Three.js implements their math this way.
https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/blob/master/src/math/Vect...
You can see most operations act on the Vector and there are some shared temporary variables that have been preallocated. If you look through some of the other parts you can see closures used to capture pre-allocated temporaries per function as well.
In Why I Write Games in C (yes, C)mrdoob
three.js
JavaScript2010–2026
mrdoob / three.js
three.js
JavaScript 3D Library.
79Distinct people
97Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
118.3KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
JavaScript 3D Library.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- fairfieldt/xcjs · linked in 2 of the same discussions
- lostdecade/diggy · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 7:02:26 AM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year97 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2010-04-25 21:11:46 UTC to 2026-09-03 20:55:40 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 2010-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 9 | 3 | 6 |
| 2011 | 2011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 12 | 2 | 10 |
| 2012 | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 8 | 3 | 5 |
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 8 | 2 | 6 |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 10 | 2 | 8 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
three.js
JavaScript 3D library
The aim of the project is to create an easy-to-use, lightweight, cross-browser, general-purpose 3D library. The current builds only include WebGL and WebGPU renderers but SVG and CSS3D renderers are also available as addons.
Examples —
Docs —
Manual —
Wiki —
Migrating —
Questions —
Forum —
Discord
Usage
This code creates a scene, a camera, and a geometric cube, and it adds the cube to the scene. It then creates a WebGL renderer for the scene and camera, and it adds that viewport to the document.body element. Finally, it animates the cube within the scene for the camera.
import * as THREE from 'three';
const width = window.innerWidth, height = window.innerHeight;
// init
const camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera( 70, width / height, 0.01, 10 );
camera.position.z = 1;
const scene = new THREE.Scene();
const geometry = new THREE.BoxGeometry( 0.2, 0.2, 0.2 );
const material = new THREE.MeshNormalMaterial();
const mesh = new THREE.Mesh( geometry, material );
scene.add( mesh );
const renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer( { antialias: true } );
renderer.setSize( width, height );
renderer.setAnimationLoop( animate );
document.body.appendChild( renderer.domElement );
// animation
function animate( time ) {
mesh.rotation.x = time / 2000;
mesh.rotation.y = time / 1000;
renderer.render( scene, camera );
}
If everything goes well, you should see this.
Cloning this repository
Cloning the repo with all its history results in a ~2 GB download. If you don't need the whole history you can use the depth parameter to significantly reduce download size.
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js.git
Change log
Releases
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
9 sourcesSure. I would just consider that the working group keep a broad perspective on the issue. There are developers who use graphics frameworks bare-metal, and there are also a number of frameworks that haven't been mentioned and don't seem to be cooperating, for instance, Pixi.js and Three.js. I think the WG has a responsibility to represent their interests as well, whether or not they are actively participating. I also don't think that the technology has to match the existing architecture of engines. Instead, we should be looking at find the best technology for a long-term solution.
Many developers already know that they will have to make significant overhauls to upgrade to WebGPU. "If WebGPU turns out to be as powerful as we all hope it to be libraries like Three.js will likely have to be rewritten from scratch in order to take full advanta
Read the rest
ge of it." [0]
[0] https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/issues/15936#issuecomment...
I've always been impressed by the quality of Three.js - https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/
In Ask HN: What are the “best” codebases that you've encountered?The answer is always start with Three.js. Especially if you have no 3D graphics experience and just want to render basic shapes. Drawing a textured cube is relatively straight forward (https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/blob/master/examples/webg...).
In Zdog – Pseudo-3D JavaScript engine for Canvas and SVGThree.js already supports it: https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/pull/16522
In Google and Binomial Open-Source Basis Universal Texture FormatThree.js supported already added: https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/pull/16522
In Google and Binomial Open Source Basis Universal Texture FormatThat's what I thought - @types/three *.d.ts got imported via a script in this PR:
https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/pull/15597
There's some discussion in there, but the way I read the conclusion was they were going to be bundle the typings going forward.
In Three.js FundamentalsHey thanks for that. :) Diving is super fun but also exceptionally exhausting. But often it's impossible to 'load' a complex problem in your head if you don't dive in for hours. Would be nice if there was a less stressful way.
In terms of editable 3d universes (whoah!), have you considered chucking together Three.js's JSON scene description (https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/wiki/JSON-Object-Scene-fo...) with https://github.com/automerge/automerge, a CRDT for JSON? What could possibly go wrong?!
In Open source collaborative text editorsI googled that, looks like an issue in FF: https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/issues/9716 Basically i just channel through regular three without creating much of a dependency. If it doesn't work in react-three-fiber, then i doesn't work in threee-js. But they're so big that usually these webGL bugs are either fixed quickly by them, if it's their fault, or they're filling vendor issues.
In Show HN: Mixing WebGL and HTML, Both Rendered Out in React