Show HN: Browser-based light pollution simulator using real photometric data
A client-side, browser-based tool for lighting design and light pollution analysis, using real photometric data and advanced rendering, offering an alternative to traditional desktop software.
View Origin LinkProduct Positioning & Context
The Skyglow Analysis demo loads a real LDT file into a Bevy scene (Khronos Bistro test asset).
The luminaire's intensity distribution drives the streetlight rendering directly — no fudging — and the sky-glow grade updates live as you adjust the uplight percentage. Swap to a full-cutoff fixture and the sky goes from F (Severe) back to A (Excellent). You can see the difference on the buildings as well as in the sky.
Stack: Rust core (eulumdat-rs and friends, ~20 crates handling photometric formats), Bevy for the 3D rendering, WASM for browser deployment. No backend; everything runs client-side. About a thousand lines of new code on top of the existing photometric library to make the Bevy integration work.
Things I'd love feedback on:The atmospheric scattering model is currently single-scattering Rayleigh+Mie. Is that defensible for the use case, or should I move toward multi-scattering?
The Bistro test scene works well visually but isn't a controlled environment.
Anyone know of a public urban geometry asset that's more typical of real road-lighting evaluation?
The CJJ 45 implementation (China's national road lighting standard) is the only one I've had to reverse-engineer from translated PDFs.
If anyone has primary-source experience with it, I'd value a sanity check.Open-source on GitHub (eulumdat-rs and the related crates).
Crates.io: eulumdat
Related Ecosystem & Alternatives
Discover adjacent products, open-source repositories, and developer tools sharing similar technical architecture.
Deep-Dive FAQs
What is Browser-based light pollution simulator using real photometric data?
Where did Browser-based light pollution simulator using real photometric data originate?
When was Browser-based light pollution simulator using real photometric data publicly launched?
How popular is Browser-based light pollution simulator using real photometric data?
Which technical categories define Browser-based light pollution simulator using real photometric data?
What are some commercial alternatives to Browser-based light pollution simulator using real photometric data?
How does the creator describe Browser-based light pollution simulator using real photometric data?
Community Voice & Feedback
it shall load as fallback, if webgpu is not enabled,
but can as well be enforced, to see the difference:https://iesna.eu/?wasm=skyglow_demo&force=webgl2
WebGPU is needed, on Safari there is a bug in the Bevy Overlay, so you only see flickering (very annoying!)
This is an upstream issue (on to it)
So FF and Chrome works fine (if WebGPU is enabled!)
Discovery Source
Hacker News Aggregated via automated community intelligence tracking.
Tech Stack Dependencies
No direct open-source NPM package mentions detected in the product documentation.
Media Tractions & Mentions
No mainstream media stories specifically mentioning this product name have been intercepted yet.
Deep Research & Science
No direct peer-reviewed scientific literature matched with this product's architecture.
SaaS Metrics