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Documentation Index

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Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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Welcome to Phenomenon

Phenomenon is a very small, low-level WebGL library that provides the essentials to deliver a high performance experience. Its core functionality is built around the idea of moving millions of particles around using the power of the GPU.

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Why Phenomenon?

Building WebGL applications from scratch can be complex and time-consuming. Phenomenon gives you a lightweight foundation to create stunning particle effects and GPU-accelerated graphics without the overhead of larger 3D libraries.

GPU-accelerated

Leverage the full power of your graphics card to render millions of particles at 60fps

Tiny footprint

Just 2kB gzipped with zero dependencies - perfect for performance-critical applications

Highly configurable

Low-level API gives you complete control over shaders, attributes, and uniforms

Dynamic instances

Add and remove particle systems on the fly without performance penalties

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Key features

  • Small in size, no dependencies - Keep your bundle size minimal
  • GPU based for high performance - Render millions of particles smoothly
  • Low-level & highly configurable - Full control over WebGL rendering
  • Helper functions with options - Sensible defaults that you can override
  • Add & destroy instances dynamically - Manage multiple particle systems
  • Dynamic attribute switching - Update particle data on the fly
  • TypeScript support - Full type definitions included

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What you can build

Phenomenon excels at creating:
  • Complex particle systems and effects
  • Data visualizations with thousands of points
  • Interactive 3D graphics and animations
  • GPU-accelerated transitions and morphing effects
  • Custom WebGL rendering pipelines

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Quick look

Here’s what using Phenomenon looks like: 
import Phenomenon from 'phenomenon';

// Create a renderer
const phenomenon = new Phenomenon({
  settings: {
    devicePixelRatio: 1,
    position: { x: 0, y: 0, z: 2 },
  },
});

// Add a particle system
phenomenon.add('particles', {
  attributes: [
    {
      name: 'aPositionStart',
      data: () => [Math.random(), Math.random(), Math.random()],
      size: 3,
    },
  ],
  vertex: `
    attribute vec3 aPositionStart;
    uniform mat4 uProjectionMatrix;
    uniform mat4 uModelMatrix;
    uniform mat4 uViewMatrix;

    void main(){
      gl_Position = uProjectionMatrix * uModelMatrix * uViewMatrix * vec4(aPositionStart, 1.0);
      gl_PointSize = 2.0;
    }
  `,
  fragment: `
    precision mediump float;

    void main(){
      gl_FragColor = vec4(1.0, 0.0, 0.5, 1.0);
    }
  `,
  multiplier: 10000,
});

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Get started

Installation

Install Phenomenon via npm, yarn, or CDN

Quickstart

Build your first particle system in minutes

API Reference

Explore the complete API documentation

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