How to program Gaussian splats: what one splat is, how the Splashes are built, and a small
language for writing your own splat equations, and Splashes that show pictures and read
what you type.
Almost every Splash in the
Splashery Playground
is made of Gaussian splats: hundreds of thousands of soft, colored blobs that blend into a
solid-looking thing. This manual is for anyone who knows some math and wants to make
splats do what they say. It goes chapter by chapter. You can stop after any chapter and
still have something to play with.
New to the Playground? Using Splashery comes first: what is on
the screen, what the buttons do, and the views that let you see inside the drawing.
Splashery is primarily splat based, but not entirely. Two honest exceptions:
The photo Splashes (3D Photo and 3D Video) open in a Sharp view, a second way to
see the same photo: the picture at its full resolution on a textured relief (a mesh of
triangles) lifted by the same depth, so small text stays readable. That view is not
drawn with splats; the splats are switched off while it shows. The Splats / Sharp switch
in the Splash sheet brings the splats back.
Night Sky draws its sky, ground, stars, Moon, Sun, and planets with textured meshes;
only its constellation lines, the ring a tap draws, and the compass letters are splats
(Chapter 7). (The Studio Splashes are behind the labs switch; see "What else Splashery
does now".)
