nowfound

Dev tools · November 3, 2025

AR

a Rust ray tracer that runs on any GPU – even in the browser

I’ve been experimenting with Rust lately and wanted a project that would help me explore some of its lower-level and performance-oriented features. Inspired by Sebastian Lague’s videos, I decided to implement my own ray tracer from scratch. The initial goal was just to render a simple 3D scene in the browser at a reasonable frame rate. It evolved into a small renderer that can: • Run locally or on the web using wgpu and WebAssembly • Perform mesh rendering with a Bounding Volume Hierarchy (BVH) for acceleration • Simulate both direct and indirect illumination for photorealistic results • Be…

Visit github.comAlternativestop 14% of November 2025

In plain words

This is a ray tracer built in Rust that runs on any GPU, including in web browsers via WebAssembly. It renders 3D scenes with photorealistic lighting by simulating direct and indirect illumination, using a Bounding Volume Hierarchy for fast mesh rendering. The tool works both as a local application and as a deployable web demo, making it suitable for developers interested in graphics programming and exploring Rust's performance-oriented features.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

In the maker’s words, at launch

I’ve been experimenting with Rust lately and wanted a project that would help me explore some of its lower-level and performance-oriented features. Inspired by Sebastian Lague’s videos, I decided to implement my own ray tracer from scratch. The initial goal was just to render a simple 3D scene in the browser at a reasonable frame rate. It evolved into a small renderer that can: • Run locally or on the web using wgpu and WebAssembly • Perform mesh rendering with a Bounding Volume Hierarchy (BVH) for acceleration • Simulate both direct and indirect illumination for photorealistic results • Be deployed easily as a free web demo using GitHub Pages The project is far from perfect, but it’s been a fun way to dig deeper into graphics programming and learn more about Rust’s ecosystem. I’m also planning to experiment with Rust for some ML projects next. GitHub: https://github.com/tchauffi/rust-rasterizer Web demo (desktop browsers): https://tchauffi.github.io/rust-rasterizer/ Would love feedback from anyone who’s built similar projects or has experience with wgpu or ray tracing in Rust.

Does the same job

all alternatives →
  • IW
    I wrote a C++ ray tracer from scratch without AIJun 2026 · github.com · ▲155
  • CW
    ChartGPU – WebGPU-powered charting library (1M points at 60fps)Jan 2026 · github.com · ▲670

    Creator here. I built ChartGPU because I kept hitting the same wall: charting libraries that claim to be "fast" but choke past 100K data points. The core insight: Canvas2D is fundamentally CPU-bound. Even WebGL chart libraries still do most computation on the CPU. So I moved everything to the GPU via WebGPU: - LTTB downsampling runs as a compute shader - Hit-testing for tooltips/hover is GPU-accelerated - Rendering uses instanced draws (one draw call per series) The result: 1M points at 60fps with smooth zoom/pan. Live demo:…

  • IV
    I've made a Monte-Carlo raytracer for glTF scenes in WebGPU2024 · github.com · ▲131

    This is a GPU "software" raytracer (i.e. using manual ray-scene intersections and not RTX) written using the WebGPU API that renders glTF scenes. It supports many materials, textures, material & normal mapping, and heavily relies on multiple importance sampling to speed up convergence.

  • MC
    Monte Carlo ray tracer in Rust2020 · github.com · ▲168
  • AP
    A physically-based GPU ray tracer written in JuliaFeb 2026 · makie.org · ▲198

    We ported pbrt-v4 to Julia and built it into a Makie backend. Any Makie plot can now be rendered with physically-based path tracing. Julia compiles user-defined physics directly into GPU kernels, so anyone can extend the ray tracer with new materials and media - a black hole with gravitational lensing is ~200 lines of Julia. Runs on AMD, NVIDIA, and CPU via KernelAbstractions.jl, with Metal coming soon. Demo scenes: github.com/SimonDanisch/RayDemo

  • SA
    Spark, An advanced 3D Gaussian Splatting renderer for Three.js2025 · sparkjs.dev · ▲377

    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.

More dev tools this month

the category →
  • Dograh592

    The open source VAPI alternative

    Dev tools · 25d ago · dograh.com

  • Meridian530

    Don't let your work go unnoticed. Get promoted!

    Dev tools · 20d ago · meridiona.com

  • x1516

    Lovable for iPhone apps go from idea to App Store

    Dev tools · 11d ago · x1.new

  • Open-source GTM skills for technical founders

    Dev tools · 29d ago · gtmcofounder.com

  • OpenTrailPaper is open-source bike computer firmware for the LilyGO T5S3 4.7" E-Paper PRO. It supports offline maps, GPX routes, FIT recording and Bluetooth sensors.

    Dev tools · 2d ago · opentrailpaper.com

  • Nuphos380

    The AI-Native DevOps Workspace.

    Dev tools · 24d ago · nuphos.ai

Launched alongside, November 2025

the whole month →
  • Guideflow1,341

    The AI demo automation platform for SaaS

    AI · Nov 2025 · guideflow.com

  • IB

    Life & fun · Nov 2025 · bitsnpieces.dev

  • Welltory1,030

    Stop energy drain

    Work · Nov 2025 · welltory.com

  • Gemini 31,007

    Bring any idea to life with multimodal capabilities

    AI · Nov 2025 · blog.google

  • TrustMRR836

    The database of verified startup revenues

    Growth · Nov 2025 · trustmrr.com

  • B
    Boing782

    Life & fun · Nov 2025 · boing.greg.technology