Tech Patterns for Real-Time 3D on the Web

Real-time 3D success is mostly pipeline discipline. Treat your assets and shaders like product code.

Latency budget

• TTFV < 3s on Wi-Fi; < 5s on 4G for the first interactive view
• Background-stream heavy media; promote critical textures first
• Frame stability > peak FPS; aim for 30fps sustained on mid-tier phones

Asset & shader choices

Prefer GLB with KTX2 textures; pack variations as material presets. Use baked lighting where possible; reserve dynamic lights for hero shots.

The best optimization is deleting what you don’t need.

— Every performance engineer ever