<sk-platonic-sphere-points-source>

Distributes points very evenly over a sphere by subdividing a platonic solid — the way to scatter copies of an object across a ball with near-uniform spacing (no clustering at the poles).

JavaScript API: PlatonicSpherePointsSource

Remarks

This is a procedural member of the points-source family (see ShaderFunctionPointsSource): 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 cloned at each point. The points come from subdividing a platonic solid and projecting the result onto the sphere, so the coverage stays far more uniform than a latitude/longitude sk-uv-sphere-points-source — and, being generated in the shader, a densely subdivided sphere costs the same few parameters as a coarse one.

Key attributes. solid-type picks the seed polyhedron — tetrahedron (4 base points), octahedron (6), hexahedron (cube, 8), or icosahedron (12) — with icosahedron giving the most uniform triangle distribution and being the usual choice. subdivisions refines the seed: each step splits every triangle into four, so the point count grows sharply (leave at 0 for just the solid's own vertices; 2–3 gives a dense, smooth sphere). radius sets the sphere size and center its position.

Related. For a sphere addressed by rings and segments instead of even coverage, see sk-uv-sphere-points-source and the general sk-sphere-points-source; other procedural shapes include sk-grid-points-source, sk-disc-points-source, and sk-torus-points-source. For positions taken from data or another object rather than a formula, see sk-mesh-vertex-points-source, sk-mesh-surface-points-source, sk-buffer-points-source, and sk-cloner-points-source. Its host is always a sk-cloner.

<!-- Small spheres scattered evenly over a ball. The points come from an
     icosahedron subdivided twice (solid-type + subdivisions), then projected
     onto a radius-3 sphere — notice how uniform the spacing stays everywhere,
     with no crowding at the poles the way a lat/long sphere would show. Raise
     subdivisions for a denser shell; switch solid-type to compare seeds. -->
<sk-scene>
    <sk-plain-material id="mat" base-color="steelblue"></sk-plain-material>

    <sk-cloner mode="vertex">
        <sk-platonic-sphere-points-source solid-type="icosahedron"
            subdivisions="2" radius="3"></sk-platonic-sphere-points-source>

        <!-- Template cloned at each generated point. -->
        <sk-sphere radius="0.25">
            <sk-surface-paint material="#mat"></sk-surface-paint>
        </sk-sphere>
    </sk-cloner>
</sk-scene>

Attributes

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