Texture nodes and solvers

Polygonjs 2.0.65 is out. The full list of changes is long, so here are the highlights.

Texture nodes

The TEX nodes grew into a small compositor. There are new filters: tex/Blur, tex/Brightness, tex/ColorCorrect, tex/ToneMap, tex/Crop, tex/Resize, tex/Transform and tex/Layer, among others. There are also new nodes to create images from scratch: tex/Ramp, tex/Shape and tex/Text. And tex/ImageExporter saves the result to a file.

A new texture panel shows the textures of a TEX network. It displays 2D textures as well as 3D ones.

Solvers for textures and geometry

tex/Solver and geo/Solver run the same network again and again, each step starting from the result of the previous one. This allows you to build feedback effects, such as reaction-diffusion: the organic, coral-like patterns you see on shells and animal skins.

Improved geometry spreadsheet

The geometry spreadsheet is a key tool to debug what is going on in a specific geometry. Why is a point misplaced, or why is there a hole where there should not be one? When those questions come up, the spreadsheet is the first tool to help. But it used to be a bit overwhelming for large geometries, as you could only see numbers, with little connection to the viewer.

Now when you hover the row of a triangle, that triangle gets highlighted in the viewer. Same for a point or an object. It helps make the numbers more visual. So if you’re searching for which point matches a hole, it’s now much easier to find.

As always, tell me what you build, and what is missing. Reply to this email, or say hello in the Discord, Bluesky or Twitter.

Gui