Lightverse: a navigable 3D universe in R3F where reputation is earned, not bought (feedback wanted)

Showcase
, , , , , ,
1

Hi everyone,

I’m a solo dev, and for the past year I’ve been building Lightverse, a browser-based 3D universe made with three.js via React Three Fiber (drei, GSAP for the camera moves, Laravel + Inertia as the backend). It’s live, and I’d like technical and design feedback from people who know this stack better than I do.

What it is

A four-level space: Universe → Galaxy → Star system → Planet.

The universe is a set of particle-spiral galaxies around a central core (a .glb model that scales up as the community’s total “Light” grows). You click a galaxy to fly in, pick a star system, and land on a planet. The first three levels live in one Canvas. Each planet is its own terrain scene with its own page (a knowledge archive, a profile, a build area where you assemble a generator over ~20 real hours).

“Light” is the reputation layer: earned through actions, non-transferable, can’t be bought, and the active portion decays after 30 days. It’s web3-adjacent, but there is no token.

Where I’d really like input

  1. Persistent canvas. Universe, galaxy and system views share one Canvas, but planet pages mount a separate Canvas (backdrop + terrain). Every page visit tears down and recreates a WebGL context. Has anyone moved to a single persistent Canvas across routes (persistent layout, swapping scene contents)? Was it worth the refactor?
  2. Loading. The core is a GLB with glow and sparkles, and I’m working on a proper preloader. What’s your go-to for heavy GLBs: Draco vs meshopt, KTX2 textures, warming up shaders with renderer.compile so there’s no pop-in on reveal?
  3. Particles on mobile. The galaxies are particle-based. What would you profile first, and how do you scale particle counts for weaker devices?
  4. Navigation UX. Does flying through the hierarchy feel natural, or would you want a flat 2D map as an alternative?
  5. Direction. It’s reputation-based and web3-adjacent. Would you push it toward game-like mechanics inside the 3D world, or toward real-world utility (verified contributions, curated knowledge)? And does the web3 label put you off?

Screenshots below. Live at lightverse.cloud (sign-up needed for the Light system).

Thanks for any thoughts, including “this is a bad idea”.