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…
In plain words
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 programming or render volumetric medical imaging data. The implementation prioritizes ease of use within the JS ecosystem and demonstrates core concepts from computer graphics education through accessible code examples.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
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 consider learning Cpp, Metal, and XCode. Has anyone made the transition from WebGL/TS to Cpp or done it the other way around? What was your experience with it? And what about debugging? That's a big issue with WebGL. As for now, I'm thinking about picking up WebGPU next because it has an up-and-coming debugger made by Brendan Duncan[0] that looks promising. Edit: Anyone know why MRI data is sent via CDs and not the web? I started working on this project specifically because some people close to me got MRI scans and received CDs of their results. I know that some MRI data can be huge so downloading over the web doesn't make sense, but anything under 64MB should be sent over the web, no? For reference, I believe most MRI data can be under 250MB[1]. [0] https://github.com/brendan-duncan/webgpu_inspector [1] https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Typical-image-dimensions...
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