Sign up to save tools and stay up to date with the latest in AI
bg
bg
1

I made a 3D SVG Renderer that projects textures without rasterization

Jun 05, 2025 - seve.blog
The article discusses the development of a vanilla 3D object to SVG renderer in Typescript, aimed at rendering circuit boards created in React. The author explores a method to simulate perspective transformations in SVGs, which do not natively support such transformations like CSS does. The solution involves subdividing an image and applying locally-correct affine transformations to each subdivision, using projected polygon clip paths to define regions. This approach allows for the approximation of perspective transformations without converting SVGs to bitmaps, maintaining a lightweight file size.

The author tests this method by projecting a checkerboard pattern onto a cube, progressively increasing the number of subdivisions to achieve a smoother appearance. At around 512 subdivisions, the result closely resembles a flat surface, demonstrating successful image projection without rasterization. The article highlights the efficiency of using SVG `defs` to avoid image repetition, resulting in a compact file size. The author expresses enthusiasm for further developing the 3D renderer, emphasizing its potential for creating 3D SVG artifacts on GitHub to facilitate circuit board reviews in pull requests.

Key takeaways:

  • The author developed a vanilla 3D object to SVG renderer in Typescript to render circuit boards with approximately-correct perspective transformations.
  • SVGs do not natively support perspective transforms, so the author explored alternative methods, such as subdividing images and applying affine transformations to each subdivision.
  • By increasing the number of subdivisions, the author achieved a smoother appearance without rasterization, using up to 512 images and clip paths.
  • The method allows for efficient SVG file sizes by using the defs element to avoid repeating images, making it suitable for reviewing circuit board changes in GitHub pull requests.
View Full Article

Comments (0)

Be the first to comment!