Sphere Tile Explorer

A Vite and Three.js terrain prototype with cube-sphere tile selection, large-scale third-person exploration, animated character locomotion, terrain physics, water, props, wild grass, and an experimental WebGPU renderer path.

Run

npm install
npm run dev

Then open the local Vite URL.

Build

npm run build

The build runs npm run assets:optimize first. Optimized runtime assets live under public/optimized, while bulky source model and PNG texture files are intentionally ignored for public repository hygiene.

Renderer Modes

The default renderer is WebGL because the richest terrain material still uses custom GLSL. WebGPU can be forced with:

/?renderer=webgpu

The WebGPU path uses Three node materials for terrain and grass. It is playable, but the WebGL terrain shader still has the higher-fidelity texture blending path.

Controls

• WASD: move
• Shift: sprint
• Space: jump
• Ctrl: crouch
• C: crawl
• X: slide
• Mouse drag: third-person camera
• Mouse wheel: camera distance
• L: toggle camera follow yaw

Assets

Runtime assets are committed in optimized form. If you want to regenerate them, place compatible source files at:

• public/models/player1.glb
• public/textures/pbr/*.png

Only publish assets you have the right to redistribute.