Planetesimal
Planetesimal is a space-themed audio-reactive scene in BeamTracer Audio Visualizers, built on WebGPU. Settings, audio modulation, presets, and tips.
Planetesimal is a space-themed audio-reactive scene in the Space category. Open it from the left visualizer list, start an audio source, and use the settings panel to shape its response.
Open Planetesimal
Launch the visualizer with its matching left-nav entry selected.
Interesting facts
Planetesimals are the small rocky and icy bodies — from roughly kilometers to a few thousand kilometers across — left over from the earliest stage of planet building, when dust grains in a young star's disc stuck together into ever-larger clumps. BeamTracer's particle field is an artistic stand-in for that swarm, not a physically accurate reconstruction of any single disc.
- They start as dust, not rock. The process begins with grains smaller than a human hair; gas in the disc helps particles collide gently enough to stick, gradually building pebbles, then boulders, then planetesimals.
- Most of today's asteroids are unfinished planets. Asteroids are essentially the original planetesimals of the inner solar system that never merged into a full planet; combined, they add up to less than the mass of Earth's Moon.
- Vesta is a near-miss protoplanet. At about 530 kilometers across, Vesta is the largest asteroid and shows the layered crust, mantle, and core of a body that started differentiating like a real planet before its growth stalled.
- NASA's Dawn mission visited two survivors. Dawn orbited both Vesta and the icy dwarf planet Ceres, finding two very different outcomes — a dry, rocky protoplanet and a body with a water-ice-rich crust — from bodies that formed only a short distance apart.
- OSIRIS-REx brought a planetesimal home. The mission collected over 120 grams of material from the asteroid Bennu and returned it to Earth in 2023, revealing carbon, water-bearing minerals, and organic compounds preserved since the solar system's infancy.
These details are summarized from NASA Science's asteroids overview, NASA Science's Dawn mission overview, and NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission to Bennu.
Quick start
- Start the demo track, choose a local audio file, or enable a live input.
- Try a preset or style first, then open the section for the part of the image you want to change.
- On a control with Assign modulation, open the source picker, choose a signal, and watch the slider's live fill.
- Use Reset to Defaults whenever you want to return to the original look.
Presets and styles
Inferno · Cosmic · Solar · Void · Aurora · Ember
Audio modulation
On a control with Assign modulation, select the activity icon to open Modulate with. Choose a named source, or choose — None to leave the control unmodulated. After you assign one, its name appears below the slider; select that name to edit the route, or use Clear modulation to remove it. The slider track shows the live signal reaching the control.
| Modulated control | Section | What the route changes |
|---|---|---|
| Light Intensity | Core | Sets the visible light intensity. |
| Bloom Strength | Material | Sets the visible bloom strength. |
| Attraction Strength | Animation | Sets the visible attraction strength. |
| Noise Scale | Animation | Sets the visual noise scale. |
Settings reference
Core
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Particle Count | 1000–50000 | Sets how many visible elements are drawn. |
| Particle Size | 0–3 | Sets the visible particle size. |
| Light Intensity | 0–3 | Sets the visible light intensity. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
Material
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Bloom Enabled | On / Off | Turns bloom enabled on or off. |
| Bloom Strength | 0–1.5 | Sets the visible bloom strength. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Bloom Radius | 0–1 | Sets the visible bloom radius. |
| Bloom Threshold | 0–1 | Sets the level that must be crossed before bloom appears. |
Colors
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Color Theme | INFERNO, COSMIC, SOLAR, VOID, AURORA, EMBER | Chooses the color theme mode or style. |
Audio
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Master Gain | 0.5x–3x | Sets how strongly the input signal affects master. |
| Bass Intensity | 0–5 | Sets the visible bass intensity. |
| Mid Intensity | 0–5 | Sets the visible mid intensity. |
| High Intensity | 0–5 | Sets the visible high intensity. |
| Smoothing | 0–0.99 | Balances immediate audio response against steadier motion. |
Animation
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Attraction Strength | 0.1–3 | Sets the visible attraction strength. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Noise Scale | 1–15 | Sets the visual noise scale. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Noise Speed | 0.01–0.2 | Sets how quickly noise changes or moves. |
| Auto Gravitate | On / Off | Turns auto gravitate on or off. |
| Mouse Interaction | On / Off | Turns mouse interaction on or off. |
| Particle Respawn | On / Off | Turns particle respawn on or off. |
| Respawn Rate | 0.0001–0.1 | Sets how quickly respawn changes or moves. |
Some controls appear only after you enable a related mode or style. The settings panel always reflects the options available for the current selection.
Tips for a better audio visualization
- Use bass for the largest orbital or camera motion and highs for stars, sparks, or glow accents.
- Try assigning Bass to Light Intensity, then compare Mid, High, and Volume while the demo track plays. The slider's live fill shows the signal reaching that control.