Scale Space Synthesist v1.0

The first open-source release of the Scale Space engine.

Scale Space is an emergence engine: a WebGPU particle visualizer where you adjust the fundamental parameters of a simulated system and watch what emerges. Filaments, cellular structures, vortices, geometries that look uncannily like microscopy footage — all from the same set of particles, just at different coordinates in parameter space.

This release — Synthesist — is the open-source build. MIT licensed. Single HTML file. Runs in any modern Chromium-based browser with WebGPU. No install, no account, no server.

What's in the zip

• dist/index.html — the built single-file app (~944 KB). Double-click to open. That's it.
• src/ — the unbuilt source (app.js, app.css, index.html, vite config)
• LICENSE — MIT
• README.md, AI_CONTRIBUTION.md, SECURITY_REVIEW.md, TIMELINE.md — context for the project

If you just want to play, open dist/index.html. If you want to build from source, npm install && npm run build produces the single file in dist/.

What's new vs. the paid itch builds

Synthesist is a parallel branch to the Bioclast (paid) and Causmonaut (Unreal) builds. Some of what's here will be familiar; a lot of it is new ground built specifically for this release:

• Sharable Coordinates. Every location you discover can be packed into a short URL-safe string (the SS1: format, DEFLATE-compressed). Paste it into Discord, Reddit, anywhere. Recipients import it and land at exactly the spot you found.

• The Atlas. A waypoint system for marking and revisiting interesting coordinates. Capture a location, give it a name, add notes. Drag to reorder. Travel between saved locations with smooth parameter transitions. Tour mode plays through your collection sequentially or randomly.

• The Synthesist visual identity. Amber CRT aesthetic, scanline overlays, a draggable dock, a hex radial menu, themed everything. Classic blue theme also available for purists.

• Full UI rebuild. Every panel redesigned around a consistent layout system. Click-to-edit or drag-to-scrub on every numeric value. Hover-revealed speed sliders. Background sphere grid for spatial orientation.

• Free-orbit camera. True 6DOF camera using quaternion math — no pole-snap, you can roll the world upside-down if you want.

• Save / Load. Export your config, profile, waypoints, and thumbnails to a JSON file. Bring them with you across machines, or share entire collections.

• Security hardening. Save-file imports, share-string decoding, and localStorage hydration all go through validators. See SECURITY_REVIEW.md.

What's this actually for

Scale Space is a sandbox first and a tool second. There's no win condition. There's no tutorial yet (in-app onboarding is coming). What there is: ten parameters that govern a particle system, plus visual and movement controls, and a parameter space that contains a lot of things worth finding.

Some suggestions for first-time users:

• Zero out parameters. Then add free energy slowly. Watch what emerges as you add other parameters one at a time.
• Use Optics to refine. The Optics panel is designed to help you look more clearly at your discoveries.
• Capture waypoints. When something interesting shows up, capture it. Your collection becomes a map of your discoveries.
• Share what you find. The share-string is short enough to fit in any chat or post. If you find something striking, send it. You can also export all of your waypoints to share a tour.

Visit r/ScaleSpace if you have questions. It's a friendly community!

Browser support

• Chrome / Edge / Brave / Arc (Chromium 121+) — full support, recommended
• Firefox — partial, WebGPU support varies by version and platform; check about:config for dom.webgpu.enabled
• Safari — WebGPU available in Safari 18+ on macOS Sonoma+; may have visual quirks

If WebGPU isn't available, the app will show a clear message. Nothing breaks silently.

Performance notes

Free energy controls particle count. The default is tuned for mid-range hardware. If you're on a high-end GPU, push it up (the slider's hard ceiling is high). If you're on a laptop or older machine, drop it down.

Tempo affects how fast the system evolves. Lower tempo gives slower, more meditative motion. Higher tempo gets you to weirder states faster, but the system can become disorienting — there's a strobe warning in the UI for a reason. Use caution as you increase Tempo.

Resolution (particle/string size) has a big impact on system performance. Keep resolution low for better performance and increase it when you can't see enough detail.

Known limitations

• No in-app onboarding yet. Check the subreddit for demo videos.
• Mobile is not supported. WebGPU on mobile is still maturing and the UI assumes a pointer.
• Audio functionality not included in this release, but more is coming!
• Multiplayer / shared sessions are planned but post-1.0 so stay tuned to the subreddit.

Scale Space on itch.io

If you want first access to new features, audio integration, additional content, and the full Causmonaut and Bioclast experiences, those are available at setzstone.itch.io/scale-space. Synthesist is the open-source companion; Bioclast is where new work lands first.

Buying it directly supports continued development. This is a one-person project.

Community

• Subreddit: r/ScaleSpace — share waypoints, post discoveries, ask questions. Please share your experience using Synthesist!
• Itch: setzstone.itch.io/scale-space
• GitHub Issues: for bugs and PRs, I'm a one-person team so I'll review when I can.

See you on the other side,

setz