Back at it
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I thought my water should have some translucency and falloff, so I can put things underneath it
@stroughtonsmith is this going to be broadly available? Any chance for an iPhone version?
Seeing these updates has made me incredibly nostalgic for iTracer, which was a basic 3D rendering app for the original iPhone, but also the first app that made me think, “woah, this is literally just a small computer.”
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@simsaens this is still a ‘throwaway prototype’
I wasn’t planning on productizing it@stroughtonsmith @simsaens sure, but give it another week.
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@stroughtonsmith @simsaens sure, but give it another week.
@TheEjj @stroughtonsmith in another week it will be Blender, I want Bryce
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Procedural clouds seemed like a good idea
@stroughtonsmith Looks like the excitement made you stay up all night …
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I started with a blank project template 5 hours ago. Now I've got a little 3D scene graph editor with gizmos, wireframe and shaded view modes, texturing, drag and drop OBJ file importing, and tile-based raytraced rendering, that runs on Mac and iPad.
Thanks Codex!
@stroughtonsmith Is this sidebar/inspector pane a system component or custom?
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@stroughtonsmith Is this sidebar/inspector pane a system component or custom?
@fuzzyhead all custom
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I thought my water should have some translucency and falloff, so I can put things underneath it
@stroughtonsmith this screenshot looks so beautiful and pleasing to the eye
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Procedural clouds seemed like a good idea
Recap: I vibecoded (code unseen, no plan) a 3D editor/renderer that has a scene graph, editing controls, primitives and gizmos, materials, procedural terrain and water, and hardware-accelerated Metal raytracing with soft shadows, clouds and bounce lighting, that runs on Mac and iPad.
Tool: Codex 5.3 Medium
Time: About a day's worth of work has gone into it -
Recap: I vibecoded (code unseen, no plan) a 3D editor/renderer that has a scene graph, editing controls, primitives and gizmos, materials, procedural terrain and water, and hardware-accelerated Metal raytracing with soft shadows, clouds and bounce lighting, that runs on Mac and iPad.
Tool: Codex 5.3 Medium
Time: About a day's worth of work has gone into it@stroughtonsmith I wrote a vastly less capable 3D editor/renderer for my final year project at university. Year being the operative word there as that’s roughly how long it took me.
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@stroughtonsmith I wrote a vastly less capable 3D editor/renderer for my final year project at university. Year being the operative word there as that’s roughly how long it took me.
@ankinson @stroughtonsmith And you learned something doing it.
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Recap: I vibecoded (code unseen, no plan) a 3D editor/renderer that has a scene graph, editing controls, primitives and gizmos, materials, procedural terrain and water, and hardware-accelerated Metal raytracing with soft shadows, clouds and bounce lighting, that runs on Mac and iPad.
Tool: Codex 5.3 Medium
Time: About a day's worth of work has gone into it@stroughtonsmith With your long-time experience and know-how about Apple’s SDKs, do you think the code it generated was high quality or did you need to make a lot of manual adjustments?
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Recap: I vibecoded (code unseen, no plan) a 3D editor/renderer that has a scene graph, editing controls, primitives and gizmos, materials, procedural terrain and water, and hardware-accelerated Metal raytracing with soft shadows, clouds and bounce lighting, that runs on Mac and iPad.
Tool: Codex 5.3 Medium
Time: About a day's worth of work has gone into itI figured I needed some kind of glass shader
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@stroughtonsmith With your long-time experience and know-how about Apple’s SDKs, do you think the code it generated was high quality or did you need to make a lot of manual adjustments?
@Arcticulate the code is effectively indistinguishable from my own. I have made zero adjustments
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I figured I needed some kind of glass shader
@stroughtonsmith I guess everything is ultimately converging towards a Salvador Dali painting? I want to see liquid clocks now!
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@ankinson @stroughtonsmith And you learned something doing it.
@tsturm @stroughtonsmith Yes, of course. We had radically different goals though. Producing what Steve has in a day, even if it’s just a throw-away bit of fun, remains striking to me.
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I figured I needed some kind of glass shader
The thing about material shaders is I don't quite know the right questions to ask — the unknown unknowns. Am I taking into account the right refraction, internal reflection, attenuated shadows, etc. Why is this too bright, why is this too dark. You can tell from these examples where things are obviously wrong, and it takes quite a bit of iteration
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I figured I needed some kind of glass shader
@stroughtonsmith Water… then glass… oh I see now, all that work to recreate Liquid Glass
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The thing about material shaders is I don't quite know the right questions to ask — the unknown unknowns. Am I taking into account the right refraction, internal reflection, attenuated shadows, etc. Why is this too bright, why is this too dark. You can tell from these examples where things are obviously wrong, and it takes quite a bit of iteration
'Attenuated shadows'
A little better
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'Attenuated shadows'
A little better
Maybe I should have bought a faster Mac before trying to write a raytracer…
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Recap: I vibecoded (code unseen, no plan) a 3D editor/renderer that has a scene graph, editing controls, primitives and gizmos, materials, procedural terrain and water, and hardware-accelerated Metal raytracing with soft shadows, clouds and bounce lighting, that runs on Mac and iPad.
Tool: Codex 5.3 Medium
Time: About a day's worth of work has gone into it@stroughtonsmith I was always impressed by your skills to go from idea to PoC to shipping, but this is next level. I need my own project now to try this tech to its fullest. I work in a large enterprise where AI means Microsoft Copilot. I tried Claude on a smaller personal project and was impressed but never thought you could vibe-code a working 3D app in less than 24 hrs.
