Show HN: A CSS 3D Engine (no WebGL)(github.com)
23 pointsby rofko4 hours ago4 comments
  • tomaytotomato38 minutes ago
    Always thought it would be cool to make an RTS or simple city builder game in the browser.

    Would you recommend this for hacking around or not?

    • blueboo2 minutes ago
      I think the answer is no, as this is a creative repurposing of css3d as a basis for a general 3d engine. That lets you put web content everywhere, even on the triangles of your teapot. Cool, but extravagant

      Whereas THREE.js or webgl is purpose-built for realtime animated 3d scenes.

    • thih918 minutes ago
      It’s a wide range from an RTS to a city builder. Perhaps try it for a couple of hours and see whether you like it or not.
  • Rohansi2 hours ago
    But why not use WebGL? It's widely available, more efficient, and can render at a much higher quality.

    https://polycss.com/gallery/?model=2843066616

    https://threejs.org/examples/#webgl_animation_multiple

    • rofkoan hour ago
      Hi there! This is not trying to be a three.js replacement, scenes with huge polygon counts naturally should render in canvas.

      For me, the interesting case is smaller low-poly or voxel scenes where loading a full 3D stack may be overkill, and where keeping the scene in DOM/CSS gives you easier integration with normal layout, styling, events, etc. Once you have the HTML, you don't even need to load the library to render a static model.

      Also, part of the experiment is testing the browser’s limits and getting a clearer sense of where this approach works, where it breaks down, and what the tradeoffs are.

      Cheers!

      • woodrowbarlow19 minutes ago
        ha, so you could run this on the server and send down a page with no javascript at all? (with, i assume, a static camera only.) that's fun. i mean, you could also just render the model to an image at that point, but still, this is neat.
    • socalgal2an hour ago
      Same thought. Even that simple Apple on the front pages runs < 60fps on my M1 Mac. Rendering 3D objects with CSS is like rendering Doom in Excel Cells. Yes, you can do it. No you should not do it except as a joke/curiosity.
  • cush2 hours ago
    I give it 15 minutes before someone on here ports Doom
  • sgm1018an hour ago
    wow thats cool