into the world

I finally finished turning the reverb from my game engine into a VST plugin, modifying it in the process to add more parameters and rework the code to be more true to its original inspiration. There's a handful of presets to show what it can do; hopefully the parameters are named somewhat sensibly too.

It's based on the Datorro Figure 8 algorithm (pdf). I don't think it's quite right, because I took the base delay times directly from the paper, which are apparently tuned specifically to work with a bizarre samplerate (29,761 Hz!?). When I tried to modify the algorithm to be samplerate-independent though it introduced some really bad ringing into the signal, so I went back to the original (presumably incorrect, for modern samplerates) delay times.

The final plugin does still exhibit some low level ringing which I couldn't completely remove, but I think it's good enough for my purposes, and a lot better than the horrible metallic sound you get from the freeverb algorithm.

Download into the world

Controls: mouse

The Rules:

• The file at this link will be deleted 1 month from now (6/9/25).
• All downloads are zipfiles containing a Windows executable (in this case, a Windows VST3 plugin).
• All source code and assets are included, licensed under the GPL.
• As long as you abide by the license, you can do whatever you want with the download.

Further Reading

Jenny Odell on cloud watching

... and on Nan Shepard's The Living Mountain

How Am I Going to Be Charlotte Flair Today?; turns out Charlotte Flair can write.

Fun interactive article about how to create physarum simulations.

hi my name is sam and this is my petition to STOP HURTING MEG IN FAMIL Y GUY!!! (CW: abuse, alcoholism)

Some absolutely beautiful Appalachian(?) folk music (listen to that awed silence at the end!)

Considering the majority of his lyrics from Pulp's heyday, it's really something to see someone like Jarvis Cocker write earnestly about love.

A beautiful story about an internet community showing up for a lonely, hurting teenager back in the early 2000's.

Sarah McCarry: Starfish (CW: substack 😞):

"I was born into this empire and I live off its monstrous bounty and I will die under its weight. But I do know how to dream of flight. I know to go out into the forest and hold the green air in my lungs. I know how to find the web of care spun in light and darkness, in all seasons, in all weathers. The spider does not draw attention to her work. But it is everywhere. It spans distances far greater than her body. Dew-strung, it gleams when the light hits it. That is not a metaphor either. It is true that beauty lives in every corner of this burning earth."

I'm writing this off the back of a stressful week at work, and it's been a month since I've had even a single day to myself, but I've got two weeks off now and I plan on going out into the garden, up the hill, into the woods. I want to breathe deep and feel my body moving through the world. The air was so clear this morning I could see the wind turbines on the horizon as sharp as pins. I sat down to write this and realised I am suddenly hungry for the world. Hungry to be outside and moving. Sending all my best wishes and whatever strength I can spare if you've found yourself struggling under the weight of it all.