Light along the ridge.
A dune cut into soft bands of coloured sand, its ridge burning with light from behind over misty dunes beyond. A WebGPU landscape background for React.
Part of Aperveil Pro · Coming soon. The live demo is open; editing and downloads open in a later release. Free shaders and blocks are available now.
THE SYSTEM BEHIND THE SURFACE
Inside Dune Strata.
A single dune curves across the frame: its ridge falls from the upper left and runs out to the right, and light from behind burns along it in a fine white line that blooms into the sky. Below the ridge the sand lies in strata parallel to it, cream to yellow to orange to red to near black, each band melting into the next in a soft gradient and thinning as the curve runs right, with a fine grain that keeps the long gradients from banding. Beyond it, dunes of pale mist overlap, softer and lighter the farther they are, and a warm trail of light crosses the foot of the frame. Wind carries the sand along the bands and a brighter stretch of light travels the ridge; the cursor draws that light along the ridge and shifts the near dune against the far ones. Time of day moves the palette from a pale morning to a violet evening, and Day cycle walks it slowly between them.
Dune Strata is an illustration after a photograph, not a terrain or geology model: its strata do not follow real sediment, and its light is not a simulation of the sky.
1.769 ms GPU timestamp median; p95 2.359 ms. 1440x900 @ dpr 1.5; Apple M2 (8-core GPU), Metal driver on macOS Version 26.6.2 (Build 25G83); measured 2026-10-12. This is a recorded headless sample, not a browser FPS or mobile-performance guarantee.
Flip
Mirror the scene, so the dune rises on the right and leaves open sky on the left.
Strata
How many coloured bands lie under the ridge before the sand darkens.
Band depth
How deep each band of sand is.
Blend
How softly each band turns into the next. Zero gives crisp edges; one, a continuous gradient.
Color Looks preserve these settings. Open the editor for all 22 controls.
THE SURFACE IN CONTEXT
Made for a real interface.
Frame a travel or hospitality brand, an architecture practice, a wellness retreat or an annual report with a calm, cinematic landscape. Set type over the open sky, try White Sands or Daylight for a light page, and use Day cycle for a hero that slowly changes through the day.
Desert retreat · Seven suites
Stay until the light turns.
An illustrative page for a desert retreat, where the evening light is the main event.
An illustrative layout. Your content stays in HTML; the shader sets the atmosphere.
Try this surface in the editorAPERVEIL PRO
Coming soon.
The live demo is open above and in the editor. Editing its settings and downloading it open with Aperveil Pro in a later release. Free shaders and blocks are available now.
Explore shadersA FEW USEFUL DETAILS
Before you ship.
What this surface does, where it fits, and where it stops.
ANOTHER WAY TO SEE IT
Keep exploring.
YOUR COLORS. YOUR CONTEXT.