PAJAMA / BUILD

ZERO TO HERO / ENGINEERING SERIES

Build the viewer. Understand every pixel.

12 chapters. 8 runnable GPU milestones. One Rust/wgpu rendering core in a browser and a native window. Start with a clear screen, end with a moving research model—and know how each step works.

Browser / native hostCamera + timeRust + WGSLPixels

Two ways to follow along

Start online if your setup is not ready. When you can predict the result, clone the repository and reproduce it locally. Each chapter gives the next code change, a command, expected pixels, a fault to investigate, and an explanation you can check.

The milestone selector runs the complete reference implementation in different teaching modes. The blog explains how to build up those capabilities; the modes are not separate Git history checkpoints.

What you will be able to build

Shared rendering coreGPU resources, projected covariance, alpha composition and time evaluation.
Two working hostsBrowser canvas + native winit window, with resize, camera and playback controls.
Evidence, not just a demoOffscreen pixel checks, a native presentation smoke and browser interaction checks.
Explicit limitsA forward STG-Lite viewer, not a universal model loader or full trainer. macOS/Linux require their own runtime validation.

Same code, different pixels?

Investigate Metal, DX12 and browser WebGPU differences through symptoms, current code and three interactive examples.

Read the cross-platform field notes →

Inside Spark & PlayCanvas

Follow three real Gaussian rendering routes from file loading to pixels, with fixed-commit source links and ideas for our Rust/wgpu implementation.

Read the source walk-through →

01 / Boot the renderer

02 / Build the splat

03 / Connect a learned model

04 / Integrate, measure, ship

A seven-session route

Sessions 1–2: chapters 1–4, clear/triangle/buffers. Session 3: chapters 5–6, alpha and projection. Session 4: chapters 7–8, model and time. Session 5: chapter 9 with the training lab. Session 6: chapters 10–11, engine integration and profiling. Session 7: chapter 12, reproduce the checks and give the five-minute walkthrough. Advance when you can explain the result, not merely when you reach the end of a page.