Medium EffectsAnimated

Pulsing spiral with a border

A picture built in steps: zoom in and out, then draw spiral, then color it, then finish with a border. Every step is listed below with its exact numbers.

The target picture for the shader challenge "Pulsing spiral with a border"
Recreate this picture. You pass at a 99% match, then try to write it in fewer characters than the par.

How this challenge works

You write a fragment shader that draws the picture above, live in your browser. A match bar shows how close you are, and the score combines accuracy, code size (the par is 510 characters in Unity (Built-in)) and GPU speed. Work in HLSL, GLSL, WGSL, Metal or Godot and export the result when you are done.

The numbers you need

Space
p = (uv - 0.5) * float2(aspect, 1.0)
Step 1: Zoom in and out
p *= 1.0 + 0.2 * sin(time * 3.0)
Step 2: Pattern
m = smoothstep(-0.2, 0.2, sin(3.0 * atan2(p.y, p.x) + 3.5 * length(p) * 6.28318))
Step 3: Colors
lerp(lerp(float3(0.19, 0.23, 0.08), float3(0.65, 0.87, 0.34), smoothstep(0.0, 0.5, m)), float3(0.86, 0.38, 0.88), smoothstep(0.5, 1.0, m))
Step 4: Finish
edge = min(min(uv.x, 1.0 - uv.x), min(uv.y, 1.0 - uv.y)); col = lerp(float3(0.96, 0.62, 0.51), col, smoothstep(0.05, 0.056, edge))

Solve it in your language

Unity (Built-in), Unity (URP), Unreal, Shadertoy / WebGL, OpenGL (LWJGL, raylib), three.js, GameMaker, LÖVE (Lua), Godot, Apple (iOS, macOS), WebGPU / Bevy.

Start coding