Show HN: A CSS 3D Engine (no WebGL)

Rohansi wrote: post #3

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

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.

Re: Show HN: A CSS 3D Engine (no WebGL)

#6

Post by rofko » Mon, Jun 01, 2026, 4:21 PM UTC

Rohansi wrote: post #3

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

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!

Re: Show HN: A CSS 3D Engine (no WebGL)

#7

Post by sgm1018 » Mon, Jun 01, 2026, 4:30 PM UTC

wow thats cool

Re: Show HN: A CSS 3D Engine (no WebGL)

#8

Post by tomaytotomato » Mon, Jun 01, 2026, 4:50 PM UTC

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?

Re: Show HN: A CSS 3D Engine (no WebGL)

#9

Post by woodrowbarlow » Mon, Jun 01, 2026, 5:10 PM UTC

rofko wrote: post #6

Rohansi wrote: post #3

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

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 rende…

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.

Re: Show HN: A CSS 3D Engine (no WebGL)

#10

Post by thih9 » Mon, Jun 01, 2026, 5:11 PM UTC

tomaytotomato wrote: post #8

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?

It’s a wide range from an RTS to a simple city builder. I’d say “no” for the former and “maybe” for the latter. Perhaps try it for a couple of hours and see whether you like it or not.