Ray Marcher

A WebGL fragment shader that renders 3D scenes using ray marching. Real-time constructive solid geometry, soft shadows, and ambient occlusion.

WebGLGLSLRayMarching

What Is Ray Marching?

Unlike traditional rasterization, ray marching traces rays through a signed distance field (SDF) to find surface intersections. This enables rendering complex shapes like fractals, blobs, and CSG operations that would be difficult with polygons.

Features

Constructive solid geometry — union, subtraction, and intersection of shapes
Soft shadows via secondary ray marching toward light sources
Ambient occlusion for contact shadows
Animated blend between shape configurations

The Shader

The entire renderer fits in a single fragment shader. The SDF defines the scene geometry; the ray march loop steps along each ray until it hits a surface or exceeds the max distance.