System: swarm

Structural

Parameter	Default	Range	What it does	Group
palette_steps	0	0 – 16	Quantizes the palette into this many flat bands; 0 leaves it continuous.	colour
points	5	3 – 16	How many points or sides the silhouette has, where the shape has a count at all.	shape, main
star_seed	0	0 – 255	Picks a different arrangement of the same amount of jitter and wobble - a whole number, and every value is as rough as every other.	shape

Modal

Parameter	Default	Range	What it does	Group
force	1.4	0 – 4	How hard the flow field pushes each particle, so higher is faster and straighter.	motion, main
spin	0.3	-2 – 2	Rotational bias added to the flow, curling the paths into vortices.	motion, main
burst	0	0 – 2	An outward impulse from the centre, for a beat to throw the swarm apart.	motion
hue	0	0 – 1	Where this scene reads from the palette, as a coordinate along it rather than a colour.	colour, main
brightness	0.8	0 – 2	The scene’s overall light level, multiplying what it draws before the composite.	light, main
size	1	0 – 4	Size of each particle’s mark.	shape, main
field_freq	2.3	0.5 – 8	Spatial frequency of the flow field; higher makes smaller, busier eddies.	shape
zoom	1	0.25 – 4	Scales the whole scene about its centre; above 1 fills more of the frame.	shape
pan_x	0		Slides the whole scene sideways, in the scene’s own units rather than pixels.	shape
pan_y	0		Slides the whole scene vertically, in the scene’s own units rather than pixels.	shape
hue_spread	1	0 – 1	How far across the palette the particle band reaches.	colour
hue_center	0.5	0 – 1	Where that band sits along the palette.	colour
saturation	1	0 – 1	Pulls the scene’s colour toward grey; 0 is fully desaturated, 1 is the palette’s own.	colour
palette_mix	0	0 – 1	Crossfades from the preset’s palette to its second one; 0 is the first, 1 the second.	colour
palette_contour	0	0 – 1	Draws a line at each band edge when the palette is stepped; 0 draws none.	colour
twinkle	0	0 – 1	Per-particle brightness flicker, seeded so it is reproducible.	light
size_spread	0	0 – 1	How much particle sizes vary about size; 0 makes them uniform.	shape
reseed	0	0 – 1	Crossing zero throws every particle back to a fresh start position.	motion
shape	0	0 – 4	Where on the silhouette roster each mark sits - a disc, a square, a star, and so on; a whole number is that figure exactly and a value between two travels from one to the other.	shape, main
star_valley	0.45	0 – 1	How deep the notches between a star’s points cut; near 1 the star becomes a disc.	shape
star_curve	0	-1 – 1	Bows a star’s edges inward or outward instead of leaving them straight.	shape
star_jitter	0	0 – 1	Randomises each point’s length by a seeded amount, so the star reads as hand-drawn.	shape
star_wobble	0	0 – 1	Waves each edge in and out along its length, leaving the points where they are - the wander a hand-drawn outline has.	motion
star_wobble_freq	1	0.5 – 2.5	How many waves the edge wander fits between a point and the notch beside it. Does nothing while star_wobble is 0.	motion