One function places every card from seven scalars — radius, spacing, rowSpread, turns, depth, focus, scale — and each named layout is only a set of values for them. Morphing is therefore `gsap.to(params, preset)`: a tween over an object literal, with no per-item choreography anywhere. Crucially it interpolates the *inputs*, `f(lerp(a, b, s))`, not the outputs, so every intermediate frame is a valid member of the same family instead of a set of cards sliding along straight lines through each other.
Also installs use-in-view, use-raf, use-reduced-motion, use-resize-observer, use-visibility, damp, wrap, webgl from this registry.
03
Prompt
The whole technique, written for an agent.
Build it with your agent
A single self-contained brief: the technique, the constants and why they hold, the pitfalls, and the definition of done. Paste it and the component gets written in your own conventions instead of copied in ours.
# Build: Layout Lerp ScalarOne function places every card from seven scalars — radius, spacing, rowSpread, turns, depth, focus, scale — and each named layout is only a set of values for them. Morphing is therefore `gsap.to(params, preset)`: a tween over an object literal, with no per-item choreography anywhere. Crucially it interpolates the *inputs*, `f(lerp(a, b, s))`, not the outputs, so every intermediate frame is a valid member of the same family instead of a set of cards sliding along straight lines through each other.Build this as a React component in my project. Match my existing conventions —file layout, styling system, and naming — rather than the ones implied below.Everything after this line is specification, not code to copy verbatim.## What it doesRow, stack, drum and fan are one placement function of seven numbers. Switching layout is a tween over an object.- Category: layout- Runtime cost: webgl- Dependencies: three@^0.185.1, gsap@^3.15.0## How it works1. Placement is `offset = wrappedOffset(i, position, n)`, then `angle = (offset / n) * 2PI * turns` and `p = (radius * sin(angle) + offset * rowSpread * step, -offset * spacing, radius * (cos(angle) - 1) - depth * |offset|)`, with `rotation.y = angle`. Setting `radius` and `turns` to 0 leaves a straight line; adding `spacing` makes it a column; adding `turns` and `radius` wraps that column into a drum. There is no branch anywhere in it.2. Because the parameters are what get tweened, the shape passes through the family rather than across it. `f` is nonlinear in `radius` and `turns`, so `f(lerp(a, b, s))` and `lerp(f(a), f(b), s)` are different animations: the first keeps the cards on a well-formed helix at every `s`, the second sends each card down a chord that cuts through the middle of the drum and through its neighbours.3. `cos(angle) - 1` rather than `cos(angle)` puts the focused card at z = 0 for any radius. Growing the drum then pushes the far side away instead of pulling the near card into the camera, which is what makes `radius` safe to tween through large values.4. The `depth` term gives the flat layouts a strictly monotonic z in `|offset|`. That is not a look — it is what lets three's painter sort order the transparent cards correctly. With every card at z = 0 the sort has nothing to rank and the overlap order in a stack is whatever the traversal happened to produce.5. The row step is derived from the camera: `visibleHeight = 2 * cameraZ * tan(fov / 2)`, `visibleWidth = visibleHeight * aspect`, and `step = visibleWidth * fill / (n - 1)`. Card size comes from the same `visibleHeight`, so the whole layout is defined in fractions of the frustum and holds its proportions at any viewport.6. Focus is `1 - focus * (1 - exp(-offset^2))` — 1.000 at the centre, 0.368 one step out, 0.018 two — driving both the card scale and a single `uFocus` uniform that desaturates and dims in the fragment shader. `focus` is itself one of the tweened parameters, so a layout can decide how much of a selection it is.7. The vertex shader is the default transform and nothing else. Everything that moves is a CPU write to `position`, `rotation` and `scale`, which means the bounding sphere three culls against and the view depth it sorts by both describe where the card actually is. A drum that bends its planes in the vertex shader has to disable culling and reconstruct `renderOrder` by hand; this one gets both for free.## Constants — use these valuesThese are tuned. Each one has a reason; do not round them off or replace themwith values that "look cleaner".- `PRESETS.drum = { radius: 2.55, spacing: 0.74, turns: 2, focus: 1, scale: 1 }` Two turns across twelve cards puts adjacent cards 60° apart, so the ring reads as a ring rather than as a coil. Below about 1.5 turns the far side is barely behind the near side and the drum flattens into a wheel; above 3 the cards on the back face are edge-on for most of a lap and the set looks half empty.- `PRESETS.row.scale = 0.42` Matched to the derived row step so twelve cards just touch at the reference aspect. Larger and the row overlaps into a fan; smaller and it becomes a sparse dotted line. It is a scalar for exactly this reason — the row layout gets to pick its own card size.- `depth = 0.35 (column) / 0.1 (row) / 0 (drum, fan)` World units of recession per index step. The drum and fan get their z from the radius, so they need none. The flat layouts need a non-zero value or their transparent cards have identical view depth and the sort order is arbitrary — the symptom is a stack whose overlap flickers as the ring drifts.- `CARD_HEIGHT_RATIO = 0.4` Card height as a fraction of the frustum height at z = 0. Above ~0.55 the drum's vertical spacing has to grow to match or the cards intersect; below ~0.25 the whole formation floats in the middle of the frame with nothing at the edges.- `CAMERA_FOV / CAMERA_Z = 42 / 7.2` A matched pair: they set the visible height, and everything else is a fraction of it. A wider FOV exaggerates the perspective divide so the far side of the drum shrinks dramatically — dramatic, but it also makes the row visibly bow. Change one and the layout is unchanged only if the other keeps `z * tan(fov / 2)` the same.- `ROW_FILL = 0.92` Fraction of the visible width the flat row spans. At 1.0 the outermost cards are cut exactly by the frustum edge and their antialiased rims flicker as they cross it; much below 0.85 the row no longer reads as spanning the frame.- `SCALE_FLOOR = 0.72` The scale an entirely out-of-focus card keeps. At 1.0 the focus falloff is only a dimming and the arrangement loses its centre; below ~0.5 the outer cards shrink so fast the drum looks like it is receding into a tunnel.- `duration / MORPH_EASE = 1.25 / power3.inOut` Long enough to read the shape changing rather than snapping, short enough not to feel like a loading state. `inOut` because the morph has no impulse behind it — an `out` ease implies the shape was thrown, and the sudden start looks like a dropped frame.- `drift = 0.16` Index steps per second of idle travel. About six seconds per card: slow enough to read a caption, fast enough that the wrap is visible within a few seconds of arriving. At 0 the ticker still runs but nothing moves, which is the right default for a layout driven by scroll instead.- `CARD_CORNER = 0.055` Corner radius in units of card height, evaluated as an SDF in the fragment shader. Because the mask is drawn rather than sampled it stays crisp at any scale, and one number gives the same physical radius on both axes since the SDF works in height units and multiplies x by the aspect.## API```tsfunction LayoutLerpScalar(props: { count?: number; layout?: 'row' | 'column' | 'drum' | 'fan'; params?: Partial<LayoutParams>; duration?: number; drift?: number; hueStart?: number; hueStep?: number; opacity?: number; onFocusChange?: (index: number) => void; className?: string }): JSX.Element```- `count: number` — default `12` How many cards. They wrap, so this is also the ring's period.- `layout: 'row' | 'column' | 'drum' | 'fan'` — default `'drum'` Which preset the parameter vector is tweened toward.- `params: Partial<LayoutParams>` Overrides individual scalars on top of the preset — radius, spacing, rowSpread, turns, depth, focus, scale. Compared by value.- `duration: number` — default `1.25` Seconds of the morph between presets.- `drift: number` — default `0.16` Index steps per second of idle travel. 0 parks the ring.- `hueStart: number` — default `232` First card's hue, 0-360.- `hueStep: number` — default `17` Degrees of hue between adjacent cards.- `opacity: number` — default `1` Alpha multiplier applied before the focus falloff.- `onFocusChange: (index: number) => void` Fires when a different card takes the focus position.- `className: string` Merged onto the wrapper. The canvas fills it absolutely.## Reference implementation of the coreThis is the part that is hard to get right. Adapt it; do not treat the rest ofthe component as fixed.```tsx/* ---- the morph: one tween over an object literal ------------------------ */useEffect(() => { const target: LayoutParams = { ...PRESETS[layout], ...params }; const current = live.current; if (reduced) { Object.assign(current, target); return; } // Every parameter eases together, so the shape passes through a continuous // family of shapes rather than each card taking its own path. `overwrite` // matters: switch layout twice quickly and the second tween must take the // parameters from wherever the first one had got to, not fight it. const tween = gsap.to(current, { ...target, duration, ease: MORPH_EASE, overwrite: true }); return () => { tween.kill(); }; // `params` is compared by value through `overrideKey`; the object literal // most callers pass is a new reference on every render. // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps}, [layout, overrideKey, duration, reduced]);useEffect(() => { const current = live.current; return () => { gsap.killTweensOf(current); };}, []);/* ---- the frame ---------------------------------------------------------- */useRaf( (dt) => { const current = stage.current; if (!current) return; const n = current.cards.length; if (n === 0) return; const p = live.current; const speed = reduced ? 0 : drift; // Wrapped rather than left to grow: at 0.16 steps/s an unwrapped // accumulator is fine for days, but the modulo costs nothing and keeps // float precision constant no matter how long the tab stays open. position.current = mod(position.current + dt * speed, n); const pos = position.current; // The one place the camera and the layout meet. `visibleHeight` is the // frustum's height at z = 0 — `2 * z * tan(fov/2)` — and the width is // that times the aspect. Deriving the row step from it is why the row // spans the frame at any viewport instead of being a guessed constant. const visibleHeight = 2 * Math.tan((CAMERA_FOV * DEG_TO_RAD) / 2) * CAMERA_Z; const visibleWidth = visibleHeight * current.camera.aspect; const step = (visibleWidth * ROW_FILL) / Math.max(n - 1, 1); const cardHeight = visibleHeight * CARD_HEIGHT_RATIO; const cardWidth = cardHeight * CARD_ASPECT; for (let i = 0; i < n; i++) { const card = current.cards[i]; if (!card) continue; // The call that makes a finite array behave like an endless ring: // card 0 is one step BEFORE card 11, not eleven steps after it. const offset = wrappedOffset(i, pos, n); const angle = (offset / n) * TWO_PI * p.turns; // The placement function. Seven scalars in, one transform out, and // every layout this component has is somewhere in here. card.mesh.position.set( p.radius * Math.sin(angle) + offset * p.rowSpread * step, -offset * p.spacing, // cos(angle) - 1 keeps the focused card at z = 0 whatever the // radius, so growing the drum pushes the ring back rather than // pulling the front card into the camera. The depth term is what // gives the flat layouts a strictly monotonic z, which is what lets // three sort them back-to-front without any renderOrder fixing. p.radius * (Math.cos(angle) - 1) - p.depth * Math.abs(offset), ); card.mesh.rotation.y = angle; // exp(-d^2): 1.000 at the focus, 0.368 one step out, 0.018 two, // 0.0001 three. Continuous and branchless, and `focus` scales how much // of it applies — at 0 every card is lit equally, which is what makes // the flat row read as an index rather than as a selection. const f = 1 - p.focus * (1 - gaussian(offset)); const s = p.scale * (SCALE_FLOOR + (1 - SCALE_FLOOR) * f); card.mesh.scale.set(cardWidth * s, cardHeight * s, 1); card.uniforms.uFocus.value = f; card.uniforms.uOpacity.value = opacity; } const nextFocus = wrapIndex(Math.round(pos), n); if (nextFocus !== focusedRef.current) { focusedRef.current = nextFocus; notify.current?.(nextFocus); } current.renderer.render(current.scene, current.camera); }, ready && inView && visible,);```## RequirementsThese are not optional. A version of this component that skips any of them isnot finished.**Cleanup.** Kills the parameter tween (and any tween of the same object) so GSAP cannot write into a vector nothing reads; removes every mesh from the scene, then `disposeObject` for the materials, `geometry.dispose()`, `prototype.dispose()`, and `disposeRenderer` — which stops the animation loop, disposes, calls `forceContextLoss()` and zeroes the backing store — before removing the canvas from the DOM. The shared rAF unsubscribes, and the shared resize, intersection and visibility observers all unregister. No textures are allocated, so there are none to leak.**Reduced motion.** The idle drift is set to zero, so the ring holds still and the same card stays in focus. Layout changes still happen — refusing them would leave the component unable to answer its own prop — but the parameters are assigned rather than tweened, so the new arrangement is simply there on the next frame with nothing travelling across the screen. The frame loop keeps running only because it is what draws; with no drift and no tween it writes the same transforms every frame.**Frame-rate independence.** Any smoothing must be a function of delta time.`x += (target - x) * 0.1` converges twice as fast at 120 Hz as at 60 Hz; use`x = target + (x - target) * Math.pow(smoothing, dt)` instead, where`smoothing` is the fraction of the gap remaining after one second.**Strict mode.** Assume effects run twice in development. Setup must beidempotent and teardown must fully undo it.## Known pitfalls — avoid these specifically- Cross-fading two layouts instead of blending their parameters. `lerp(f(a), f(b), s)` moves every card along the straight line between its two homes, so the drum passes through its own axis and the cards slide through one another. Interpolate the inputs and the shape is always a real member of the family.- Reaching for `if (layout === "drum")` in the frame loop. Branching per layout means each new arrangement is new code and no pair of them can be shown halfway. Every parameter here is a number precisely so it can be tweened, and the presets are data.- Multiplying a whole layout to zero and calling that a morph. Scaling `radius` to 0 does not produce a flat row — it produces every card stacked on the axis. A second term (`rowSpread * step`) has to take over as the first one leaves, which is why the row and the ring are separate parameters rather than one.- Letting the transparent cards share a z. three ranks transparent meshes by view depth; with a flat layout at z = 0 the ranking is arbitrary and the overlap in a stack flips as the ring drifts. The `depth` parameter exists to keep the ordering strict.- Copying the bend-in-the-vertex-shader approach and keeping frustum culling on. That combination blanks planes that are plainly on screen, because the bounding sphere describes the flat geometry at the CPU position. This component avoids the whole class of problem by keeping the layout on the CPU — but the two approaches cannot be mixed carelessly.- Guessing the row step in world units. Hard-code it and the row overflows a narrow viewport and floats in the middle of a wide one. It has to come from the frustum: `2 * cameraZ * tan(fov / 2) * aspect`, divided across the set.- Calling `renderer.dispose()` and stopping there. It frees GPU objects but leaves the WebGL context alive, and Chromium kills the oldest context once about sixteen exist — so an unrelated canvas elsewhere on the page goes black. `disposeRenderer` calls `forceContextLoss()`, which is the call that actually hands it back.- Building the colours with `new THREE.Color(...)` from a hex string and expecting them to match the CSS beside them. Colours have to enter the linear working space (`setHSL(..., THREE.SRGBColorSpace)`) and the fragment shader has to end with `#include <colorspace_fragment>`, because three injects that chunk only into its own materials, never into a `ShaderMaterial`.- Passing `params` as an inline object literal and putting it straight in the effect deps. It is a new reference every render, so the morph tween is killed and rebuilt on each one and the parameters never arrive. The override is compared by value through a serialised key.- Rendering every frame regardless. The loop is gated on the element being in view and the tab being visible; a scrolled-past WebGL canvas that keeps drawing is one of the easier ways to halve a page's battery life for nothing.## Notes- The four presets are ordinary data — add a fifth by adding seven numbers, with no new code and no new branch. Any two of them can also be blended by hand at a fixed `s` by passing `params`.- Each card owns a cloned `ShaderMaterial` so it can hold its own colours, but three keys its program cache on the shader source, so all twelve still share one compiled program and the clone costs a uniform bag.- Nothing is fetched and no image ships: the card face — rounded rectangle, gradient, hairlines, rim — is a signed distance field in the fragment shader, and the shading of a card turning edge-on is one dot product against the transformed normal.## Definition of doneThe cards turn slowly and endlessly — watch one leave the bottom of the drum and come back at the top, at the same spacing. Switch layout: the whole formation unwinds into a row, or collapses into a stack, in one continuous motion, and at every instant it looks like a formation rather than cards travelling to new addresses. Nothing passes through the centre of the drum on the way. Switch layout twice quickly and the second morph starts from wherever the first had reached, with no jump. In the stack, the overlap order is stable while it drifts — nothing flickers in front of its neighbour. Resize the window from narrow to wide: the row still spans the frame and the cards keep their proportions. Scroll the canvas out of view and the GPU goes quiet.When you are finished, tell me which of the requirements above you implementedand where, so I can check them.
'use client';import gsap from 'gsap';import { useEffect, useMemo, useRef, useState } from 'react';import * as THREE from 'three';import { cn } from '@/lib/utils';import { useInView } from '@/hooks/use-in-view';import { useRaf } from '@/hooks/use-raf';import { useReducedMotion } from '@/hooks/use-reduced-motion';import { useResizeObserver } from '@/hooks/use-resize-observer';import { useVisibility } from '@/hooks/use-visibility';import { gaussian } from '@/lib/damp';import { disposeObject, disposeRenderer, hasWebGL, pixelRatio,} from '@/lib/webgl';import { mod, wrapIndex, wrappedOffset } from '@/lib/wrap';import { layoutLerpScalarFragmentShader, layoutLerpScalarVertexShader,} from '@/components/motion/shaders/layout-lerp-scalar';/* ========================================================================== Layout Lerp Scalar -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Four arrangements — a row, a stack, a drum, a fan — that are not four layouts at all. There is one placement function of seven numbers, and each "layout" is only a set of values for those numbers. Switching between them is `gsap.to(params, preset)`: a tween over an object literal, no bespoke animation code, no per-item choreography. The important part is *what* is being interpolated. Cross-fading two layouts means blending their outputs, `lerp(f(a), f(b), s)`, which sends every card along a straight line between its two endpoints — straight through the middle of the drum, through its neighbours, through the camera. Blending the inputs instead, `f(lerp(a, b, s))`, keeps every intermediate frame a valid member of the same family: at any `s` the cards are on a well-formed helix, just one with a different radius and pitch. Because the function is nonlinear those two are genuinely different animations, and only the second one looks like the shape is transforming rather than the items relocating. The layout is CPU-side scalars written into `position`, `rotation` and `scale`, and the vertex shader is the default transform. That is what keeps frustum culling and three's transparency sort correct without help: both read the CPU matrix, and here the CPU matrix is where the card really is. ========================================================================== */export type LayoutName = 'row' | 'column' | 'drum' | 'fan';/** * Every number the placement function takes. Nothing here is a mode, a branch * or an enum — that is the whole design. A parameter you can only switch is a * parameter you cannot tween. */export interface LayoutParams { /** Drum radius in world units. 0 collapses the ring to a straight line. */ radius: number; /** World units of vertical travel per index step. */ spacing: number; /** Fraction of the camera-derived full-width row step, per index. */ rowSpread: number; /** Revolutions the ring spans across the whole set. */ turns: number; /** World units each card recedes per index step away from the focus. */ depth: number; /** How strongly the gaussian focus falloff is applied, 0-1. */ focus: number; /** Overall card scale. */ scale: number;}export interface LayoutLerpScalarProps { /** How many cards. They wrap, so this is also the ring's period. */ count?: number; /** Which preset the parameters are tweened toward. */ layout?: LayoutName; /** Override individual parameters on top of the preset. */ params?: Partial<LayoutParams>; /** Seconds of the morph between presets. */ duration?: number; /** Index steps per second of idle travel. 0 parks it. */ drift?: number; /** First card's hue, 0-360. */ hueStart?: number; /** Degrees of hue between adjacent cards. */ hueStep?: number; /** Alpha multiplier applied before the focus falloff. */ opacity?: number; /** Fires when a different card takes the focus position. */ onFocusChange?: (index: number) => void; className?: string;}/* -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The four presets. Each is nothing but a point in the seven-dimensional parameter space the placement function is defined over; the morph is a straight line between two points in that space. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- */const PRESETS: Record<LayoutName, LayoutParams> = { row: { radius: 0, spacing: 0, rowSpread: 1, turns: 0, depth: 0.1, focus: 0.2, scale: 0.42 }, column: { radius: 0, spacing: 0.95, rowSpread: 0, turns: 0, depth: 0.35, focus: 0.65, scale: 0.8 }, drum: { radius: 2.55, spacing: 0.74, rowSpread: 0, turns: 2, depth: 0, focus: 1, scale: 1 }, fan: { radius: 3.1, spacing: 0.14, rowSpread: 0.3, turns: 0.34, depth: 0, focus: 0.75, scale: 0.78 },};const CAMERA_FOV = 42;const CAMERA_Z = 7.2;/** Card height as a fraction of the frustum's visible height at z = 0. */const CARD_HEIGHT_RATIO = 0.4;/** Card width over card height. */const CARD_ASPECT = 0.7;/** Corner radius, in units of card height. */const CARD_CORNER = 0.055;/** Fraction of the visible width the flat row spans. */const ROW_FILL = 0.92;/** Scale an entirely out-of-focus card keeps. */const SCALE_FLOOR = 0.72;const MORPH_EASE = 'power3.inOut';const TWO_PI = Math.PI * 2;const DEG_TO_RAD = Math.PI / 180;/** Uniform bag, as a type alias so it keeps its implicit index signature and * is assignable to `ShaderMaterial`'s `{ [name: string]: THREE.IUniform }`. */type CardUniforms = { uColorA: { value: THREE.Color }; uColorB: { value: THREE.Color }; uAspect: { value: number }; uCorner: { value: number }; uFocus: { value: number }; uOpacity: { value: number };};interface Card { mesh: THREE.Mesh; uniforms: CardUniforms;}interface Stage { renderer: THREE.WebGLRenderer; scene: THREE.Scene; camera: THREE.PerspectiveCamera; geometry: THREE.PlaneGeometry; material: THREE.ShaderMaterial; cards: Card[];}export function LayoutLerpScalar({ count = 12, layout = 'drum', params, duration = 1.25, drift = 0.16, hueStart = 232, hueStep = 17, opacity = 1, onFocusChange, className,}: LayoutLerpScalarProps) { const host = useRef<HTMLDivElement>(null); const stage = useRef<Stage | null>(null); const { width, height } = useResizeObserver(host); const { inView } = useInView(host, { threshold: 0 }); const visible = useVisibility(); const reduced = useReducedMotion(); // `hasWebGL` touches `document`, so it cannot run during render without // disagreeing with the server. Start optimistic and correct after mount: // both renders then agree and nothing hydrates twice. const [supported, setSupported] = useState(true); useEffect(() => setSupported(hasWebGL()), []); /** The live parameter vector. GSAP tweens this object in place. */ const live = useRef<LayoutParams>({ ...PRESETS[layout], ...params }); /** Fractional index at the focus position. */ const position = useRef(0); const focusedRef = useRef(-1); const notify = useRef(onFocusChange); notify.current = onFocusChange; const overrideKey = JSON.stringify(params ?? {}); const ready = width > 1 && height > 1 && supported; /* ---- scene construction ------------------------------------------------ */ useEffect(() => { const el = host.current; if (!el || !ready || count < 1) return; const renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer({ antialias: true, alpha: true }); // Capped, not raw. A 3x phone with an uncapped ratio pays 9x the fill rate // for a difference nobody can see. renderer.setPixelRatio(pixelRatio()); renderer.setSize(el.clientWidth, el.clientHeight, false); renderer.setClearColor(0x000000, 0); renderer.domElement.style.display = 'block'; renderer.domElement.style.width = '100%'; renderer.domElement.style.height = '100%'; el.appendChild(renderer.domElement); const scene = new THREE.Scene(); const camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera( CAMERA_FOV, el.clientWidth / Math.max(el.clientHeight, 1), 0.1, 100, ); camera.position.z = CAMERA_Z; // One 1x1 plane for every card; the size is `mesh.scale`, so a resize // costs nothing and no geometry is rebuilt. Two triangles each: the card // face is drawn in the fragment shader, so there is nothing to subdivide. const geometry = new THREE.PlaneGeometry(1, 1); // A shared prototype only for the source strings — each card clones it so // it can own its colours. three keys its program cache on the shader // source, so all the clones still share one compiled program. const prototype = new THREE.ShaderMaterial({ vertexShader: layoutLerpScalarVertexShader, fragmentShader: layoutLerpScalarFragmentShader, transparent: true, side: THREE.DoubleSide, // No depth write: a transparent card must not stop the card behind it // from drawing. Order therefore comes entirely from three's painter // sort, which ranks transparent meshes by their CPU-side view depth — // correct here precisely because the CPU is what positions them. depthWrite: false, }); const cards: Card[] = []; for (let i = 0; i < count; i++) { const hue = mod(hueStart + i * hueStep, 360) / 360; const uniforms: CardUniforms = { // setHSL is told the values are sRGB, so three converts them into the // linear working space. Skip that and every card renders lighter and // flatter than the CSS colours beside it. uColorA: { value: new THREE.Color().setHSL(hue, 0.52, 0.62, THREE.SRGBColorSpace) }, uColorB: { value: new THREE.Color().setHSL( mod(hue + 0.05, 1), 0.5, 0.14, THREE.SRGBColorSpace, ), }, uAspect: { value: CARD_ASPECT }, uCorner: { value: CARD_CORNER }, uFocus: { value: 1 }, uOpacity: { value: opacity }, }; const material = prototype.clone(); material.uniforms = uniforms; const mesh = new THREE.Mesh(geometry, material); // Culling is left ON, unlike every drum that bends its planes in the // vertex shader. The bounding sphere is computed from the geometry and // the CPU matrix, and here that matrix is the truth, so three can cull // the far side of the ring correctly and for free. scene.add(mesh); cards.push({ mesh, uniforms }); } stage.current = { renderer, scene, camera, geometry, material: prototype, cards }; renderer.render(scene, camera); return () => { stage.current = null; for (const card of cards) scene.remove(card.mesh); disposeObject(scene); geometry.dispose(); prototype.dispose(); // dispose() frees GPU objects and leaves the context alive. Only // forceContextLoss, which disposeRenderer calls, hands it back. disposeRenderer(renderer); renderer.domElement.remove(); }; // `opacity` only seeds a uniform the frame loop overwrites immediately. // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps }, [ready, count, hueStart, hueStep]); /* ---- size -------------------------------------------------------------- */ useEffect(() => { const current = stage.current; if (!current || width < 1 || height < 1) return; current.renderer.setPixelRatio(pixelRatio()); // `false` — the canvas is sized by CSS at 100%/100%; letting three write // inline pixel dimensions makes it fight the flex parent on every resize. current.renderer.setSize(width, height, false); current.camera.aspect = width / height; current.camera.updateProjectionMatrix(); }, [width, height]); // #region critical /* ---- the morph: one tween over an object literal ------------------------ */ useEffect(() => { const target: LayoutParams = { ...PRESETS[layout], ...params }; const current = live.current; if (reduced) { Object.assign(current, target); return; } // Every parameter eases together, so the shape passes through a continuous // family of shapes rather than each card taking its own path. `overwrite` // matters: switch layout twice quickly and the second tween must take the // parameters from wherever the first one had got to, not fight it. const tween = gsap.to(current, { ...target, duration, ease: MORPH_EASE, overwrite: true }); return () => { tween.kill(); }; // `params` is compared by value through `overrideKey`; the object literal // most callers pass is a new reference on every render. // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps }, [layout, overrideKey, duration, reduced]); useEffect(() => { const current = live.current; return () => { gsap.killTweensOf(current); }; }, []); /* ---- the frame ---------------------------------------------------------- */ useRaf( (dt) => { const current = stage.current; if (!current) return; const n = current.cards.length; if (n === 0) return; const p = live.current; const speed = reduced ? 0 : drift; // Wrapped rather than left to grow: at 0.16 steps/s an unwrapped // accumulator is fine for days, but the modulo costs nothing and keeps // float precision constant no matter how long the tab stays open. position.current = mod(position.current + dt * speed, n); const pos = position.current; // The one place the camera and the layout meet. `visibleHeight` is the // frustum's height at z = 0 — `2 * z * tan(fov/2)` — and the width is // that times the aspect. Deriving the row step from it is why the row // spans the frame at any viewport instead of being a guessed constant. const visibleHeight = 2 * Math.tan((CAMERA_FOV * DEG_TO_RAD) / 2) * CAMERA_Z; const visibleWidth = visibleHeight * current.camera.aspect; const step = (visibleWidth * ROW_FILL) / Math.max(n - 1, 1); const cardHeight = visibleHeight * CARD_HEIGHT_RATIO; const cardWidth = cardHeight * CARD_ASPECT; for (let i = 0; i < n; i++) { const card = current.cards[i]; if (!card) continue; // The call that makes a finite array behave like an endless ring: // card 0 is one step BEFORE card 11, not eleven steps after it. const offset = wrappedOffset(i, pos, n); const angle = (offset / n) * TWO_PI * p.turns; // The placement function. Seven scalars in, one transform out, and // every layout this component has is somewhere in here. card.mesh.position.set( p.radius * Math.sin(angle) + offset * p.rowSpread * step, -offset * p.spacing, // cos(angle) - 1 keeps the focused card at z = 0 whatever the // radius, so growing the drum pushes the ring back rather than // pulling the front card into the camera. The depth term is what // gives the flat layouts a strictly monotonic z, which is what lets // three sort them back-to-front without any renderOrder fixing. p.radius * (Math.cos(angle) - 1) - p.depth * Math.abs(offset), ); card.mesh.rotation.y = angle; // exp(-d^2): 1.000 at the focus, 0.368 one step out, 0.018 two, // 0.0001 three. Continuous and branchless, and `focus` scales how much // of it applies — at 0 every card is lit equally, which is what makes // the flat row read as an index rather than as a selection. const f = 1 - p.focus * (1 - gaussian(offset)); const s = p.scale * (SCALE_FLOOR + (1 - SCALE_FLOOR) * f); card.mesh.scale.set(cardWidth * s, cardHeight * s, 1); card.uniforms.uFocus.value = f; card.uniforms.uOpacity.value = opacity; } const nextFocus = wrapIndex(Math.round(pos), n); if (nextFocus !== focusedRef.current) { focusedRef.current = nextFocus; notify.current?.(nextFocus); } current.renderer.render(current.scene, current.camera); }, ready && inView && visible, ); // #endregion critical const fallback = useMemo( () => ( <div className="flex h-full w-full items-center justify-center"> <ol className="flex max-w-full gap-1 overflow-hidden px-4"> {Array.from({ length: Math.min(count, 7) }, (_unused, index) => ( <li key={index} className="h-24 w-8 shrink-0 rounded-sm" style={{ background: `linear-gradient(160deg, hsl(${hueStart + index * hueStep} 50% 14%), hsl(${hueStart + index * hueStep + 18} 52% 62%))`, }} /> ))} </ol> </div> ), [count, hueStart, hueStep], ); return ( <div className={cn('relative h-full w-full overflow-hidden', className)}> <div ref={host} className="absolute inset-0" aria-hidden="true" /> {!supported ? fallback : null} </div> );}
/* ========================================================================== Layout Lerp Scalar — GLSL, as TypeScript template literals. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shipped as .ts and not .glsl on purpose: a .glsl import forces every consumer to install and configure a bundler plugin before the component will compile, while a template literal is a plain module every bundler already understands. The notable thing about this pair is how little it knows. The layout — row, column, drum, fan and every blend between them — happens entirely on the CPU, as scalars written into mesh.position, mesh.rotation and mesh.scale. The vertex shader is the default transform and nothing else, which is what keeps frustum culling and three's transparency sort telling the truth: both read the CPU-side matrix, and here the CPU-side matrix is where the card actually is. So the fragment shader is free to be the whole picture. It draws a card — rounded rectangle, gradient, hairlines, rim — from six uniforms and no texture, so the component ships no image and fetches nothing. ========================================================================== */export const layoutLerpScalarVertexShader = /* glsl */ `varying vec2 vUv;varying float vFacing;void main() { vUv = uv; // How square-on this card is to the camera, straight from the transformed // normal. Cards turning edge-on around the drum darken with no light in the // scene and no second pass -- one dot product standing in for shading. // abs() because the material is double-sided and the back face's normal // points away. vec3 n = normalize(normalMatrix * normal); vFacing = abs(n.z); gl_Position = projectionMatrix * modelViewMatrix * vec4(position, 1.0);}`;export const layoutLerpScalarFragmentShader = /* glsl */ `uniform vec3 uColorA;uniform vec3 uColorB;uniform float uAspect;uniform float uCorner;uniform float uFocus;uniform float uOpacity;varying vec2 vUv;varying float vFacing;/* Signed distance to a rounded rectangle, in units of card height: negative inside, zero on the edge. Cheaper and sharper than a corner-radius texture, and it stays crisp at any scale because the card is drawn, not sampled. */float sdRoundedBox(vec2 p, vec2 b, float r) { vec2 q = abs(p) - b + r; return min(max(q.x, q.y), 0.0) + length(max(q, 0.0)) - r;}void main() { // Local space where y spans 1.0 and x spans the aspect, so one corner // radius is the same number of world units on both axes. vec2 p = (vUv - 0.5) * vec2(uAspect, 1.0); vec2 ext = vec2(uAspect, 1.0) * 0.5; float d = sdRoundedBox(p, ext, uCorner); // One pixel, measured in the same units as d. fwidth is core in WebGL2, and // the max() keeps smoothstep well-formed if a driver ever hands back 0. float aa = max(fwidth(d), 1e-4); float mask = 1.0 - smoothstep(-aa, aa, d); if (mask < 0.002) discard; float ramp = clamp(vUv.y * 0.92 + (vUv.x - 0.5) * 0.22 + 0.04, 0.0, 1.0); vec3 color = mix(uColorB, uColorA, ramp); // Hairlines. A smooth gradient hides rotation completely -- there has to be // structure on the card for the eye to read the turn of the drum. float ticks = vUv.y * 9.0; float toLine = 0.5 - abs(fract(ticks) - 0.5); float lineWidth = fwidth(ticks) * 1.1; color += (1.0 - smoothstep(0.0, lineWidth, toLine)) * 0.055; // Inset rim, one pixel wide, at 0.5% of card height in from the edge. float rim = 1.0 - smoothstep(0.0, aa * 2.0, abs(d + 0.005)); color = mix(color, vec3(1.0), rim * 0.16); // Out-of-focus cards lose light and colour rather than blurring: a real // blur needs a render target, and desaturating toward luminance reads the // same at this size for one dot product. float grey = dot(color, vec3(0.2126, 0.7152, 0.0722)); color = mix(vec3(grey), color, mix(0.25, 1.0, uFocus)); color *= mix(0.36, 1.0, uFocus); color *= mix(0.52, 1.0, vFacing); gl_FragColor = vec4(color, mask * uOpacity * mix(0.24, 1.0, uFocus)); // ShaderMaterial gets no automatic output conversion -- three only injects // this chunk into its own materials. Without it every colour ships raw // linear values into an sRGB framebuffer and the scene looks washed out. #include <colorspace_fragment>}`;
/* ========================================================================== Frame-rate-independent interpolation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The everywhere-idiom `x += (target - x) * 0.1` is a bug: it converges twice as fast on a 120 Hz display as on a 60 Hz one, so the same code feels different on different hardware and visibly speeds up when the browser drops frames. `damp` fixes it by raising the retention factor to the power of elapsed time, which is the exact continuous form of the same curve. ========================================================================== *//** * Fraction of the remaining distance to close this frame. * * @param smoothing Fraction of the gap that REMAINS after one second. * Smaller is snappier. 0.001 ≈ very fast, 0.01 ≈ fast, 0.1 ≈ soft, * 0.5 ≈ slow drift. * @param dt Seconds elapsed since the previous frame. */export function dampFactor(smoothing: number, dt: number): number { return 1 - Math.pow(smoothing, dt);}/** Move `current` toward `target` at a rate independent of frame rate. */export function damp( current: number, target: number, smoothing: number, dt: number,): number { return current + (target - current) * dampFactor(smoothing, dt);}/** * The per-frame lerp constant an author measured at 60fps, converted into the * `smoothing` argument `damp` wants. Lets a source that says "0.1 per frame" * be ported without re-tuning by eye: * * damp(x, t, perFrameToSmoothing(0.1), dt) */export function perFrameToSmoothing(alpha: number, baseFps = 60): number { return Math.pow(1 - alpha, baseFps);}export function lerp(a: number, b: number, t: number): number { return a + (b - a) * t;}export function clamp(v: number, min: number, max: number): number { return v < min ? min : v > max ? max : v;}export function inverseLerp(a: number, b: number, v: number): number { return a === b ? 0 : (v - a) / (b - a);}export function mapRange( v: number, inMin: number, inMax: number, outMin: number, outMax: number, doClamp = true,): number { const t = inverseLerp(inMin, inMax, v); const r = lerp(outMin, outMax, doClamp ? clamp(t, 0, 1) : t); return r;}/** GLSL `smoothstep`, same semantics, for parity between JS and shader code. */export function smoothstep(edge0: number, edge1: number, x: number): number { const t = clamp(inverseLerp(edge0, edge1, x), 0, 1); return t * t * (3 - 2 * t);}/** * Gaussian falloff, `exp(-d²)`. Yields 1.000 / 0.368 / 0.018 / 0.0001 at * distances 0 / 1 / 2 / 3 — a continuous focus scalar with no thresholds and * no branches, which is why carousels that use it feel analogue rather than * stepped. */export function gaussian(distance: number, falloff = 1): number { const d = distance * falloff; return Math.exp(-(d * d));}
'use client';import { useEffect, useRef, useState, type RefObject } from 'react';/* ========================================================================== IntersectionObserver, sharing one observer per option set. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A hundred cards each constructing their own observer is a hundred observers the compositor has to service. Keying a shared observer by its options collapses that to one per distinct configuration — in practice, two or three for the whole site. ========================================================================== */export interface InViewState { inView: boolean; /** 0-1. The preview slot allocator ranks candidates by this. */ ratio: number;}export interface UseInViewOptions { root?: Element | null; rootMargin?: string; /** Single number or list, same meaning as the native option. */ threshold?: number | number[]; /** Stop observing after the first time it becomes visible. */ once?: boolean;}type Entry = { observer: IntersectionObserver; handlers: Map<Element, (e: IntersectionObserverEntry) => void>;};const pools = new Map<string, Entry>();function poolFor(options: UseInViewOptions): Entry { const key = JSON.stringify({ rootMargin: options.rootMargin ?? '0px', threshold: options.threshold ?? 0, }); const existing = pools.get(key); if (existing) return existing; const handlers = new Map<Element, (e: IntersectionObserverEntry) => void>(); const observer = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { for (const entry of entries) handlers.get(entry.target)?.(entry); }, { root: options.root ?? null, rootMargin: options.rootMargin ?? '0px', threshold: options.threshold ?? 0, }, ); const created: Entry = { observer, handlers }; pools.set(key, created); return created;}export function useInView( ref: RefObject<Element | null>, options: UseInViewOptions = {},): InViewState { const [state, setState] = useState<InViewState>({ inView: false, ratio: 0 }); const { root = null, rootMargin = '0px', once = false } = options; const thresholdKey = JSON.stringify(options.threshold ?? 0); const done = useRef(false); useEffect(() => { const el = ref.current; if (!el || typeof IntersectionObserver === 'undefined') return; if (once && done.current) return; const pool = poolFor({ root, rootMargin, threshold: JSON.parse(thresholdKey) as number | number[], }); const handle = (entry: IntersectionObserverEntry) => { setState({ inView: entry.isIntersecting, ratio: entry.intersectionRatio }); if (once && entry.isIntersecting) { done.current = true; pool.handlers.delete(el); pool.observer.unobserve(el); } }; pool.handlers.set(el, handle); pool.observer.observe(el); return () => { pool.handlers.delete(el); pool.observer.unobserve(el); }; }, [ref, root, rootMargin, thresholdKey, once]); return state;}
'use client';import { useEffect, useRef } from 'react';/* ========================================================================== One shared requestAnimationFrame loop. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Forty components each calling requestAnimationFrame means forty callbacks the browser schedules separately and forty chances to read layout after a write. One loop, one ordered pass, one place to clamp delta time. Delta is clamped to 100 ms. Without that, returning to a backgrounded tab delivers a multi-second dt and every physics integration in the page explodes on the first frame back. ========================================================================== */export type RafCallback = (dt: number, elapsed: number) => void;const callbacks = new Set<RafCallback>();let frame = 0;let last = 0;let start = 0;const MAX_DT = 0.1;const DEFAULT_DT = 1 / 60;function tick(now: number) { frame = requestAnimationFrame(tick); const dt = last === 0 ? DEFAULT_DT : Math.min((now - last) / 1000, MAX_DT); last = now; const elapsed = (now - start) / 1000; // Copy: a callback may unsubscribe itself (or another) mid-iteration. for (const cb of Array.from(callbacks)) { if (callbacks.has(cb)) cb(dt, elapsed); }}function subscribe(cb: RafCallback) { callbacks.add(cb); if (frame === 0) { start = performance.now(); last = 0; frame = requestAnimationFrame(tick); } return () => { callbacks.delete(cb); if (callbacks.size === 0 && frame !== 0) { cancelAnimationFrame(frame); frame = 0; last = 0; } };}/** * Run `cb` every frame while `enabled`. * * The callback is held in a ref, so it does not need to be memoised and the * subscription is never torn down just because the closure changed identity. */export function useRaf(cb: RafCallback, enabled = true): void { const ref = useRef(cb); ref.current = cb; useEffect(() => { if (!enabled) return; return subscribe((dt, elapsed) => ref.current(dt, elapsed)); }, [enabled]);}
'use client';import { useSyncExternalStore } from 'react';/* ========================================================================== prefers-reduced-motion, SSR-safe. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- useSyncExternalStore rather than useState + useEffect: the server snapshot is an explicit `false`, so the markup React renders on the server and the markup it hydrates with agree, and the real value lands in the same commit as hydration instead of one frame later. A useEffect version flashes the animated variant before removing it — the exact thing the user asked not to see. Reduced motion is not "duration: 0". For most components here it means a different render: the final state, a static poster, or a paused frame. ========================================================================== */const QUERY = '(prefers-reduced-motion: reduce)';function subscribe(onChange: () => void) { if (typeof window === 'undefined' || !window.matchMedia) return () => {}; const mql = window.matchMedia(QUERY); mql.addEventListener('change', onChange); return () => mql.removeEventListener('change', onChange);}function getSnapshot() { if (typeof window === 'undefined' || !window.matchMedia) return false; return window.matchMedia(QUERY).matches;}function getServerSnapshot() { return false;}export function useReducedMotion(): boolean { return useSyncExternalStore(subscribe, getSnapshot, getServerSnapshot);}/** Generic media-query hook, same SSR guarantees. */export function useMediaQuery(query: string): boolean { return useSyncExternalStore( (onChange) => { if (typeof window === 'undefined' || !window.matchMedia) return () => {}; const mql = window.matchMedia(query); mql.addEventListener('change', onChange); return () => mql.removeEventListener('change', onChange); }, () => { if (typeof window === 'undefined' || !window.matchMedia) return false; return window.matchMedia(query).matches; }, () => false, );}
'use client';import { useEffect, useState, type RefObject } from 'react';/* ========================================================================== Element size, from one shared ResizeObserver. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sized from the element rather than the window because a preview in a grid cell resizes when the grid reflows, not when the viewport does. Reading `window.innerWidth` is the reason so many canvas components are correct on load and wrong after a sidebar opens. ========================================================================== */export interface Size { width: number; height: number;}type Handler = (size: Size) => void;let observer: ResizeObserver | null = null;const handlers = new Map<Element, Handler>();function ensureObserver(): ResizeObserver | null { if (typeof ResizeObserver === 'undefined') return null; observer ??= new ResizeObserver((entries) => { for (const entry of entries) { const box = entry.contentBoxSize?.[0]; const size: Size = box ? { width: box.inlineSize, height: box.blockSize } : { width: entry.contentRect.width, height: entry.contentRect.height }; handlers.get(entry.target)?.(size); } }); return observer;}export function useResizeObserver(ref: RefObject<Element | null>): Size { const [size, setSize] = useState<Size>({ width: 0, height: 0 }); useEffect(() => { const el = ref.current; const ro = ensureObserver(); if (!el || !ro) return; // Seed synchronously: waiting for the first observer callback leaves one // frame where a canvas is sized 0x0, which some drivers log as an error. const rect = el.getBoundingClientRect(); setSize({ width: rect.width, height: rect.height }); handlers.set(el, (next) => setSize((prev) => prev.width === next.width && prev.height === next.height ? prev : next, ), ); ro.observe(el); return () => { handlers.delete(el); ro.unobserve(el); }; }, [ref]); return size;}
'use client';import { useSyncExternalStore } from 'react';/* ========================================================================== Document visibility, shared. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A backgrounded tab still runs `setInterval`, still holds WebGL contexts, and — on some platforms — still gets throttled rAF ticks with multi-second deltas. Anything expensive should stop when the tab is hidden and resume when it comes back, rather than trying to catch up. `useSyncExternalStore` with an explicit server snapshot so SSR markup and the first client render agree. ========================================================================== */function subscribe(onChange: () => void): () => void { document.addEventListener('visibilitychange', onChange); return () => document.removeEventListener('visibilitychange', onChange);}function getSnapshot(): boolean { return document.visibilityState === 'visible';}/** Assume visible on the server: the alternative flashes a paused state. */function getServerSnapshot(): boolean { return true;}export function useVisibility(): boolean { return useSyncExternalStore(subscribe, getSnapshot, getServerSnapshot);}
import type * as THREE from 'three';/* ========================================================================== WebGL context lifecycle. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chromium allows roughly 16 live WebGL contexts per RENDERER PROCESS (8 on low-end devices). Creating the 17th does not fail — it fires `webglcontextlost` on the OLDEST one, so an unrelated component elsewhere on the page goes black. Same-origin iframes share the renderer process, so isolating previews in iframes does not raise the ceiling. The only real fix is to release contexts on unmount, and `renderer.dispose()` ALONE DOES NOT DO THAT. It frees GPU objects but leaves the context itself alive until GC decides otherwise, which may be never. `forceContextLoss()` is the call that actually hands it back. ========================================================================== *//** * Fully release a three.js renderer. Call this in the `useEffect` cleanup of * any component that constructs a `WebGLRenderer` — the preview host drives * unmount via `<Activity mode="hidden">`, so ordinary cleanup IS the disposal * path and nothing component-specific is required. */export function disposeRenderer(renderer: THREE.WebGLRenderer | null | undefined): void { if (!renderer) return; // Stop the loop first: a queued frame that renders into a lost context // throws, and the throw escapes the cleanup function. renderer.setAnimationLoop(null); renderer.dispose(); renderer.forceContextLoss(); const canvas = renderer.domElement; if (canvas) { // Zeroing the backing store releases the drawing buffer immediately // instead of holding width×height×4 bytes until the node is collected. canvas.width = 0; canvas.height = 0; }}/** * Release a raw WebGL context (ogl, or hand-written GL). The extension is the * only portable way to do it; it is absent in some headless configurations, * hence the optional call. */export function loseContext(gl: WebGLRenderingContext | WebGL2RenderingContext | null | undefined): void { if (!gl) return; gl.getExtension('WEBGL_lose_context')?.loseContext();}/** Recursively dispose geometries, materials and textures under a root. */export function disposeObject(root: THREE.Object3D | null | undefined): void { if (!root) return; root.traverse((obj) => { const mesh = obj as THREE.Mesh; mesh.geometry?.dispose?.(); const material = mesh.material; if (!material) return; const materials = Array.isArray(material) ? material : [material]; for (const m of materials) { for (const value of Object.values(m as unknown as Record<string, unknown>)) { if (value && typeof value === 'object' && 'isTexture' in value) { (value as THREE.Texture).dispose(); } } m.dispose?.(); } });}/** * Device pixel ratio capped for fill-rate. Above 2 the visual gain is nil and * the cost is quadratic; on a 3x phone an uncapped full-screen shader is the * single most common cause of a janky first paint. */export function pixelRatio(max = 2): number { if (typeof window === 'undefined') return 1; return Math.min(window.devicePixelRatio || 1, max);}/** * Whether WebGL is actually available. Some browsers expose the constructor * but fail to create a context (blocklisted GPU, no hardware acceleration); * a component that assumes success renders a permanently blank box. */export function hasWebGL(): boolean { if (typeof document === 'undefined') return false; try { const canvas = document.createElement('canvas'); const gl = canvas.getContext('webgl2') ?? canvas.getContext('webgl') ?? canvas.getContext('experimental-webgl'); if (!gl) return false; (gl as WebGLRenderingContext).getExtension('WEBGL_lose_context')?.loseContext(); return true; } catch { return false; }}
/* ========================================================================== Ring index arithmetic. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anything that loops — a drum carousel, an infinite marquee, a cylinder of image planes — needs to answer "how far is item i from position p" in a way that treats the sequence as a circle. A plain `i - p` says item 0 is 18 away from item 18 in a list of 19, when really it is 1 step back. ========================================================================== *//** True modulo. Unlike `%`, the result is never negative. */export function mod(n: number, m: number): number { return ((n % m) + m) % m;}/** * Shortest signed distance from `position` to index `i` around a ring of * `count` items. Result is in `(-count/2, count/2]`; negative means "behind". * * This one function is what makes a finite array behave like an infinite one. */export function wrappedOffset(i: number, position: number, count: number): number { if (count <= 0) return 0; let offset = mod(i - position, count); if (offset > count / 2) offset -= count; return offset;}/** Wrap `value` into `[min, max)`, e.g. an angle into `[-PI, PI)`. */export function wrapRange(value: number, min: number, max: number): number { const span = max - min; if (span <= 0) return min; return mod(value - min, span) + min;}/** Wrap an index into `[0, count)`. Accepts fractional and negative input. */export function wrapIndex(i: number, count: number): number { return count <= 0 ? 0 : mod(i, count);}/** * Shortest signed angular distance from `a` to `b` in radians, in `(-PI, PI]`. * Prevents a rotation tween from taking the long way round. */export function shortestAngle(a: number, b: number): number { return wrapRange(b - a, -Math.PI, Math.PI);}
05
API
Every parameter, its type and what happens when you change it.
How many cards. They wrap, so this is also the ring's period.
layout
'row' | 'column' | 'drum' | 'fan'
= 'drum'
Which preset the parameter vector is tweened toward.
params
Partial<LayoutParams>
—
Overrides individual scalars on top of the preset — radius, spacing, rowSpread, turns, depth, focus, scale. Compared by value.
duration
number
= 1.25
Seconds of the morph between presets.
drift
number
= 0.16
Index steps per second of idle travel. 0 parks the ring.
hueStart
number
= 232
First card's hue, 0-360.
hueStep
number
= 17
Degrees of hue between adjacent cards.
opacity
number
= 1
Alpha multiplier applied before the focus falloff.
onFocusChange
(index: number) => void
—
Fires when a different card takes the focus position.
className
string
—
Merged onto the wrapper. The canvas fills it absolutely.
06
How it works
The technique in order, not the code in order.
01
Placement is offset = wrappedOffset(i, position, n), then angle = (offset / n) * 2PI * turns and p = (radius * sin(angle) + offset * rowSpread * step, -offset * spacing, radius * (cos(angle) - 1) - depth * |offset|), with rotation.y = angle. Setting radius and turns to 0 leaves a straight line; adding spacing makes it a column; adding turns and radius wraps that column into a drum. There is no branch anywhere in it.
02
Because the parameters are what get tweened, the shape passes through the family rather than across it. f is nonlinear in radius and turns, so f(lerp(a, b, s)) and lerp(f(a), f(b), s) are different animations: the first keeps the cards on a well-formed helix at every s, the second sends each card down a chord that cuts through the middle of the drum and through its neighbours.
03
cos(angle) - 1 rather than cos(angle) puts the focused card at z = 0 for any radius. Growing the drum then pushes the far side away instead of pulling the near card into the camera, which is what makes radius safe to tween through large values.
04
The depth term gives the flat layouts a strictly monotonic z in |offset|. That is not a look — it is what lets three's painter sort order the transparent cards correctly. With every card at z = 0 the sort has nothing to rank and the overlap order in a stack is whatever the traversal happened to produce.
05
The row step is derived from the camera: visibleHeight = 2 * cameraZ * tan(fov / 2), visibleWidth = visibleHeight * aspect, and step = visibleWidth * fill / (n - 1). Card size comes from the same visibleHeight, so the whole layout is defined in fractions of the frustum and holds its proportions at any viewport.
06
Focus is 1 - focus * (1 - exp(-offset^2)) — 1.000 at the centre, 0.368 one step out, 0.018 two — driving both the card scale and a single uFocus uniform that desaturates and dims in the fragment shader. focus is itself one of the tweened parameters, so a layout can decide how much of a selection it is.
07
The vertex shader is the default transform and nothing else. Everything that moves is a CPU write to position, rotation and scale, which means the bounding sphere three culls against and the view depth it sorts by both describe where the card actually is. A drum that bends its planes in the vertex shader has to disable culling and reconstruct renderOrder by hand; this one gets both for free.
Two turns across twelve cards puts adjacent cards 60° apart, so the ring reads as a ring rather than as a coil. Below about 1.5 turns the far side is barely behind the near side and the drum flattens into a wheel; above 3 the cards on the back face are edge-on for most of a lap and the set looks half empty.
PRESETS.row.scale
= 0.42
Matched to the derived row step so twelve cards just touch at the reference aspect. Larger and the row overlaps into a fan; smaller and it becomes a sparse dotted line. It is a scalar for exactly this reason — the row layout gets to pick its own card size.
depth
= 0.35 (column) / 0.1 (row) / 0 (drum, fan)
World units of recession per index step. The drum and fan get their z from the radius, so they need none. The flat layouts need a non-zero value or their transparent cards have identical view depth and the sort order is arbitrary — the symptom is a stack whose overlap flickers as the ring drifts.
CARD_HEIGHT_RATIO
= 0.4
Card height as a fraction of the frustum height at z = 0. Above ~0.55 the drum's vertical spacing has to grow to match or the cards intersect; below ~0.25 the whole formation floats in the middle of the frame with nothing at the edges.
CAMERA_FOV / CAMERA_Z
= 42 / 7.2
A matched pair: they set the visible height, and everything else is a fraction of it. A wider FOV exaggerates the perspective divide so the far side of the drum shrinks dramatically — dramatic, but it also makes the row visibly bow. Change one and the layout is unchanged only if the other keeps z * tan(fov / 2) the same.
ROW_FILL
= 0.92
Fraction of the visible width the flat row spans. At 1.0 the outermost cards are cut exactly by the frustum edge and their antialiased rims flicker as they cross it; much below 0.85 the row no longer reads as spanning the frame.
SCALE_FLOOR
= 0.72
The scale an entirely out-of-focus card keeps. At 1.0 the focus falloff is only a dimming and the arrangement loses its centre; below ~0.5 the outer cards shrink so fast the drum looks like it is receding into a tunnel.
duration / MORPH_EASE
= 1.25 / power3.inOut
Long enough to read the shape changing rather than snapping, short enough not to feel like a loading state. inOut because the morph has no impulse behind it — an out ease implies the shape was thrown, and the sudden start looks like a dropped frame.
drift
= 0.16
Index steps per second of idle travel. About six seconds per card: slow enough to read a caption, fast enough that the wrap is visible within a few seconds of arriving. At 0 the ticker still runs but nothing moves, which is the right default for a layout driven by scroll instead.
CARD_CORNER
= 0.055
Corner radius in units of card height, evaluated as an SDF in the fragment shader. Because the mask is drawn rather than sampled it stays crisp at any scale, and one number gives the same physical radius on both axes since the SDF works in height units and multiplies x by the aspect.
07
Behaviour
What it does about motion sensitivity, teardown and being finished.
Reduced motion
The idle drift is set to zero, so the ring holds still and the same card stays in focus. Layout changes still happen — refusing them would leave the component unable to answer its own prop — but the parameters are assigned rather than tweened, so the new arrangement is simply there on the next frame with nothing travelling across the screen. The frame loop keeps running only because it is what draws; with no drift and no tween it writes the same transforms every frame.
Cleanup
Kills the parameter tween (and any tween of the same object) so GSAP cannot write into a vector nothing reads; removes every mesh from the scene, then disposeObject for the materials, geometry.dispose(), prototype.dispose(), and disposeRenderer — which stops the animation loop, disposes, calls forceContextLoss() and zeroes the backing store — before removing the canvas from the DOM. The shared rAF unsubscribes, and the shared resize, intersection and visibility observers all unregister. No textures are allocated, so there are none to leak.
Definition of done
The cards turn slowly and endlessly — watch one leave the bottom of the drum and come back at the top, at the same spacing. Switch layout: the whole formation unwinds into a row, or collapses into a stack, in one continuous motion, and at every instant it looks like a formation rather than cards travelling to new addresses. Nothing passes through the centre of the drum on the way. Switch layout twice quickly and the second morph starts from wherever the first had reached, with no jump. In the stack, the overlap order is stable while it drifts — nothing flickers in front of its neighbour. Resize the window from narrow to wide: the row still spans the frame and the cards keep their proportions. Scroll the canvas out of view and the GPU goes quiet.
Pitfalls
Cross-fading two layouts instead of blending their parameters. lerp(f(a), f(b), s) moves every card along the straight line between its two homes, so the drum passes through its own axis and the cards slide through one another. Interpolate the inputs and the shape is always a real member of the family.
Reaching for if (layout === "drum") in the frame loop. Branching per layout means each new arrangement is new code and no pair of them can be shown halfway. Every parameter here is a number precisely so it can be tweened, and the presets are data.
Multiplying a whole layout to zero and calling that a morph. Scaling radius to 0 does not produce a flat row — it produces every card stacked on the axis. A second term (rowSpread * step) has to take over as the first one leaves, which is why the row and the ring are separate parameters rather than one.
Letting the transparent cards share a z. three ranks transparent meshes by view depth; with a flat layout at z = 0 the ranking is arbitrary and the overlap in a stack flips as the ring drifts. The depth parameter exists to keep the ordering strict.
Copying the bend-in-the-vertex-shader approach and keeping frustum culling on. That combination blanks planes that are plainly on screen, because the bounding sphere describes the flat geometry at the CPU position. This component avoids the whole class of problem by keeping the layout on the CPU — but the two approaches cannot be mixed carelessly.
Guessing the row step in world units. Hard-code it and the row overflows a narrow viewport and floats in the middle of a wide one. It has to come from the frustum: 2 * cameraZ * tan(fov / 2) * aspect, divided across the set.
Calling renderer.dispose() and stopping there. It frees GPU objects but leaves the WebGL context alive, and Chromium kills the oldest context once about sixteen exist — so an unrelated canvas elsewhere on the page goes black. disposeRenderer calls forceContextLoss(), which is the call that actually hands it back.
Building the colours with new THREE.Color(...) from a hex string and expecting them to match the CSS beside them. Colours have to enter the linear working space (setHSL(..., THREE.SRGBColorSpace)) and the fragment shader has to end with #include <colorspace_fragment>, because three injects that chunk only into its own materials, never into a ShaderMaterial.
Passing params as an inline object literal and putting it straight in the effect deps. It is a new reference every render, so the morph tween is killed and rebuilt on each one and the parameters never arrive. The override is compared by value through a serialised key.
Rendering every frame regardless. The loop is gated on the element being in view and the tab being visible; a scrolled-past WebGL canvas that keeps drawing is one of the easier ways to halve a page's battery life for nothing.
Notes
The four presets are ordinary data — add a fifth by adding seven numbers, with no new code and no new branch. Any two of them can also be blended by hand at a fixed s by passing params.
Each card owns a cloned ShaderMaterial so it can hold its own colours, but three keys its program cache on the shader source, so all twelve still share one compiled program and the clone costs a uniform bag.
Nothing is fetched and no image ships: the card face — rounded rectangle, gradient, hairlines, rim — is a signed distance field in the fragment shader, and the shading of a card turning edge-on is one dot product against the transformed normal.