DNA Helix
A rotating DNA double helix: two strands of glowing instanced spheres spiral around a vertical axis, linked by base-pair rungs, with color running as a gradient along the helix and bloom selling the glow.
Build a self-contained, performant Canvas 2D visual effect in a single React + TypeScript component.
Effect: "DNA Helix".
Description: A rotating DNA double helix: two strands of glowing instanced spheres spiral around a vertical axis, linked by base-pair rungs, with color running as a gradient along the helix and bloom selling the glow.
Current settings: base pairs = 36, radius = 1.4, turns = 4, speed = 1, color = Dual, hue = 200, second hue = 330.
Tags: 3d, webgl, three.js, r3f, helix, glow.
Requirements:
- Use requestAnimationFrame with a delta-time (dt) step, clamped to avoid jumps on tab switches.
- Render crisply: fully clear the canvas every frame (clearRect). Do NOT fake motion blur by painting a translucent background each frame, because that causes permanent 8-bit "ghost" burn-in. If you want trails, store each particle's recent positions and draw them as an explicit fading tail.
- If many short-lived particles are spawned, use an object pool (pre-allocate, reuse, swap-remove on death) to avoid GC pauses.
- Scale the backing store by devicePixelRatio (cap ~2) and handle resize.
- Pause when the tab is hidden or the canvas is off-screen; respect prefers-reduced-motion.
- Expose the listed settings as adjustable props/controls.