2026-06-03

[markaren]

threepp — dev vs master Changelog

Scope: 407 commits. Net diff +116k/−123k lines (the large deletion count is mostly assets relocated to a separate repo, #347). Headline: two new renderer backends and a robotics-oriented synthetic-perception stack built on Vulkan.

Renderer backends

• WebGPU backend added (Add WebGPU raster and Pathtracer backend #338) — forward raster renderer (Dawn-based), roughly at parity with the GL backend. Own shader translator, pipelines, PMREM, shadow maps, mipmap generator, render targets.
• Vulkan backend added — full hardware ray-traced path tracer, now the project's sole PT. Hybrid raster+PT primary-visibility path is the default.
• GL backend: HDR environment map / IBL support (Add HDR environment map support to GL renderer #337); fix for HDR IBL vertical streaks on curved surfaces (equirect-strip PMREM).
• Removed: WGPU path tracer (remove wgpu PT (replaced by Vulkan) [skip ci] #351) and the non-hybrid Vulkan PT path (Remove non-hybrid PT path [skip ci] #352) — direction consolidated on Vulkan PT + WGPU/GL raster. Experimental two-level TLAS/BLAS in the WGPU PT also removed (Removed the experimental two-level TLAS/BLAS acceleration structure f… #342).

Vulkan path tracer (dominant effort)

• Sampling/lighting: Env NEE + MIS, emissive-mesh NEE with emissive CDF cache, multi-lobe BSDF importance sampler, ReSTIR DI and GI (temporal + spatial reuse, MIS), spherical-cap VNDF.
• Materials: transmission, clearcoat, iridescence, sheen, specular, dispersion, metallic multiscatter energy comp; unlit MeshBasicMaterial.
• Denoising/temporal: à-trous denoiser with variance estimation + normal edge-stop, TAA (Catmull-Rom 5-tap history), temporal albedo accumulator, per-pixel converged-pixel passthrough, silhouette MSAA at PT edges.
• Dynamic geometry: GPU skinning + tet-skinning engine, morph targets, instancing, in-place BufferGeometry updates, BLAS refit (UPDATE mode) for skinned/displaced meshes, texture animation.
• Volumetrics: homogeneous fog per-segment integrator, FogExp2 + HG anisotropy, density-gated bounce capping.
• Perf: SER on NVIDIA, lazy single-variant pipeline build, spec-constant shade path, batched per-frame BLAS refresh, SPIR-V shrunk via -Os.

Synthetic perception / sensors (robotics)

• Path-traced LIDAR scanner — stochastic sub-beam sampling, volumetric back-scatter (delta tracking), multi-return through transmissive surfaces, time-of-flight pulse waveform, dedicated medium override.
• Event camera (DVS) — GPU-side detection, events-only render mode (~500 Hz), sparse event stream, configurable sensor resolution.
• Depth sensor support across GL/WGPU.

ML inference (Vulkan compute)

• YOLOv8 (Port YOLO implmentation over to Vulkan #348), RT-DETR (Port RT-DETR to Vulkan #349), and RF-DETR nano/small/medium (Add RF-DETR implementation #350) ported to run on the Vulkan backend, with validation tests.

Loaders & assets

• USDLoader (Add USDLoader #335) with extensive material/skeleton/scene improvements.
• FBX + DDS loader (Add FBX + DDS Loader #336); FBX emissive color/factor.
• ModelLoader unified entry point (Add ModelLoader #329); async loader API (Async loader API #344).
• Xacro support in URDFLoader (Xacro support in URDFLoader #331); URDF up-direction handling.
• SVG loader fixes (tiger strokes, color space); GLTF morph targets + instancing, redundant-wrapper-group fix.
• Assets moved to a separate repository (move assets to another repository #347) — main source of the deletion count.

Physics

• PhysX integration (rigid bodies, vehicles, debug renderer, static-collider filtering); soft-body support with runtime add/remove, culling/perf fixes, physics interpolation.

Materials & color management

• Fluent material API (Fluent material API #353) + materialAs<T> type-safe downcasting helper.
• MeshPhysicalMaterial (lights fix), material variants, replace-material-keeping-properties API.
• three.js-consistent Color management; linear clear color encoded across all three renderers.

Examples, HUD, audio

• New Vulkan demos: ocean (FFT, foam, underwater, adaptive warp), showcase, gallery, bistro, ReSTIR test, fog, lights, furnace test, denoise, sensor + inference demos.
• HUD class replaced by Sprite::screenSpace (Replace HUD class with Sprite::screenSpace #345); SVG UI overlays; filled-mesh HUD overlays under Vulkan PT.
• tps_shooter demo; audio seekToStart; new onKeyPressed key-input API.

Build & infra

• vcpkg.json manifest with feature toggles (vulkan, physx, assimp, external-glfw); CMake FetchContent refactor; vendored meshoptimizer.
• Cross-renderer parity / furnace test suite (GL + WGPU), inference tests.
• version.txt removed; new default Emscripten HTML template (Replace default Emscripten html template #330); gcc/darwin build fixes.

---

This discussion was created from the release 2026-06-03.