Waveglass✳

A simple rule. Endless patterns.

Each point on this surface is pulled toward the height of its neighbors. Repeat that rule across 49,152 points, sixty times a second, and waves emerge: spreading, reflecting, and passing through each other. Sources oscillate together; barriers reflect; the outer edges absorb outgoing waves.

The height field displaces a mesh of more than 97,000 triangles inside a modeled basin. A mirrored camera renders reflections; a separate scene pass supplies refraction. Surface normals bend the light, while an illustrative caustic pattern lights the tiles below. The Wave height control exaggerates the geometry without changing the simulation. Switch to Wave field to see height directly: blue for troughs, yellow for crests, dark where they cancel. This is a damped wave equation, not a full fluid simulation. Try drawing a curved barrier, adding a source inside it, and turning up persistence.

Keyboard: focus the water, move with arrow keys, and press Enter to apply the selected tool. Keys 1–4 select drawing tools; 5 selects Orbit, then the arrow keys rotate the camera. R resets the view; + and − zoom. Shift with arrows draws a continuous barrier. Space pauses. On touch screens, use Orbit to rotate with one finger, or use two fingers to rotate and pinch to zoom. Up to eight sources can run together; select Source and click an existing one to remove it.