Swarm Palettes & Modes

Unified reference for color presets, formation modes, and texture profiles.

The Generator: 8 Color Presets

The Generator uses a three-stop color system. Every pixel interpolates between these stops based on signal intensity and distance from the hub.

Stop
Purpose

Signal Base

Darkest tone, faint trails, quiet zones

Signal Bright

Primary network color, well-traveled paths

Hub Accent

Blended into the central hub and highest-intensity areas

Preset Table

Palette
Base
Bright
Accent
Character

Shumi Gold (default)

#1A1408

#D4A84B

#D97757

Warm amber, burnt orange

Emerald

#061A0A

#2ECC71

#1ABC9C

Bioluminescent green

Violet

#0D0815

#9B59B6

#E74C8B

Purple-magenta neural glow

Ice

#060D1A

#5DADE2

#AED6F1

Cool blue, ethereal

Ember

#1A0A04

#E74C3C

#F39C12

Fire and molten gold

Toxic

#0A1A04

#39FF14

#BFFF00

Neon green, cyberpunk

Rose

#1A0810

#E91E63

#FF6F91

Pink-magenta, soft organic

Mono

#0D0D0D

#CCCCCC

#FFFFFF

Grayscale, raw topology

Custom Palettes

Click any of the three color pickers to define custom colors. Tips:

  • Keep Signal Base very dark (near black). It forms the void between trails.

  • Signal Bright is the primary color. Choose the most saturated, distinctive color first.

  • Hub Accent appears only at the center. Use it as a contrast pop.

  • High contrast between Base and Bright produces the most legible networks


The Stencil: 8 Palettes x 4 Formation Modes

Palettes

The Stencil uses a different palette set from the Generator, optimized for mascot compositions. Each palette defines mascot colors, background colors, and chromatic aberration tints.

Palette
Mascot Bright
BG Bright
Chromatic Tints

Ember

#E0B860

#9A8A55

Warm orange / Cool cyan

Frost

#70B0E0

#507898

Blue / Purple

Moss

#88C870

#608858

Green / Yellow

Pearl

#C0B8B0

#807870

Lavender / Mauve

Bloom

#D880B8

#906878

Pink / Teal

Honey

#E0C860

#988850

Gold / Blue

Tide

#6888C0

#506888

Blue / Orange

Rust

#C88060

#8A6050

Copper / Teal

Palette selection is seed-deterministic: seed % 8 selects the palette. Per-seed color drift applies ±8° hue, ±5 saturation, ±3 luminance shifts.

Formation Modes

Mode
Key
Rendering
Character

Ramp

1

ASCII char ramp (·:;=+*#%@)

Classic Shumi look

Code

2

Code-style ASCII characters

Matrix / source code

Mold

3

Pixel-based smooth trails

Organic mold, high fidelity

Hybrid

4

ASCII + pixel blending

Layered, textured

Texture Profiles

Both the Stencil and the Masked share the same 8 texture profiles (selected by Math.floor(seed / 8) % 8):

Texture
Speed
Diffusion
Deposit
Character

Standard

Medium

0.25

12

Warm baseline glow

Crystalline

Slow

0.10

18

Sharp veins, gem-like

Smoke

Fast

0.45

8

Ghostly dissolving haze

Coral

Slow

0.18

14

Dense branching networks

Silk

Fast

0.30

6

Thin delicate threads

Electric

Very fast

0.15

10

Streaky lightning paths

Flow

Medium

0.42

4

Wide flowing rivers

Spore

Medium

0.20

16

Tight clusters, bright nodes


The Masked: Fully Automatic

The Masked has no manual palette or mode controls. Everything is seed-determined:

  • Palette: seed % 8 → same 8 palettes as the Stencil

  • Texture: seed / 8 % 8 → same 8 texture profiles

  • Color drift: Per-seed hue/saturation/luminance shift

  • Parameter jitter: ±10% variation within each texture profile

This gives 64 base combinations (8 palettes × 8 textures), each with infinite color drift variation.


Same Seed, Three Looks

The same seed number will select the same palette and texture in the Stencil and the Masked, but the Generator uses its own independent color presets. The visual result differs because:

Generator
Stencil
Masked

Palette source

Manual preset buttons

Seed-determined

Seed-determined

Texture

Fixed (user controls all params)

Seed-determined

Seed-determined

Color drift

None (manual colors)

Per-seed

Per-seed

Rendering

Pixel-based signal map

ASCII or pixel (4 modes)

Pixel-based masking

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