---
title: "Tube Playfield"
package: "@phaser-ae/vector-tube"
tier: Free
version: 3.0.0-4
released: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-20
description: "The playfield of a tube shooter, lanes running to a vanishing point between a near rim and a far one, with the lane maths to place and move everything on it."
url: https://phaser.io/packs/vector-tube
site: Phaser - https://phaser.io
---

# Tube Playfield

The playfield of a tube shooter: lanes running away to a vanishing point between a near rim the player crawls around
and a far rim the enemies climb out of. This pack is the geometry and the lane arithmetic; what moves on it is up to
the game.

## What it does

`generateTube` builds the web once and hands back a `Tube`: the two rims, the spokes between them, and the functions
that place and move things on it, so a game puts a player, an enemy or a shot at a lane and a depth without doing the
perspective itself. `laneAt(lane, t)` gives a lane's centre at a depth, facing out of the tube, with the scale to draw
it at there.

There are five silhouettes, `circle`, `square`, `plus`, `vee` and `star`, or any authored `path`. Lanes are shared out
among the silhouette's edges so that every corner falls on a lane boundary, which keeps a plus a plus rather than a
rounded blob. Lanes can therefore differ in length, which is why there are two ways to move: by lanes, and by distance.
`advance`, `glide` and `steer` move at a constant speed in world units on any profile; `stepLane` and `wrapLane` work
in lanes.

Open webs change the game. `vee` is open and the rest close into a loop: on a closed web, crawling past the last lane
wraps round to the first, and on an open one it stops. Every lane helper takes that into account, so the game never
has to branch on it. Lane numbers are continuous, whole numbers at lane centres and fractions gliding between them,
and depth runs from 0 at the near rim to 1 at the far one.

## Features

- **Five profiles and authored webs** — `circle`, `square`, `plus`, `vee` and `star`, or any `path` in unit space,
  with every corner on a lane boundary.
- **Placement** — `laneAt` for a lane's centre, angle and scale at any depth, and `rimAt` and `rimPointAt` for drawing
  edges and spikes.
- **Closed and open webs** — `wrapLane` wraps on a closed web and clamps on an open one; `laneDelta` and `arcDelta`
  measure the short way round.
- **Constant-speed movement** — `advance`, `glide` and `steer` move by world units, so the player crawls at one speed
  on every profile.
- **Angle steering** — `angleOf`, `laneAtAngle` and `turn` about the web's centre, for a spinner or a dial.
- **Mouse picking** — `laneOf` finds the lane whose rim is nearest a point.
- **Leaning and turning** — offset the vanishing point and the tube leans away; `rot` spins the whole web.

## Good for

- **Tube shooters** — the classic web of lanes, in the style of Tempest and Tempest 2000.
- **Ring shooters** — lanes round a ring with enemies coming out of the centre, in the style of Gyruss.
- **Open-well shooters** — a vee-shaped web whose ends stop rather than wrap.
- **Spinner and mouse control** — a dial or a pointer mapped straight to a lane.

## Make it yours

`generateTube` takes the `lanes` (16 by default), the `profile` or a `path`, whether it is `closed`, the near rim's
centre and radius (`x`, `y`, `near`), the far rim's radius (`far`, smaller for a deeper tube), the vanishing point
(`vanishX`, `vanishY`) and a `rot`. A path with as many edges as lanes gives exactly one lane per edge, which is how an
authored web becomes a tube.

Two quite different playfields from the same call: a sixteen-lane star with a deep far rim, where the player's claw
moves at one speed on the arrow keys and glides to the lane under the mouse; and an eight-lane open vee leaning to
one side, where the claw stops dead at each end of the well. For the full rules of the genre, `rim-shooter` hands this
pack its webs directly.

## A quick look

A star web, drawn, with the player's claw steered at one speed and placed on the near rim:

```ts
const web = game.vecTube.generateTube({ x: 640, y: 380, near: 320, far: 90, lanes: 16, profile: 'star' });
game.vector.poly(web.nearRim, { color: '#41d6ff', width: 2.6, closed: web.closed });
for (const [a, b] of web.spokes) game.vector.seg(a.x, a.y, b.x, b.y, { color: '#1d3a63' });
let claw = web.bottom;
claw = web.steer(claw, dir * 880 * dt);                    // dir -1 left, +1 right
const p = web.laneAt(claw, 0);                             // where to draw it, its facing and scale
```

## Works with

- `vector-2d` — draws the rims, the spokes and everything on them.
- `rim-shooter` — the rules of the genre (enemies, spikes, power-ups, levels and a library of webs), whose web view
  feeds this pack directly.
- `world-3d` and `render-3d` — for a real 3D tunnel rather than a 2D perspective.

## Good to know

- The tube is built once: to change its shape or its lane count, build another.
- Depth is linear between the rims, not a perspective projection; map it through `1 / z` yourself, or through
  `rim-shooter`'s perspective helper, for true spacing.
- Angle steering assumes each ray from the centre meets the rim once, which every built-in profile does; a custom path
  that doubles back steers erratically by angle, so move it by distance instead.
- It gives you where things are, not what they do: collision, waves and enemy behaviour are the game's, or
  `rim-shooter`'s.

---

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