Lensing Grid

The Lensing Grid shows a square lattice seen through the gravity of a heavy, invisible mass. Around the mass the lines bend into a bright ring, inside the ring the lattice appears again upside down, and at the very centre the lines crowd together until they vanish into a dark shadow. It is the effect astronomers call gravitational lensing, and the bright circle is an Einstein ring.

How it works

Every point on the floor asks where its light came from before the mass bent it, then draws whatever part of a plain square lattice sits there. Light passing exactly at a certain distance from the mass comes from directly behind it, so that one point is smeared into the ring. Lines brighten where the lens stretches the lattice most, peaking along the ring, which sits on a soft halo.

Settings

• Mass is the radius of the Einstein ring, in cells; 0 leaves the lattice undistorted.
• Orbit sends the lens circling around the centre at that radius; 0 holds it still.
• Ring Glow is the brightness of the ring and its halo.
• Cell Size sets the lattice spacing; Glow Color tints the ring warm gold by default.

Use it for

Space and astronomy content, sci-fi floors, physics explainers and dramatic product reveals where something heavy sits at the centre. Pair it with the Black Hole effect or the Grav Wave Grid.