HN Reader

Plasma-Pong was a great game

All I hear is the music from Second Reality (the plasma cube part).

https://youtu.be/iw17c70uJes?si=_KWmUg608NxgyrXv&t=348

Loved the intro but that code sample could've used proper variable names.

Specular is a cool addition!

As someone who has seen this effect before, but was unclear how it was done, this article is very "and now draw the rest of the owl". They define a basic equation, it's about what I expected, but the end shader code doesn't use it in that form, and I found it pretty difficult to parse, I can't say I'm much better off in the end.

Love seeing plasma explained again. It’s wild how a few sines and cosines can still look this organic decades later. Feels very demoscene-pure: simple math, clever color mapping, and suddenly you’ve got motion and depth. Also cool to see specular highlights layered on top, old tricks, modern hardware.