Eanpa Sky v0.2.1 — Startup fixes

Long first loads were dominated by repeated material compilation and large unrolled cloud shaders. This patch reduces that preparation work and shows the active loading phase.

• Prepare GPU pipelines in bounded groups while keeping TSL graph construction sequential.
• Compile the exact render-pass context and attachments used by the first draw; compile shared local-probe materials once before rendering all six faces.
• Express the existing 20-by-6 atmosphere samples as GPU loops. Cloud sample counts, materials, weather options and the default Earth scene are retained.

Validation: all 77 Node tests pass locally and in CI; 32,768 GPU noise/FBM comparisons match exactly; visual checks cover Earth, Ringworld and Shieldworld, including rain transitions without new pipeline builds. No sample-scene meshes were removed, batched or simplified.

Post-deployment verification: the live default Earth scene reached its first frame in 57.6 seconds, including 40.3 seconds of final warmup. The earlier cache-cleared hosted observation was 77.8 seconds, including 58.4 seconds of warmup. Both bypassed HTTP cache and cleared the browser shader cache; driver caches and background CPU load were uncontrolled. No browser/shader errors were reported, and the deployed renderer/sky files match commit f2a3594. The comparison JSON and final screenshot are attached.

A fresh default visit still transfers roughly 345 MB. The measured system had heavy external shader-compilation activity, so observed startup/FPS figures are not clean hardware comparisons. CPU-throttled checks retain the physical RTX 5090 Laptop GPU and do not emulate a named lower-end GPU.

Live demo · Recorded measurements and limitations

Eanpa Sky v0.2

Release notes

0.2.0 — 2026-09-10

The standalone sky and weather overhaul, including the subsequent visual-review
corrections, is available in the live demo.

• Native PBR reflections combine screen-space geometry, a local probe and the
  sky environment. Motion/depth validation and skinned-mesh history address
  reflection stripes and jitter while preserving chrome and material response.
• Shared cloud shadows cover ordinary scene geometry. Cloud motion, weather
  transitions, sunset projection and shadow publication remain continuous.
• Cirrus and distant Ringworld clouds have revised structure and motion.
  Ringworld terrain uses eroded relief, corrected material projection and level
  seas; the daytime eclipse follows the observer and lights the band consistently.
• Rain uses local cloud coverage and arbitrary surface exposure. Sloped impacts,
  shelter-aware audio, wetness and puddles share the surface system. Moisture
  accumulates after local rain arrives and persists as the cloud moves away.
• The red giant retains animated plasma, finer surface detail and sunspots, with
  radiant flares on its limb and front. Moon fragments keep bounded clearance.
• Weather warmup, renderer resource ownership and shared sky caches reduce
  avoidable stalls and repeated work. Lighting, lightning and player contact
  fixes are included alongside the retained regression checks.
• GitHub Pages now deploys a checked runtime package through Actions. Editor and
  source duplicates stay in GitHub without consuming the hosted site's budget.

Validation includes 70 Node tests, numerical GPU contracts, visual captures and
normal-speed motion recordings. Shared sky/effects benchmarks include native
5090 runs and explicit CPU/GPU stress conditions; those simulations do not
represent a named lower-end device. Quality labels are workload targets, not
frame-rate caps. Startup compilation can still be expensive.

See known limitations, the
overhaul report, and the September
8, 9 and
10 follow-up reports for evidence and scope.

Deployment verification

GitHub Actions tests and deployment passed. The hosted version and ten core files match the release commit. The hosted Balanced Ringworld ran for over 7,500 frames with rain and no missing resources or shader errors. Its cold startup took several minutes; startup compilation remains an optimization target.