snow-caps-on-peaks

name: snow-caps-on-peaks description: Place SVG snow caps so they sit ON mountain peaks and read as snow, not floating triangles or down-arrows. Use whenever drawing or fixing snow on a mountain silhouette (e.g. ParallaxHero MountainsSilhouette).

Snow Caps On Peaks

A snow cap must look like snow that has settled on a peak. The two failure modes you keep hitting:

1. Arrow-shaped polygons — a multi-point shape (peak + dip back down + base) reads as a down-arrow or diamond, not snow.
2. Floating snow — caps drawn on the back/blurred parallax layer end up disconnected from any visible peak because the back silhouette is dim and blurred. The snow appears to hover in the sky between front peaks.

Rules

1. A snow cap is a single triangle. Three points: peak apex on top, two base points below. Nothing else. No concave shapes, no double-pointed crowns, no "M" curves.
2. Apex sits exactly at the peak coordinate. If the mountain peak is at (390, 55), the snow apex is (390, 55) — same x, same y. Not above, not offset.
3. Base points sit ON the mountain slopes. For a peak at (px, py) with left slope descending to (lx, ly) and right slope descending to (rx, ry), choose a base depth d (typically 15–22 px), then compute base points by walking down each slope:
   • left base: (px - (px - lx) * d / (ly - py), py + d)
   • right base: (px + (rx - px) * d / (ry - py), py + d) This guarantees the base sits inside the silhouette and the cap inherits the mountain's slope angle.
4. Only cap the FRONT layer. The back parallax layer uses opacity: 0.55 and filter: blur(1px) — snow drawn on it looks floaty and detached. Leave back peaks bare (or use a faint dusting via a path stroke, never a freestanding triangle).
5. Cap only the tallest 1–2 peaks per scene. Capping every peak looks busy and reads as wallpaper, not weather. Pick the dominant front summits.
6. Color/opacity: plain #ffffff at opacity 0.85–0.95. No gradients. The contrast against the dark silhouette IS the snow.
7. Day version uses the same triangle. Snow stays white in daylight; just keep the same polygon points in the day SVG so the silhouette doesn't morph during day/night crossfade.

Anti-patterns (do not do)

• polygon points="370,80 390,55 410,80 405,90 395,82 385,90" — six points, concave bottom = down-arrow.
• Snow on the back layer at a y-position that lands between two front peaks — looks like a floating diamond in the sky.
• Snow with apex above the peak coordinate (e.g. peak at y=55, snow apex at y=45) — reads as a hat hovering above the mountain.
• Tiny snow squares or rects — read as windows, not snow.

Checklist before claiming done

• Every snow polygon is exactly 3 points.
• Every snow apex matches a front-peak (x, y) from the silhouette path.
• No snow on the back layer.
• At most 2 caps per scene.
• Same polygons appear in both night and day SVGs.
• Visual check (screenshot, day AND night): caps sit on peaks, no floating shapes between mountains.