creative coders generally face a difficult compromise:

  • in the browser (p5.js, three.js, canvas2d): rapid iteration, clean drawing apis, but limited audio precision, browser sandbox limits, and no native vst3 or au plugin support.
  • in native c++ (openframeworks, cinder): high performance, but long compilation cycles that break creative flow on every small aesthetic tweak.

with infinite, we bridged these worlds by embedding a high-performance javascript runtime directly into a native c++ modular daw.

1. the p5-style draw loop

inside any sketch node, you write clean, declarative javascript that hot-reloads on every keystroke without compiling or restarting:

// declare wireable parameters exposed on the node canvas param("points", 8000, 1000, 20000); param("drift", 0.15, 0, 1); param("size", 1.5, 0.5, 4); function draw(t) { background(0.04, 0.04, 0.07); const a = -1.4 + 0.25 * sin(t * drift); const b = 1.6 + 0.2 * cos(t * drift * 0.8); const c = 1.0 + 0.2 * sin(t * drift * 0.6); const d = 0.7; let x = 0.1, y = 0.1; const k = min(width, height) * 0.22; noStroke(); for (let i = 0; i < points; i++) { const nx = sin(a * y) + c * cos(a * x); const ny = sin(b * x) + d * cos(b * y); x = nx; y = ny; if (i > 20) { fill(hsl(0.55 + 0.3 * (i / points), 0.7, 0.65, 0.4)); circle(width / 2 + x * k, height / 2 + y * k, size); } } }

2. wireable parameters: code meets modular graph

the param(...) calls dynamically create real, visual input pins on the node canvas. you can connect:

  • a midi knob to modulate drift.
  • an 8-band audio fft peak to pulse size.
  • a low-frequency oscillator (lfo) to rotate the attractor phase.

infinite modular canvas

3. native rendering performance

unlike web wrappers, the generated vector drawing commands stream directly into hardware-accelerated opengl framebuffers. you can render tens of thousands of points per frame with steady 60fps pacing while multi-track 48khz audio synths run in parallel.

Originally published at https://infinitedevices.org/blog/javascript-sketches.html. Infinite is a free, open-source DAW for visuals, music and code: infinitedevices.org.