Dot Noise
- Auto-discovered
Xor
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Dot Noise is a September 2025 GM Shaders Mini article by Xor presenting a cheap aperiodic 3D noise alternative built from gyroid-like sine and cosine combinations.
It starts from periodic gyroids, then uses golden-ratio frequencies and a golden-angle rotation matrix so waves do not align, giving a small GLSL-style dot_noise function ranging roughly from -3 to 3. It discusses cloud and fluid uses, fractal layering, and drawbacks when large flat scenes still show underlying wave structure.
It is for intermediate shader authors who sample 3D noise many times per pixel and need something cheaper than Value, Perlin, or Simplex. Basic GLSL vector math is assumed.
The piece is a free Substack post with formulas, demos, and related Mini articles on related noise tricks.
It is useful as a drop-in low-cost noise for volumetric or layered effects when classic noise is too expensive.
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