I came across the kitchen configurator by Plum Living and was genuinely impressed by both the photorealistic quality and the responsiveness of the experience. The lighting, reflections, and overall material fidelity feel remarkably high-end — almost on par with pre-rendered CGI, yet everything updates interactively and with minimal delay.
Initially, I assumed they might be using a dynamic compositing technique, layering pre-rendered assets depending on the selected options. However, certain details — especially the real-time reflections and subtle camera parallax — suggest they’re doing more than that, possibly with real-time rendering.
Does anyone have insights into how something like this could be built with Three.js (or similar frameworks)?
Would love to understand what rendering techniques, optimizations, or hybrid approaches might be in play here.
it’s pre-rendered elements combined/merged. The final picture is provided by a remote server. I don’t see any real time 3D, three.js code, or any webGL 3D canvas in there.
I assumed they might be using a dynamic compositing technique
I think you are correct.
especially the real-time reflections and subtle camera parallax — suggest they’re doing more than that, possibly with real-time rendering.
I don’t see realtime reflections? It looks like they are doing image compositing. Am i missing something? Is there a separate 3d view? This all looks like classical image compositing to me.
Sorry, I probably was a little unclear. I hope I got that image upload correctly.
When changing, e.g. a backpanel, the reflections in the window, or the cabinet on the right change accordingly. I am unsure, whether those can be pre-rendered and easy composited. I expect that involves a little more than compositing, and maybe even real-time rendering.
I uploaded two images, where I assume to see real-time rendered reflections instead of pre-composited elements. Otherwise, it might be even pre-rendered reflections, with different alpha layers to make it look like real.
Thanks for your reply! I uploaded two images to showcase, what I suspect to be real-time instead of basic compositing. I’m happy to be wrong though, as it would solve my question.
I found a Medium article from the CTO of Plum Living, where he describes their “VFX-Inspired Compositer”. So, indeed, it’s a composition technique, and the topic doesn’t suit this forum. Thanks again to everyone!
Unfortunately, the promised follow-up article was never published.
Read the article and yeah.. they’re doing a ton of offline rendering for different combinations it sounds like.
I usually see apartment configurators like this work with a cube envmap (with alpha) on a box and colored/textured planes behind them to show materials.
