Tiny headless WebGPU glTF renderer for deterministic PNG, WebP, JPEG, and raw RGBA output. Runs on a native binary in Node.js and on WebGPU in the browser, from one Rust render core.

Try the live demo, then read the docs: quick start, guides and the API reference, also served as Markdown for agents at nanoraster.xyz/llms.txt.

Install

npm install nanoraster

Quick start

import { renderImage } from 'nanoraster';

import { readFile, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';

const glb = Uint8Array.from(await readFile('model.glb'));
const image = await renderImage(glb, {
  format: 'webp',
  width: 512,
  height: 512,
});
await writeFile(image.name, image.bytes);

Same request, same pixels: the camera, lighting and encoder are fixed for a given request, so a render can serve as evidence. format: 'raw' returns the RGBA frame instead of a file, for pixel diffs, video frames and textures (Work with raw pixels). Continue with the tutorial and guides.

Reuse the renderer

The one-shot calls share one renderer per process, so only the first call pays the GPU bring-up; create your own to control its lifetime or power preference. When you know the full set of outputs, declare them in one renderImages call with per-view overrides, about three times faster than separate renders:

import { createRenderer } from 'nanoraster';

using renderer = await createRenderer({ powerPreference: 'low-power' });

const [card, og] = await renderer.renderImages(glb, {
  format: 'webp',
  views: [
    { id: 'card', phi: 60, theta: -45, width: 768, height: 576 },
    { id: 'og', phi: 60, theta: -45, width: 1536, height: 804, format: 'png' },
  ],
});

See Reuse the renderer.

Compatibility

See compatibility.md. Every check mark in that table maps to a named job in .github/workflows/ci.yml.

Versioning and stability

Versions follow Semantic Versioning. Before 1.0, a minor release may contain a breaking API change; each major line records those changes in BREAKING_CHANGES.md.

Security and provenance

Report vulnerabilities through GitHub private vulnerability reporting. Verify registry signatures with npm audit signatures.

Links

Changelog · Issues · Contributing · Maintaining

License

Apache-2.0. See license and NOTICE for bundled materials.

Part of the Tau ecosystem.