Three.js Conference 2026 Website Transforms Visitors into Interactive 3D Spheres

The official website for the inaugural Three.js conference, scheduled for May 23, 2026 in Paris, represents a radical departure from conventional event platforms. Developed by Makio64 and Herve Studio, the site renders every visitor as a physics-driven 3D sphere in real time using WebGPU and Screen-Space Global Illumination (SSGI). This approach eliminates hierarchical distinctions between speakers and attendees, placing all participants within the same interactive scene. Technical innovations include the WebGPURenderer pipeline, KTX2 texture compression, and a dedicated Web Worker thread for physics calculations. Each avatar's appearance is encoded into a 10-character base62 string through a mixed-radix codec, enabling client-side reconstruction without database storage. The development team addressed platform-specific rendering issues by patching Three.js to resolve iOS float precision errors and Android shadow bugs. Interface elements feature custom SVG shapes with 48 control points for fluid cursor interaction. Notable speakers include mrdoob, creator of Three.js, and Bruno Simon. David Ronai documented the project in a Codrops case study published in February 2026. The site serves as both a technical demonstration and a community-oriented statement about human-centered digital design.