The globe draws the poles as they are, and nothing while idle

The globe is a UV sphere: towards the poles its triangles narrow to
slivers, and texture coordinates interpolated across them pinched the
map into a star around each pole. Each pixel now computes its own
coordinates from its exact point on the sphere, with seam-safe mipmap
gradients; the map wraps horizontally and gets 8x anisotropic
filtering.

That showed a flaw in the day texture: NASA's mosaic has a lighter
strip at its east edge near the poles, a line from each pole once drawn
exactly. The day texture is now built from NASA's original Blue Marble
(December 2004) by tools/globe/prepare-day-texture.py, which blends
that strip into the map where both sides of the seam agree; same
4096x2048 size, provenance and hashes in SOURCES.md.

globe.gl redrew 60 times a second even when nothing moved; it now draws
only during camera flights, hover pulses, auto-rotation and the
reader's drags, so an idle globe costs no GPU time.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01LsXgEaXee4GCU1hwYgPJXw

wwwroot/js/globe.js

@@ -4,8 +4,9 @@
 // Hovering a post pulses a ring where it is and draws an arc to it from PrivaPub's server; leaving it goes back to the
 // view. Posts of servers behind a CDN have no place: they are grouped per CDN in labels on a ring above the Arctic,
 // which says "CDN" rather than any place; hovering one draws its arc to that group and a ring where the server was
-// before the CDN, when PrivaPub saw it there. Day texture with the light theme, night with the dark one; motion follows prefers-reduced-motion, and nothing
-// renders while the page or the globe is hidden. No .NET round-trip on scroll or hover: the posts' places come in one
+// before the CDN, when PrivaPub saw it there. Day texture with the light theme, night with the dark one; motion follows prefers-reduced-motion. It
+// renders only while something moves (a camera flight, a hovered post's pulse, auto-rotation, the reader dragging or
+// zooming) and never while the page or the globe is hidden: an idle globe costs no GPU time. No .NET round-trip on scroll or hover: the posts' places come in one
 // call per feed change (setPosts), the cards are matched by data-post-id.
 
 const vendor = new URL("../vendor/globe/", import.meta.url).href
@@ -47,6 +48,10 @@ export function create(element, scrollContainerId) {
 		renderer: null,
 		texture: null,
 		paused: false,
+		idle: false,
+		running: true,
+		interacting: false,
+		awakeUntil: 0,
 		observers: [],
 		listeners: [],
 		timers: [],
@@ -71,6 +76,7 @@ export function setPosts(posts, self) {
 	state.self = self && Number.isFinite(self.lat) && Number.isFinite(self.lng) ? self : null
 	drawPoints()
 	scheduleView()
+	wake()
 }
 
 // Live numbers for the nerd stats overlay; null until the globe exists.
@@ -95,8 +101,10 @@ export function stats() {
 		fps: state.fps,
 		renderer: state.renderer,
 		texture: state.texture,
+		anisotropy: state.anisotropy,
 		autoRotate: !!state.globe.controls().autoRotate,
 		paused: state.paused,
+		idle: state.idle,
 		hovered: state.hovered && state.points.has(state.hovered) ? state.points.get(state.hovered).label ?? state.hovered : null,
 		arcs: state.globe.arcsData().length,
 		rings: state.globe.ringsData().length
@@ -129,6 +137,7 @@ function resize() {
 	}
 	state.globe.width(width).height(height)
 	pause(document.visibilityState !== "visible")
+	wake()
 }
 
 async function build(width, height) {
@@ -167,9 +176,19 @@ async function build(width, height) {
 			.htmlLng(g => g.lng)
 			.htmlAltitude(0.12)
 			.htmlElement(cdnLabel)
+		sharpen(globe)
 		const controls = globe.controls()
 		controls.autoRotateSpeed = 0.35
 		controls.enableDamping = true
+		controls.addEventListener("start", () => {
+			state.interacting = true
+			wake()
+		})
+		controls.addEventListener("end", () => {
+			state.interacting = false
+			wake(1500)
+		})
+		listen(state.element, "pointermove", () => wake(1000))
 		globe.pointOfView({ lat: 30, lng: 10, altitude: 2.6 * narrowness() }, 0)
 		applyTheme()
 		readRenderer()
@@ -187,6 +206,57 @@ async function build(width, height) {
 	}
 }
 
+// The globe is a UV sphere: towards the poles its triangles narrow to slivers meeting at one point, and texture
+// coordinates interpolated across them pinch the map into a star around the axis. Each pixel computes its own instead,
+// from its exact point on the sphere (the inverse of three.js SphereGeometry's mapping), so the map is drawn the same
+// everywhere. The mipmap level comes from gradients taken on whichever of two longitude ranges has no jump at that pixel,
+// and the map wraps around horizontally (keepSharp), so the 180° meridian shows no seam; anisotropic filtering keeps
+// high latitudes sharp at grazing angles, at 8× at most: sharper than that is barely visible and costs on phones.
+function sharpen(globe) {
+	const material = globe.globeMaterial()
+	material.onBeforeCompile = shader => {
+		shader.vertexShader = shader.vertexShader
+			.replace("#include <common>", "#include <common>\nvarying vec3 vSpherePoint;")
+			.replace("#include <begin_vertex>", "#include <begin_vertex>\nvSpherePoint = position;")
+		shader.fragmentShader = shader.fragmentShader
+			.replace("#include <common>", "#include <common>\nvarying vec3 vSpherePoint;")
+			.replace("#include <map_fragment>", `
+#ifdef USE_MAP
+	vec3 spherePoint = normalize(vSpherePoint);
+	float sphereU = atan(spherePoint.z, -spherePoint.x) / (2.0 * PI);
+	float sphereV = 1.0 - acos(clamp(spherePoint.y, -1.0, 1.0)) / PI;
+	float uWhole = fract(sphereU);
+	float uShifted = fract(sphereU + 0.5) - 0.5;
+	vec2 gradientX = vec2(dFdx(uWhole), dFdx(sphereV));
+	vec2 gradientY = vec2(dFdy(uWhole), dFdy(sphereV));
+	float shiftedX = dFdx(uShifted);
+	float shiftedY = dFdy(uShifted);
+	if (abs(shiftedX) + abs(shiftedY) < abs(gradientX.x) + abs(gradientY.x)) {
+		gradientX.x = shiftedX;
+		gradientY.x = shiftedY;
+	}
+	vec4 sampledDiffuseColor = textureGrad(map, vec2(uWhole, sphereV), gradientX, gradientY);
+	diffuseColor *= sampledDiffuseColor;
+#endif`)
+	}
+	material.customProgramCacheKey = () => "privapub-per-pixel-sphere"
+	material.needsUpdate = true
+	state.anisotropy = Math.min(8, globe.renderer().capabilities.getMaxAnisotropy())
+}
+
+// Every texture the globe loads (a theme change loads the other one) wraps around horizontally, so filtering at the
+// 180° meridian blends the map's two edges instead of clamping each, and gets anisotropic filtering.
+const RepeatWrapping = 1000//three.js's RepeatWrapping: the bundle does not expose THREE
+function keepSharp() {
+	const map = state?.globe?.globeMaterial().map
+	if (map && (map.anisotropy !== state.anisotropy || map.wrapS !== RepeatWrapping)) {
+		map.anisotropy = state.anisotropy
+		map.wrapS = RepeatWrapping
+		map.needsUpdate = true
+		wake(500)
+	}
+}
+
 // Which cards are in view: an IntersectionObserver on every [data-post-id] of the scroll container, re-attached as
 // the list changes; hover by delegation on the container.
 function watchCards() {
@@ -257,10 +327,40 @@ function pause(paused) {
 	if (!state?.globe || state.paused === paused)
 		return
 	state.paused = paused
-	if (paused)
-		state.globe.pauseAnimation()
-	else
+	render()
+}
+
+// globe.gl draws every frame; this keeps its loop running only while the globe is shown and something moves.
+function render() {
+	const run = !state.paused && !state.idle
+	if (run === state.running)
+		return
+	state.running = run
+	if (run)
 		state.globe.resumeAnimation()
+	else
+		state.globe.pauseAnimation()
+}
+
+// Something is about to move: draw for at least ms more.
+function wake(ms = 1500) {
+	if (!state?.globe)
+		return
+	state.awakeUntil = Math.max(state.awakeUntil, performance.now() + ms)
+	if (state.idle) {
+		state.idle = false
+		render()
+	}
+}
+
+// Checked every second: nothing hovered, dragged, rotating or flying, so the last frame can stay on screen.
+function settle() {
+	if (!state?.globe || state.idle)
+		return
+	if (state.hovered || state.interacting || state.globe.controls().autoRotate || performance.now() < state.awakeUntil)
+		return
+	state.idle = true
+	render()
 }
 
 function applyTheme() {
@@ -275,6 +375,7 @@ function applyTheme() {
 	state.colours = null
 	state.globe.atmosphereColor(colour("server", 1))
 	drawPoints()
+	wake(2000)
 }
 
 // The theme's colours, resolved to rgb (the tokens are hsl() of CSS variables, which three.js cannot read).
@@ -392,6 +493,7 @@ function hover(key) {
 	if (!state?.globe || state.hovered === key)
 		return
 	state.hovered = key
+	wake(1300)
 	const post = key && state.points.get(key)
 	drawRings()
 	if (!post) {
@@ -434,6 +536,7 @@ function updateView() {
 		state.view = null
 		state.spreadKm = 0
 		controls.autoRotate = !reducedMotion.matches
+		wake()
 		return
 	}
 	controls.autoRotate = false
@@ -458,6 +561,7 @@ function updateView() {
 function fly(view, ms) {
 	if (!view || !state?.globe)
 		return
+	wake((reducedMotion.matches ? 0 : ms) + 400)
 	state.globe.pointOfView(view, reducedMotion.matches ? 0 : ms)
 }
 
@@ -491,14 +595,16 @@ function countFrames() {
 	const tick = () => {
 		if (state !== current)
 			return
-		if (!state.paused)
+		if (state.running)
 			state.frames++
+		keepSharp()
 		requestAnimationFrame(tick)
 	}
 	requestAnimationFrame(tick)
 	state.timers.push(setInterval(() => {
-		state.fps = state.paused ? 0 : state.frames
+		state.fps = state.running ? state.frames : 0
 		state.frames = 0
+		settle()
 	}, 1000))
 }
 

wwwroot/vendor/globe/SOURCES.md

@@ -1,12 +1,18 @@
 # The globe's vendored files
 
-Copied once from the npm registry (registry.npmjs.org) on 2026-10-04; the build and the app never fetch them from
-anywhere else. To update, download the new tarballs from the registry, copy the same files, and replace the hashes.
+Copied once on 2026-10-04 from the npm registry (registry.npmjs.org) and, for the day texture, from NASA
+(eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov); the build and the app never fetch them from anywhere else. To update, download the new files,
+copy them the same way (the day texture through `tools/globe/prepare-day-texture.py`), and replace the hashes.
+
+NASA's mosaic does not wrap cleanly at the 180° meridian near the poles (a lighter strip at its east edge), which the
+globe, drawing each pixel at its exact place, shows as a line from each pole; the script blends that strip into the
+map on both sides, only on rows where the two sides agree, and gives the rows within half a degree of each pole one
+colour.
 
 | File | From | Licence | sha256 |
 |---|---|---|---|
 | `globe.gl.min.js` | `globe.gl` 2.46.2, `dist/globe.gl.min.js` (UMD, defines `window.Globe`) | MIT, `LICENSE-globe.gl` | `2c3e445c04d121215910a89688b96091c8a72071c122a4f830081a39b636c94c` |
-| `earth-blue-marble.jpg` | `three-globe` 2.45.3, `example/img/earth-blue-marble.jpg`, 4096×2048 | NASA Visible Earth "Blue Marble", public domain | `228deba2e4b600146bdcb6cfa359b8ead6aacc2b1c13550a29cd82824cfa1c01` |
+| `earth-blue-marble.jpg` | NASA Visible Earth, Blue Marble Next Generation with topography and bathymetry, December 2004 (`world.topo.bathy.200412.3x5400x2700.jpg`, sha256 `a9f0088972dee0254610af851c4d6838ca3f2cf79176987e0a5713e2c15ec042`), seam repaired and scaled to 4096×2048 by `tools/globe/prepare-day-texture.py` | NASA, public domain | `1334612d91d5104afb0e48cce916e100575c2969baf99e21454c23535f4ce713` |
 | `earth-night.jpg` | `three-globe` 2.45.3, `example/img/earth-night.jpg`, 4096×2048 | NASA Earth Observatory "Black Marble" (city lights), public domain | `355ab23dd1323315b393d7b91dd2d7ee223a1cbaaba2b48dc72ba90d371ced24` |
 
 `globe.gl.min.js` bundles its dependencies: three.js r185 (MIT, © 2010–2026 three.js authors), three-globe (MIT, © 2019