lowdragrts

A real-time strategy engine built from scratch in TypeScript and Three.js — no game engine, no shortcuts, no sanity. Inspired by Total Annihilation. Rendered entirely in the browser.

what it is

This is a hobby project with no deadline and entirely too much ambition, which is exactly how it should be. The goal is a browser-based RTS with procedurally generated voxel terrain, a proper resource economy, unit combat, and an AI that doesn’t immediately walk into walls.

The current branch (main, promoted from state-machine-implementation) is a terrain and rendering branch. It does not yet contain units or combat — those exist in old-main for reference, but the visual engine rebuild came first. Right now it looks incredible and does nothing. Progress.

what’s working

• Procedural terrain — Simplex noise, 6–8 octaves, height-based vertex colouring. 4,000 × 4,000 world units on a 100-division grid
• Dynamic lighting — Sun orbit, sky gradient, halo, sunrise/sunset colour transitions. The LightingSystem.ts alone is 569 lines of carefully tuned nonsense
• Terrain reflection shader — Panel effect with metalness and roughness driven by sun angle, terrain height, and view angle. Injected via onBeforeCompile because Three.js
• Performance monitor — FPS graph, draw calls, memory overlay. Because it will be needed
• Buffer pooling — Prevents GC spikes from geometry reuse. BufferPool.ts is a singleton memory pool that quietly saves the framerate’s life
• OrbitControls camera — Pan, zoom, rotate with damping and constraints
• Interactive parameter sliders — ReflectionControls panel lets you tune terrain and sun params in real time

what’s next

Phase 2 is terrain improvement — taller mountains, deeper valleys, more readable geography. Primarily a tuning exercise on GameParameters.ts (HEIGHT_SCALE, PERSISTENCE, NOISE_SCALE) plus potentially a valley carving pass using a low-frequency subtracted noise layer.

Phase 3 brings units back: Unit.ts, UnitManager, click-to-select, right-click-to-move on terrain surface, health bars.

Then combat, then the resource system.

the resource economy

The resource design is already specced:

• Skirulum — primary construction material, blue/purple voxel formations harvested by vehicles
• Vlux — energy from solar concentrators; the day/night cycle already exists in the lighting system, it just needs wiring up
• Fredalite — rare surface crystals, finite deposits, collector buildings, 10-tile spacing rule
• Scrap — auto-collected from wreckage, 10:1 conversion to Skirulum or Vlux

tech stack

TypeScript (strict), Three.js, Webpack 5, simplex-noise, postprocessing (loaded, not yet wired).

do not touch

TerrainGenerator.ts — the shader injection via onBeforeCompile is fragile by design and the reflection system depends on precise uniform setup. LightingSystem.ts — colour transitions are parameter-driven and carefully tuned. Touch either at your peril.