3D web: Babylon.js, Three.js and related tools

Three.js – JavaScript 3D Library

AxiomeCG/awesome-threejs: 3️⃣ A curated list of awesome ThreeJS resources

Announcing Babylon.js 9.0 — Microsoft's popular rendering engine for building interactive, 3D web experiences now has a node-based particle editor, volumetric lighting, advanced Gaussian splatting, and more.

The choice between Three.js and Babylon.js depends on whether you need a flexible rendering toolkit or a comprehensive game engine. 

Core Comparison

• Nature: Three.js is a lightweight 3D library primarily used for rendering and creative visuals. Babylon.js is a full-featured 3D engine designed for games and complex interactive applications.
• Philosophy: Three.js focuses on minimalism and "unopinionated" flexibility, requiring you to manually assemble features like physics or UI. Babylon.js is "batteries-included," providing built-in systems for physics, animation, and GUIs. 

Key Strengths & Differences

• Ecosystem & Community: Three.js has a massive community (over 5 million weekly downloads) and is the industry standard for artistic web experiences. Its React Three Fiber wrapper is widely considered the best way to use 3D in React.
• Feature Set: Babylon.js includes high-level tools like a Node Material Editor and a robust Inspector for real-time debugging.
• Stability: Babylon.js prioritizes backward compatibility, making it ideal for long-term enterprise projects. Three.js updates more rapidly, which can occasionally lead to breaking changes.
• Performance: Both are highly performant. Three.js is lighter (approx. 168kB) for simple scenes. Babylon.js (approx. 1.4MB) offers better stability in large, complex scenes with thousands of objects. 

Best Use Cases

• Choose Three.js for:
  • Immersive marketing landing pages and brand experiences.
  • Artistic visualizations and creative coding projects.
  • Lightweight applications where minimal bundle size is critical.
• Choose Babylon.js for:
• Web-based 3D games (supports Havok Physics).
• Complex enterprise applications like product configurators.
• Advanced VR/AR (WebXR) experiences with "out-of-the-box" controller support.

dgreenheck/ez-tree: Procedural tree generator written with JavaScript and Three.js

EZ-Tree is a procedural tree generator with dozens of tunable parameters. The standalone tree generation code is published as a library and can be imported into your own application for dynamically generating trees on demand. Additionally, there is a standalone web app which allows you to create trees within the browser and export as .PNG or .GLB files.