renderEngine.toggleFluidSmoothing(true);
cosmoLiquid.renderEngine.toggleFluidSmoothing(false);

// Prototype screen‑space fluid accumulation
cosmoLiquid.renderEngine.toggleScreenSpaceFluid(true);

// Inspect physics worker status
cosmoLiquid.particleSystem.getPhysicsStatus();

// Visibility stats
cosmoLiquid.particleSystem.debugVisibilityStats();

// Adjust brightness of basic liquids
for (const [k,m] of cosmoLiquid.renderEngine.visualEffects.liquidMaterials) {
  if (m.uniforms?.brightness) m.uniforms.brightness.value = 1.4;
}

Not all “fancy” effects mentioned in earlier versions are present; the worker focuses on stability + basic forces.

• Each particle keeps a baseSize; dynamic scaling multiplies it by density / pressure factors.
• Minimum on‑screen clamp stops tiny near‑camera collapse.
• Additive blending + bloom supply most of the “glow”. Turn bloom down if everything becomes washed out.
• Overlay + prototype screen‑space pass are optional; disable if FPS tanks.

Particles look faint / tiny:

1. Increase material brightness (see snippet above).
2. Raise min point size uniform (minPointSize in basic liquid materials).
3. Ensure bloom enabled (otherwise just sparse points).

Streams stop near horizon:

• A fallback distance projection is already in place; if it still aborts, check console for unexpected errors.

Physics worker “stalls”:

• Check getPhysicsStatus(); if features auto‑disabled (SPH / octree) you exceeded soft thresholds.
• Reduce active particle count or frequency of bursts.

NaN or runaway particle sizes:

• Defensive clamps exist; if you still see it, inspect custom shader edits (likely gl_PointSize math).

• Add a new liquid: extend type config (look for where liquid presets are listed) then provide color / mass / size bias.
• Custom shader: copy a basic liquid material; ensure attribute aSize is declared and used.
• Alternate depth logic: modify RenderEngine.screenToWorld (two modes already: planeZ & cameraDistance).

Previous README was… loud. This version is intentionally sparse: fewer promises, easier maintenance, less drift from reality.

MIT – see LICENSE.

Built on Three.js. Thanks to open fluid / SPH references and various WebGL posts. That’s it.

If something is unclear, read the code – it’s short. If it isn’t short, future you will probably trim it.