Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

Weekend project is an interactive 3D visualization of the solar system built with WebGL, using orbital data from NASA JPL. Designed for developers and space enthusiasts, it runs in Chrome and Firefox and allows users… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 1 we have checked on their own sites, 1 of them free or with a free tier. Weekend project - a WebGL Orrery launched in 2011; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1
   Rendering One Million Datapoints with D3 and WebGL▲200

   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 →

2. 2
   A Marble Madness-inspired WebGL game we built for Netlify▲616

   Hello HN! We’re a small creative studio specializing in real-time 3D experiences. Netlify approached us to design and build an interactive experience to celebrate reaching 5 million developers. Inspired by the classic game Marble Madness, we created a gamified experience where users control a ball through playful, interactive levels. The goal was to blend marketing content with the look and feel of a game to engage users. The app is built with Three.js [1], using our custom render pipeline and shaders, and uses Rapier for physics simulation [2]. The 2D content is overlaid on the WebGL view…

   2024 · 5-million-devs.netlify.com · its alternatives →

3. 3
   Atlas of Spacefree▲770

   Hello HN! Sharing a recent side project of mine, the Atlas of Space, that I built out to explore the Solar System. As a long-time space nerd, I realized recently that I didn't have a good intuition on the scale, speed, and relative orientation of the celestial bodies around us. So over the break I built out a kind of spatial Wikipedia to click around and learn about planets, moons, asteroids, and other bodies orbiting the Sun. The physics is all simulated in the browser using simple Newtonian mechanics. There's a lot left to do from here, including modeling objects in non-Keplerian orbits…

   2025 · atlasof.space · its alternatives →

4. 4WP
   Weekend project, D3.js Globe of Recent Earthquakes▲79

   2012 · boydgreenfield.com · its alternatives →

5. 5
   gravity.js - Beta▲112

   Gravity WebGL experiment in the Solar System

   2016 · github.com · its alternatives →

6. 6
   Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator▲249

   Features include: - Several preset periodic orbits: the classic Figure-8, plus newly discovered 3D solutions from Li and Liao's recent database of 10,000+ orbits (https://arxiv.org/html/2508.08568v1) - Full 3D camera controls (rotate/pan/zoom) with body-following mode - Force and velocity vector visualization - Timeline scrubbing to explore the full orbital period The 3D presets are particularly interesting. Try "O₂(1.2)" or "Piano O₆(0.6)" from the Load Presets menu to see configurations where bodies weave in and out of the orbital plane. Most browser…

   Nov 2025 · trisolarchaos.com · its alternatives →

7. 7WP
   Weekend project for Halloween in WebGL▲28

   2012 · apps.playcanvas.com · its alternatives →

8. 8AS
   A simple infinite world in WebGL▲181

   2016 · erkaman.github.io · its alternatives →

9. 9IM
   I made a site where you can travel in space in your browser▲179

   I made this site using R3F (https://github.com/pmndrs/react-three-fiber), a React renderer for 3JS (https://threejs.org/). The celestial bodies are Three.JS meshes. I used loaders (namely 'useLoader' from R3F and 'GLTFLoader' from 3JS) to import 3D models, such as International Space Station. More on loading models in R3F: https://docs.pmnd.rs/react-three-fiber/tutorials/loading-mod... I've future plans for this side project. It would be great to hear from the HN community before diving into them. Enjoy! P.S: Getting an empty…

   2022 · spaceinbrowser.com · its alternatives →

10. 10MW
    My weekend project, a graphics/cellular automata playground▲56

    2011 · demoseen.com · its alternatives →

11. 11
    WebGL Voxel Engine▲113

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

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

12. 12FT
    Fourier Transform Visualized via WebGL▲175

    2021 · static.laszlokorte.de · its alternatives →

13. 13
    WebGL Playground▲89

    2014 · jessevdk.github.io · its alternatives →

14. 14
    M. C. Escher spiral in WebGL inspired by 3Blue1Brown▲176

    The latest 3Blue1Brown video [1] about the M. C. Escher print gallery effect inspired me to re-implement the effect as WebGL fragment shader on my own. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldxFjLJ3rVY

    Apr 2026 · static.laszlokorte.de · its alternatives →

15. 15
    A JavaScript library for data visualization in both SVG and Canvas▲161

    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 →

16. 16MF
    My first WebGL demo, the first self-extracting PNG ever?▲101

    2011 · demoseen.com · its alternatives →

17. 17MP
    My platforming game written in C 89▲127

    I have been working on this game somewhat sparsely for the past three years or so. However, it is still in a very early stage, and there is a lot of work to do. One of my friends encouraged me to post about it here, since he felt people might find interesting how I don’t use any libraries for it. The game can be played on a browser by virtue of WebAssembly. There are native ports using either MiniFB or SDL2, but you have to build those yourself. I decided to write the game in C because I feel like it is a simple language that a lot of people can understand well enough, and I didn’t think I…

    2023 · zamfofex.neocities.org · its alternatives →

18. 18
    Black-hole.js – Visualize black hole gravitational lensing in WebGL▲72

    Renders black hole gravitational lensing effects in an image canvas using WebGL, glfx.js, and numeric.js - cliffcrosland/black-hole.js

    2015 · github.com · its alternatives →

19. 19
    My first programming project – userscripts to change forum UIs▲89

    Hi, I'm Will. I'm 24, autistic, and have OCD tendencies. I'm learning to code and this is my first public project. I’d really appreciate your feedback and encouragement! This project lets me solve some of my OCD problems online. There are a couple of parts of the forums that I visit – Space Battles, Sufficient Velocity, and Questionable Questing – that I want to remove. Specifically, I hate seeing indicators of how much is left in a forum thread, because I keep thinking about how much content is left. It stops me from immersing myself in the story. It stressed me out. Before I learned to…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

20. 20
    Web Rewind▲98

    An interactive journey through 30 years of the web

    Mar 2026 · web-rewind.com · its alternatives →

21. 21ST
    SVG Triangulation for WebGL▲94

    2015 · mattdesl.github.io · its alternatives →

22. 22
    Orbits.js – WebGL simulation of the solar system using Three.js▲8

    WebGL simulation of the solar system. Contribute to olane/orbits.js development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2014 · github.com · its alternatives →

23. 23WM
    WebGL Minecraft-like scripting environment for teaching programming▲66

    2016 · webblocks.uk · its alternatives →

24. 24AR
    A rudimentary game engine to build four dimensional VR evironments▲39

    I think it's finally time to lock version 0.2 of my 4d side project. (Since previous Show HN a couple of years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37100760 I scrapped lots of stuff and concentrated on making a javascript "game engine") The sole purpose of this project is to explore whether it's possible to make the human brain spatially aware of four dimensions using Virtual Reality. It’s my first ever game project, my first time using Unity, first time writing C#, and my first anything with WebXR, so please be gentle! To manage expectations, it isn't visually pleasing…

    2025 · brainpaingames.com · its alternatives →

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