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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Volume rendering 3D data in Three.js and GLSL

I've been going through Cem Yuksel's "Introduction to Computer Graphics" course and thought that writing a volume renderer would be a good way to test my knowledge. It is a common technique used to render 3D medical data. Works by ray marching a specific step size, reading a 3D texture (e.g. MRI data), and calculating opacity values. Code should be easy to get started with for anyone familiar with the JS ecosystem. Questions for the HN community: I spent 20-25% of the entire time just setting up the project and fighting issues with the JavaScript ecosystem. This experience has made me…

This is a volume renderer built with Three.js and GLSL that displays 3D medical data like MRI scans using ray marching techniques. It's designed for developers familiar with JavaScript who want to learn graphics… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Volume rendering 3D data in Three.js and GLSL launched in 2024; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

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    I'm the co-creator and maintainer of https://aframe.io/ and long time Web 3D graphics dev. Super excited about new techniques to author / render / represent 3D. Spark is a an open source library to easily integrate Gaussian splats in your THREE.js scene I worked with some friends and I hope you find useful. Looking forward to hearing what features / rendering techniques you would love to see next.

    2025 · sparkjs.dev · its alternatives →

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    Render 3D models (OBJ, glTF, GLB, STL, .vox) as ASCII art — in the browser, in React or Vue, or straight in your terminal. A three.js-style API with no WebGL and no canvas: just text in a single <pre>.

    Jun 2026 · glyphcss.com · its alternatives →

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    It's been closed source for a long time while I worked on it on and off as a hobby research project, but yesterday the repo was made public for the first time under the MPL 2.0 license. A feature reel showing its capabilities can be found here: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ktstephano.github.io&#x2F;rendering&#x2F;stratusgfx&#x2F;feature_re... A technical breakdown of a single frame can be found here: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ktstephano.github.io&#x2F;rendering&#x2F;stratusgfx&#x2F;frame_anal... It's still in a very beta state (bugs and instability expected), but I felt like it was a good time to make it…

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

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    Many JS libraries exist to build graphs on the web (Vega, chartJS, Plotly...). They allow to make charts quickly. But you lose flexibility: you're limited by the options they offer. I just created a gallery with hundreds of graphs made with d3.js and React. - Examples are split by graph types - They all come with explanation and code sandboxes - Gradual complexity to ease the learning curve It took me ages to create this project! Feedback welcome!

    2023 · react-graph-gallery.com · its alternatives →

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    Mobile-first 3D mapping engine with emphasis on user experience - felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

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    Here's a project I've been working on for a little while now. Ripl is a JS library that provides a unified API for rendering shapes on both canvas and SVG interchangeably. Over the years I've used D3 extensively to create data visualisations so I figured I'd have a go at making my own version with a slightly more modern API and stricter TypeScript support. I am aware there are already libraries that can draw to multiple contexts interchangeably, but I've added a few little niceties to Ripl that (as far as I know) some other libraries don't have such as CSS-like query selectors, DOM-like…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8FP

    Hello HN users, This is a CAD by code project I have been working on on my free time for more than year now. I built it with 3 goals in mind: - It should be familiar to CAD designers who have used other programs. Same workflow, same terminology. - Reduce the mental effort required to create models as much as possible. This is achieved by: - Provide live rendering and visual guidance as you type. - Allow the user to reference existing edges&#x2F;faces on the scene instead of having to calculate everything. - Provide interactive mouse helpers for features that are hard to write by code: Only 3…

    Apr 2026 · fluidcad.io · its alternatives →

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    Voxel-engine in Javascript. Contribute to Lallassu/voxelengine3 development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10TJ

    A JavaScript Library for creating SVG patterns

    2015 · riccardoscalco.github.io · its alternatives →

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    How can you make affine transformations (the only ones SVGs are capable of) resemble perspective transformations?

    2025 · seve.blog · its alternatives →

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    Over the weekend I was discussing the latest news relating to open weights with some of my non-techie friends. After 30 mins of waffling, I realised it is quite a long and interesting story, with many twists and turns. I've always wanted to create a 'long scroll' story, but have never found a suitable story to tell. This felt like a fun weekend project to undertake. The story itself doesn't have too many scroll effects (which is probably a good thing), it was more about trying to tell a story with a certain style that wouldn't really fit on my personal blog. Would love to get your feedback…

    2020 · blog.scottlogic.com · its alternatives →

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    A CSS 3D engine for the DOM. Renders polygon meshes in HTML by leveraging matrix3d transforms. - GitHub - layoutit/polycss: A CSS 3D engine for the DOM. Renders polygon meshes in HTML by leveraging matrix3d transforms.

    Dec 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

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    map33.js is a JavaScript library to build 3D maps. Made by Openbloc with three.js.

    2020 · map33.openbloc.com · its alternatives →

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    Hi all This has been my hobby project for quite a few years now It started as a small engine to serve as a sandbox to try out new 3d graphics ideas After adding many features through out the years and re-writing the entire engine a few times, this is the latest state It currently supports loading models with animations, textures, lights, shadow maps, normal maps, and some other goodies I've also recently added voxel raymarching as an alternative renderer, along with a fun physics simulation :)

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    I made a GLSL shader that bends 3D space using a 4D hypersphere projection. The idea: 1. Project a model onto a 4D sphere 2. Rotate the sphere 3. Project the model back to 3D Code and details: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;bntre&#x2F;CurvedSpaceShader Curious what you think.

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21PV

    2016 · guillaumechereau.github.io · its alternatives →

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    A minimalist three-dimensional coding environment. Control 8x8x8 dots with a single JavaScript function.

    2021 · doersino.github.io · its alternatives →

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    One-click photorealistic rendering for 2D designers

    2019 · vectary.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    A CSS 3D engine for the DOM. Renders polygon meshes in HTML by leveraging matrix3d transforms. - GitHub - layoutit/polycss: A CSS 3D engine for the DOM. Renders polygon meshes in HTML by leveraging matrix3d transforms.

    Jun 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →