False Earth

False Earth is an interactive WebGPU experience that continues the journey of Drift—presenting a continuous landscape generated in real time through GPU-based simulations. Set after the long drift through space, the project follows an astronaut who arrives on a surface that resembles Earth, yet does not behave like one.

The Experience

As the astronaut moves forward, the ground responds and transforms, leaving visible traces across an endless field. Rather than telling a story through words, the experience unfolds through motion and change—where distance never closes and the environment reveals its nature only through interaction. By navigating this unfamiliar terrain, visitors encounter a world that appears stable at first glance, but gradually exposes uncertain form.

Technical Approach

• WebGPU grass: Compute shaders (TSL) for blade position, Voronoi clumping, wind, terrain sampling, and character push—with a stable, tile-free pattern via PCG hash and CPU grid indexing
• LOD: Distance-based level of detail with configurable segment counts and draw buffers
• Procedural terrain: FBM-based height and normals sampled in compute
• VAT roses: Vertex Animation Texture roses with LOD and compute-driven spawn and update
• Character: Third-person character with camera modes (Follow / FPV / Detached) and grass push interaction
• Cosmic beams: Animated beam effects in a separate scene
• Post-processing: TSL pipeline with Bloom, DoF, SMAA; PerformanceMonitor for adaptive DPR