simple-3d-svg
Dev tools
svg renderer
SHOW HN2025
206points
71comments
#305of 3,837 in 2025
Top 8%of 2025 by points
How HN took it
RoastedHalf or more of the comments are critical
4 positive, 13 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 19 critical, out of 36 comments about the project. Thread score -0.27.
Idea: 2 for, 10 againstExecution: 1 for, 5 againstPerformance: 0 for, 4 againstDesign: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Clever technique and cool to see SVG doing 3D projection.
From 3 comments
This is seriously cool! I've always mentally boxed SVG into the 2D corner, so seeing it handle 3D projection like this is pretty mind-bending...
dedicate on HNAwesome. If this gets really popular I could imagine perspective transforms being proposed for SVG itself.
stuaxo on HNThe goal for this vanilla TS renderer is to have visual diffing on GitHub and a renderer that works without a browser environment. Most 3D renderers focus on realtime speed, not…
seveibar on HN
Objections
The perspective math is wrong; diagonals curve and squares look equal area.
From 3 comments
I don't think your algorithm is correct. At least on the checkerboard example on the cube face the diagonals are curved. Perspective transformation doesn't do that. Possibly you…
badmintonbaseba on HNEven more obviously, the squares in the front aren’t bigger than the squares in the back. It looks like each square has equal area even as their shapes change. It’s fascinating…
mistercow on HNI think the original commenter is correct that there is a mistake in the perspective code. It seems the code calculates the linear interpolation for the grid points too late. It…
Masterjun on HN
SVG is the wrong tool; performance will suffer with many elements.
From 3 comments
"it's a lightweight SVG renderer" Meanwhile.. drawing 512 subdivisions for a single textured quad. It's a cute trick, certainly, but ask this thing to draw anything more than a…
jesse__ on HNSVG is the wrong tool for this job.
leptons on HNI think you'll probably run into performance problems with SVG before you get too far. I can't imagine SVG will perform fluidly with complex circuit boards. SVG elements are DOM…
leptons on HN
Requests
Use WebGL or a plain JS rasterizer instead.
From 2 comments
"it's a lightweight SVG renderer" Meanwhile.. drawing 512 subdivisions for a single textured quad. It's a cute trick, certainly, but ask this thing to draw anything more than a…
jesse__ on HNWhy use SVG for this, though? This could be easily implemented as pure JS software rasterizer without all the tessellation workarounds.
kookamamie on HN
Questions
Why use SVG for this rather than a canvas or PNG?
From 3 comments
Why use SVG for this, though? This could be easily implemented as pure JS software rasterizer without all the tessellation workarounds.
kookamamie on HNThis doesn't answer the question. If you're doing all this work in JS to render a static SVG, why not just "do it right" and output a static PNG instead?
itishappy on HNWhen things like Three.js exist, developing an SVG 3D engine to display circuit boards seems like a ridiculous thing to do. Why did you feel you had to do this with SVG?
leptons on HN
Alternatives named
Three.js
From 2 comments
When things like Three.js exist, developing an SVG 3D engine to display circuit boards seems like a ridiculous thing to do. Why did you feel you had to do this with SVG?
leptons on HNThree.js has had an SVG rendering back end for 13 years. It's going to be pretty hard to get much more popular than Three.js to get over the browser vendors' reluctance to make…
moron4hire on HN
WebGL
From 1 comment
"it's a lightweight SVG renderer" Meanwhile.. drawing 512 subdivisions for a single textured quad. It's a cute trick, certainly, but ask this thing to draw anything more than a…
jesse__ on HN
librsvg
From 1 comment
You might find that librsvg works for you.
jahewson on HN