Quake in the browser, with procedurally generated levels
Details
- External ID
- 48631675
- Source
- HN
- Company
- —
- Product
- Quake in the browser, with procedurally generated levels
- Website domain
- leereilly.net
- Launched
- June 22, 2026
- Cohort
- —
- Upvotes
- 5
- Upvotes percentile
- 0.12568306010928962
- Tags
- —
- Fetched at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:26 p.m.
- Updated at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:26 p.m.
Description
Quake has been ported to the web plenty of times, so that part isn't new. But I experimented with the GitHub Copilot app and Claude Opus 4.8 to take id Software's original source, compiled the software renderer to WebAssembly with Emscripten.The cool part: I added support for procedurally generated levels. So after you clear a level, the slipgate opens and you move onto the next random one... with a new room layout, textures, monster placement, working doors with keys, etc. It's pretty challenging.I also added Soudncloud integration (configurable in Options) so can listen to the new NIN hotness as you play.Data files aren't included (id's data is still copyrighted), so the build pulls the freely redistributable shareware pak0.pak.May it entertain you on your coffee / hydration break(s) today!
Enrichment
- Theme
- interactive simulations and creative experiments
- Vertical
- Media & entertainment
- Function
- —
- Audience
- B2C
- AI stance
- Not AI
- Project type
- Hobby / open-source project
- Normalized one-liner
- quake with procedural level generation in browser
- Manually corrected
- False
Could you build this?
Partial Compiling existing open-source C Quake to WebAssembly with Emscripten can be done with AI guidance, but implementing custom procedural 3D BSP level generation algorithms that produce valid, playable Quake maps requires non-trivial computational geometry expertise.
What it would actually take: The stack involves compiling id Software's GPL Quake source to WebAssembly via Emscripten and integrating it with WebGL/WebAudio. The core technical difficulty lies in procedural 3D level generation that outputs valid Convex Polyhedra, Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG), and generates valid Quake .MAP/.BSP structures with compiled lighting (LIGHT) and visibility (VIS) data without crashes or leaks.
Discussion
No comments on this launch.
Competitors
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Attention rank: #138 of 161 (itself plus its competitors, highest first — normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 234 days after the earliest competitor.
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Other launches for this product
- No other launches for this product.