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

A CSS polygon mesh library. A 3D engine for the DOM. Renders OBJ/MTL, GLB and VOX as real HTML elements transformed with CSS matrix3d(...) . Supports colors, textures, lighting, shadows, shapes and animations. Works with React, Vue or plain JavaScript. Visit polycss.com for docs and model examples. # Vanilla npm install @layoutit/polycss # React npm install @layoutit/polycss-react # Vue npm install @layoutit/polycss-vue You can also load PolyCSS directly from a CDN. Here is a minimal custom-element scene: React and Vue expose the same component model. owns the viewpoint, owns lighting and atlas options, and loads or receives polygon data. import { PolyCamera, PolyScene, PolyOrbitControls, PolyMesh } from "@layoutit/polycss-react"; export default function App() { return ( ); } rotX ,rotY control the orbit angle in degrees.zoom scales the projected scene.target pans the camera target in world coordinates.distance adds dolly pull-back.PolyCamera is the orthographic default. UsePolyPerspectiveCamera when you want perspective depth. polygons renders a staticPolygon[] directly.directionalLight andambientLight control scene lighting.textureLighting chooses"baked" or"dynamic" .textureQuality controls atlas raster budget.strategies can disable selected render strategies for diagnostics.autoCenter rotates around the rendered mesh bounds instead of world origin. src loads.obj ,.gltf ,.glb , or.vox files.mtl loads companion OBJ materials.polygons accepts pre-parsed geometry.position ,scale , androtation transform the mesh wrapper.autoCenter shifts the mesh bbox center to local origin.meshResolution chooses"lossy" (default) or"lossless" optimization.castShadow emits CSS-projected shadows in dynamic lighting mode. adds drag orbit, shift-drag pan, wheel zoom, and optional auto-rotate. uses pan-first map-style input. provides keyboard and pointer-look navigation. adds translate/rotate gizmos for selected mesh handles. The vanilla package exports exportPolySceneSnapshot(target) . It clones the current rendered .polycss-camera / .polycss-scene DOM, injects only the PolyCSS CSS needed by that snapshot, inlines CSS url(...) image assets as data:image/...;base64,... , strips scripts and inline event handlers, and returns a standalone HTML document string with no PolyCSS runtime import. It works with rendered React/Vue scenes too; import it from @layoutit/polycss and pass the rendered camera or scene element. import { exportPolySceneSnapshot } from "@layoutit/polycss"; const html = await exportPolySceneSnapshot(scene.host); If any referenced asset cannot be inlined, the function throws PolySceneSnapshotError with code: "ASSET_INLINE_FAILED" . Each polygon describes one renderable face: const polygons = [ { vertices: [[0, 0, 0], [60, 0, 0], [0, 60, 0]], color: "#f97316", }, { vertices: [[0, 0, 0], [60, 0, 0], [60, 60, 0], [0, 60, 0]], texture: "/texture.png", uvs: [[0, 0], [1, 0], [1, 1], [0, 1]], }, ]; Render polygons directly when you need per-face DOM events or custom styling: {polygons.map((polygon, index) => ( console.log("clicked polygon", index)} className="my-polygon" /> ))} Use loadMesh() to parse supported model formats: import { createPolyCamera, createPolyScene, loadMesh } from "@layoutit/polycss"; const host = document.getElementById("polycss")!; const camera = createPolyCamera({ rotX: 65, rotY: 45 }); const scene = createPolyScene(host, { camera }); const mesh = await loadMesh("https://polycss.com/gallery/obj/cottage.obj", { mtlUrl: "https://polycss.com/gallery/obj/cottage.mtl", }); scene.add(mesh); Supported formats: - OBJ + MTL, including map_Kd textures and UV coordinates. - glTF / GLB, including embedded images and TEXCOORD_0 . - MagicaVoxel .vox , with direct voxel fast paths when eligible. - Generated primitives: box, plane, ring, sphere, torus, cylinder, cone, and Platonic solids. PolyCSS renders through the DOM, so performance is mostly shaped by two things: the number of mounted leaves, and the amount of texture atlas area the browser has to paint. The renderer tries to keep the common cases cheap. Simple surfaces stay as solid CSS elements, while textured, irregular, or high-detail geometry falls back to atlas-backed slices only when needed. Each visible polygon is emitted as one leaf element; the renderer chooses the least expensive CSS primitive that can represent the polygon, then uses matrix3d(...) to place that primitive in 3D space. usesbackground: currentColor on a fixed box for solid rectangles and stable quads. usescorner-shape for stable triangles and beveled-corner solids, with aborder-width triangle fallback when needed. clips solid polygons withborder-shape: polygon(...) when the browser supports it. maps a packed texture-atlas slice withbackground-image , and is the fallback for textured or unsupported shapes. | Package | Description | |---|---| @layoutit/polycss-core | Pure math, parsers, lighting, camera helpers, mesh optimization. Zero browser globals. | @layoutit/polycss | Vanilla custom elements and imperative createPolyScene API. | @layoutit/polycss-react | React components, hooks, controls, and core re-exports. | @layoutit/polycss-vue | Vue 3 components, composables, controls, and core re-exports. | Layoutit Voxels -> A CSS Voxel editor Layoutit Terra -> A CSS Terrain Generator MIT.