`SpherePointsSource`

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Scatters clones evenly over the surface of a sphere using a Fibonacci spiral — the way to spread copies across a ball with near-uniform spacing and no pole clustering.

Declarative element: <sk-sphere-points-source>

Global: available as sk.SpherePointsSource inside a scene <script>.

Remarks

This is the sphere-surface member of the points-source family: a points-source defines the set of positions at which a sk-cloner places copies of its content, so it lives as a child of a <sk-cloner> and the cloner's other child is the template that gets cloned at each point. Because the positions are generated procedurally in the shader (see ShaderFunctionPointsSource), a million-point sphere costs the same handful of parameters as a hundred-point one.

Key attributes. count sets how many points are placed on the surface — the total clone count. radius sets the sphere's size; the points sit on that spherical shell. center offsets the sphere from the origin (defaults to the origin). distribution selects the placement algorithm — fibonacci (the only value, and the default) uses the golden-angle spiral, which gives the most even coverage and avoids the crowding at the poles that a latitude/longitude grid produces.

Related. For a UV (latitude/longitude) sphere — regular rings and the option of a single hemisphere — use sk-uv-sphere-points-source; for a geodesic subdivision use sk-platonic-sphere-points-source. Other closed surfaces include sk-cube-points-source, sk-capsule-points-source, and sk-torus-points-source; sk-grid-points-source fills a volume instead. To scatter over an arbitrary object's surface rather than an analytic shape, see sk-mesh-surface-points-source. Its host is always a sk-cloner.

Constructor

constructor(config?: { count: number; radius?: number; center?: [number, number, number]; distribution?: SphereDistribution })

Inherited from: ShaderFunctionPointsSource, SkenraAnimatable — see those pages for inherited members.

Properties

Config Properties

Property	Type	Default	Description	Declared by
`count`	`number`	`1`	Number of points (alias for pointCount).	`SpherePointsSource`
`radius`	`number`	`1.0`	Sphere radius.	`SpherePointsSource`
`center`	`[number, number, number]`	`[0, 0, 0]`	Sphere center position.	`SpherePointsSource`
`distribution`	`SphereDistribution`	`"fibonacci"`	Distribution method for points.	`SpherePointsSource`

Other Properties

Property	Type	Default	Description	Declared by
`pointCount`read-only	`number`	—	Number of points provided by this source.	`ShaderFunctionPointsSource`
`localMatrices`read-only	`Float32Array<ArrayBufferLike> \| null`	—	CPU-side local matrices.	`ShaderFunctionPointsSource`
`type`read-only	`PointsSourceType`	`"shader-function"`	The type of this points source.	`ShaderFunctionPointsSource`
`scene`read-only	`any`	—	Gets the Scene this animatable belongs to, if any.	`SkenraAnimatable`
`animations`read-only	`SkenraAnimation[]`	—	Public getter for the animations affecting this target.	`SkenraAnimatable`

Methods

Method	Description	Declared by
`getBoundsInSpace(fullTransform: Float32Array): { minX: number; maxX: number; minY: number; maxY: number; minZ: number; maxZ: number; } \| null`	Computes the AABB in target space by transforming local bounds corners.	`ShaderFunctionPointsSource`
`setWorldReferenceNode(node: WorldReferenceNode \| null): void`	Sets the reference node whose world matrix should be used for transforms.	`ShaderFunctionPointsSource`
`animate(firstArg: TypedKeyframe<this>[] \| TypedPropertyIndexedKeyframes<this> \| Record<string, any> \| globalThis.Keyframe[] \| globalThis.PropertyIndexedKeyframes \| null, secondArg?: number \| KeyframeAnimationOptions \| globalThis.KeyframeAnimationOptions): SkenraAnimation & Animation`	Creates a new SkenraAnimation for this target per Web Animations API.	`SkenraAnimatable`
`removeAnimation(animation: SkenraAnimation): boolean`	Removes a specific animation from this object.	`SkenraAnimatable`
`constrain(type: K, config: ConstraintConfigMap[K]): ConstraintReturnMap[K]`	Creates a constraint on this Animatable using a fluent API.	`SkenraAnimatable`

Example

// Create 500 evenly distributed points on a unit sphere
const sphereSource = new SpherePointsSource({
    count: 500,
    radius: 1.0,
    distribution: 'fibonacci'
});

const cloner = new Cloner({ id: 'sphere-cloner',
    pointsSource: sphereSource,
    alignToNormal: true // Cubes point outward from sphere center
});
cloner.appendChild(cubeNode);

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