# Glide Through Stone Pillars

- Collected by: petergpt (collection) (original author unknown)
- Card: Verified rebuild
- Theme: Explorable worlds
- Stack: Three.js CDN · three@0.170.0
- Interaction: Pointer
- Licence: prompt is a credited link (Shared publicly by the author; full text with credit, removed on request); rebuild code MIT
- Verified: 2026-11-08
- Original post: https://github.com/petergpt/3d-prompt-collection/blob/HEAD/README.md#prompt-30

## Original prompt

```text
Create a majestic Three.js world of the Zhangjiajie stone forest: hundreds of impossibly tall sandstone pillars crowned with pines, rising out of rivers of drifting mist, with the viewer already airborne among them. Open directly in flight between two great pillars, mist parting below, sunlight raking across rock faces — no title screen, menu, loading state, or ground-bound start.

If you use Three.js, add an import map before the module script mapping "three" and "three/addons/" to the same pinned version, and import only via those names. Generate all terrain, rock, vegetation, mist and light procedurally; no external image assets or models.

Single idea: the world that inspired floating mountains — explored by the gentlest possible flight.

#### THE STONE FOREST
- Build pillars with real geological character: banded sandstone strata, sheer faces, ledges holding gnarled pines, vines and ferns on shaded sides, white rock scars where light hits. Vary heights and groupings so canyonscapes form natural corridors and amphitheaters.
- Mist is a living layer, not fog soup: rivers of cloud flowing between pillars, tearing on edges, pooling in basins, with clear sunlit air above. Pillars should emerge and vanish as mist drifts.
- Stage famous human touches small and far: a glass skywalk bridging two summits, a cable car sliding along its line, a winding stair carved into one face, tiny hikers for scale.

#### LIFE AMONG THE PILLARS
- Macaques scrambling on a ledge, cranes crossing the void, swifts spiraling around summits, a waterfall threading from a cleft into the mist below, pine branches moving in the wind.

#### LIGHT AND AIR
- Morning light, golden on east faces, cool blue in shadowed canyons, mist glowing where sun strikes it; saturated greens; bright and crystalline throughout.

#### THE GLIDE
- The single interaction is a foolproof glide: constant gentle airspeed, mouse steers heading and pitch within soft limits, automatic banking, no stall, no collision punishment — drifting near a wall simply eases the camera away. Flying must feel like a crane, not a fighter jet.
- Reset returns to the hero corridor. Presets: summit-skimming pass, deep-canyon mist run, skywalk flyby, and a high circling overview of the whole stone forest. An auto-tour toggle flies the route hands-free.
- Tiny HUD: altitude only. Compact collapsible UI.

#### PERFORMANCE DISCIPLINE
- Instanced pines and rock detail, LOD by distance, layered mist planes or volumetric-feeling shaders kept cheap, devicePixelRatio clamped to 2, quality selector reducing far pillar detail before near rock or mist. Smooth on a modern laptop.
```

Known issue: The pillars read as smooth, lumpy tubes with painted strata, not crisp, sheer sandstone faces.

Prompt collected by petergpt; original author unknown (https://github.com/petergpt/3d-prompt-collection/blob/HEAD/README.md#prompt-30) via 3dmotion.io/e/glide-through-stone-pillars