Mike Smahin

01 Featured demos

Try Syllory and Familiar Local as standalone Mac apps; the remaining demos run live in the browser. Dungeon Dash works on phones, the globe and bubbles.js use WebGL, and the crowd and ocean demos need a WebGPU-capable browser such as recent Chrome or Edge.

Syllory macOS · App Store review

A local-first e-book reader for Mac. Select a full paragraph to understand its meaning or translate it in context with Apple’s on-device AI when available.

• EPUB · FB2
• 32 translation options
• Local library
• macOS · on-device AI

Download for macOSProject page

Familiar Local 2026

A private little chat app for your Mac that talks to Apple’s on-device Foundation Models, so nothing you type ever leaves the computer. A small Swift server listens only on 127.0.0.1 and serves a clean web chat, which opens in its own native window or in any browser. Keep separate conversations, each with its own memory, flip between light and dark themes, and grab a ready-made macOS app straight from the repo.

• Swift
• JavaScript
• macOS
• Apple Foundation Models
• On-device AI

Download for macOS Project page Code

Dungeon Dash (prototype)

Mobile-first 3D dungeon runner in the browser, built with TypeScript and Three.js. WebGPU with a WebGL2 fallback, so it runs in any modern browser, including phones. A deterministic fixed-timestep simulation stays separate from rendering, with async echo ghost runs. About 213 KB gzip on the initial load.

• Three.js
• WebGPU
• WebGL2
• TypeScript
• Mobile

Live demo Code

webgpu-crowd

Crowd simulation running entirely on the GPU: boids flocking in WebGPU compute shaders (WGSL), with a spatial hash grid for neighbour lookups. Scales from 1k to 100k agents in real time, with live controls.

• WebGPU
• WGSL compute
• Spatial hashing
• TypeScript
• Vite

Live demo Code

webgpu-ocean

A living ocean in your browser, built on Three.js and WebGPU. Every wave is simulated on the GPU in real time, from long 250 m swells down to ripples a few centimetres across. Crests sharpen and break into foam, the water mirrors the sky, sparkles in the sun and glows where light shines through thin waves. Pick the weather: Calm, Breeze or Storm.

• Three.js
• WebGPURenderer
• TSL compute
• FFT
• TypeScript

Live demo Code

globe-dashboard

Live earthquake dashboard built around a 3D globe, streaming the USGS real-time feed. Every event is drawn as one instanced marker, and recent events pulse in a shader. Hover or click an event to fly the camera to it. The virtualised event list, filters, KPI cards and SVG charts all stay in sync with the globe. Timeline playback, shareable URL state, dark and light themes, a responsive layout and full keyboard navigation. Falls back to a labelled snapshot when the feed is unreachable.

• React
• TypeScript
• Three.js / R3F
• zustand
• Vite
• Vitest

Live demo Code

bubbles.js 2021

Thousands of iridescent soap bubbles on the GPU in Three.js: a GPGPU curl-noise simulation drawn in one instanced call, with ray-traced spheres, spectral thin-film interference and HDR reflections. Blow on them or pop them.

• Three.js
• GLSL
• GPGPU
• Instancing
• Thin-film
• TypeScript

Live demo Code

02 Selected graphics work

A shipped mobile game, plus earlier experiments in GPU rendering and simulation.

Redungeon 2016

Endless dungeon crawler for iOS and Android, published by Nitrome: random, increasingly difficult dungeons, dozens of traps and unlockable characters with unique skills.

Apple Editors’ Choice, rated 4.6/5 from 1.3K+ App Store ratings, and 1M+ downloads per platform. Built in Unity / C# at Eneminds, the studio I co-founded; I built everything except the design.

• Unity
• C#
• iOS
• Android
• Game

App Store Source code is private

GpuFluid 2014 · refreshed 2026

C++ / OpenGL fluid solver on the GPU: advection, buoyancy and a Jacobi pressure solve as shader passes. Refreshed in 2026 with coloured dye, vorticity confinement, a 512 grid and a cross-platform CMake + GLFW build.

• C++
• OpenGL
• GLSL
• Navier–Stokes

View code →

GpuRayTracer 2015 · refreshed 2026

Shiny metal spheres on an endless checkerboard, ray traced live on the GPU, with every pixel worked out in a single C++ / OpenGL shader. Light bounces twice between the spheres, shadows fall soft from an area light and the lighting slowly shifts as you watch. Refreshed in 2026 with a new look and a cross-platform CMake build.

• C++
• OpenGL
• GLSL
• Ray tracing

View code →

GpuVoxels 2015 · refreshed 2026

A little blocky island in autumn colours, ray cast live on the GPU from a 64×64×64 grid of voxels stored as an OpenGL 3D texture. Every pixel walks through the grid block by block until it hits the ground, a tree or the winding river, while a ball drifts over the treetops. Written in C++ and GLSL, and refreshed in 2026 with a new scene.

• C++
• OpenGL
• GLSL
• Voxel ray casting

View code →

03 Professional highlights

04 Tutorial

A step-by-step series on 3D for the web, written for frontend developers.

Three.js from Scratch 2026 · parts 1–7 of 8

From a first lit cube to shaders and WebGPU, with diagrams, real screenshots and a live demo in every part. The early parts take you from your first scene to your own shaders and on to TSL. The new Part 7 is all about speed: squeeze thousands of objects into a few draw calls with InstancedMesh and BatchedMesh, add LOD and culling, clean up after yourself, and only render when something actually changes.

• Three.js
• WebGPU
• TSL
• Performance
• Tutorial

Part 1 Part 7 Live demo All parts

05 Advent of Code

Solved by hand, year after year, across five languages. Day counts are the days with a solution committed in each repo.

227 days of puzzles across 11 events · Ruby · Python · C# · JavaScript · TypeScript

06 Writing

Tutorials on 3D for the web, and posts on math, physics and programming.

Three.js tutorials new · Three.js, WebGL & WebGPU · all parts →

• Three.js from Scratch, Part 7: Faster Frames Nov 2026tutoriallive demo
• Three.js from Scratch, Part 6: Post-Processing and Bloom Oct 2026tutoriallive demo
• Three.js from Scratch, Part 5: WebGPU and TSL Oct 2026tutoriallive demo
• Three.js from Scratch, Part 4: Your First Shaders Oct 2026tutoriallive demo
• Three.js from Scratch, Part 3: Models, Light and Shadows Oct 2026tutoriallive demo
• Three.js from Scratch, Part 2: Geometry, Materials and Textures Oct 2026tutoriallive demo
• Three.js from Scratch, Part 1: Your First Scene Oct 2026tutoriallive demo

Math, physics & programming

• You Don't Like Math? Then We're Coming to You Oct 2012math
• OBFUSCATED Oct 2012programming
• // the below code needs to be commented out Oct 2012programming
• Per Aspera ad Astra Oct 2012physics
• Mark V. Shaney Oct 2012programming
• How Do You Draw a Wall? Oct 2012programming
• So How Do You Use Your GPU? Oct 2012programming
• The Year 11111011100 Oct 2010physics
• Quantum Leap Oct 2010physics
• The Fractal Geometry of Nature Sep 2010math
• The Return Aug 2010physics
• Sound in a Vacuum Aug 2010physics
• Stories About Hilbert Aug 2010math
• Feynman, the Shuttle and Ice Water Aug 2010physics
• Moon Dust and the Collapse of Modern Science Aug 2010physics
• Fear and Loathing in the Rings of Saturn Aug 2010physics
• Apollo and the Moon Myths Jul 2010physics
• The Birth of Complexity Jul 2010physics
• Unnatural Selection Jun 2010programming
• Program Evolution Apr 2008programming
• Big Lint Party Apr 2008programming
• Mathematical Freedom Apr 2008math
• Elegant Whitespace Feb 2008programming
• What's in Your Number? Jan 2008math
• The Philosophy of Programs Nov 2007programming
• Word Generator Nov 2007math
• An Ordinary Series Nov 2007math
• The Monkey and the Weight Oct 2007math
• A Couple of Glitches Oct 2007programming
• Magicicada Sep 2007math
• Solve This Sep 2007math
• leaf.gif Aug 2007math
• The Analytical Engine Aug 2007math
• A Cute Formula Aug 2007math

Read the blog → Source on GitHub