Light has a shape.
Release a dimension. Draw the family it reveals.
One representation, three dimensions.The full drawing is made of filled vector paths. Change the construction in JavaScript; play the resulting snapshot in an unmodified Rive runtime.
The shape is the insight.The caustic envelope reveals where neighboring rays meet. Photon planes expose two released coordinates. Spatial slices show the cost of turning a volume back into drawings.
A geometry study, not a convergence claim.Finite ray families, slice quadrature, transparency and painter ordering are display approximations. These pictures do not implement an unbiased photon estimator or MIS.
Where this fits in RIVX
This newly authored browser adaptation follows the native analytic lens fan, UV emitter-plane sweep and plane/volume diagnostics. It is not generated by the native editor, not a port of the enhanced renderer and not GPU Canvas. JavaScript evaluates and projects the constructions; the official Rive runtime draws actual .riv path geometry. Export retains the current projection and colors. Camera, physics parameters and future edits remain in the browser instrument.
The lens uses two Snell refractions through a sphere and forward intersections of adjacent exit rays; envelope sampling is finite. The UV sweep has an exact first-leg geometric interpretation. The volume example uses nine synthetic kernel centers to isolate sphere/plane intersection and volume quadrature. Its brightness is illustrative. Occlusion, full transport, energy accounting and asymptotic estimator behavior belong to the deeper renderer studies.