Everything worth reading, in the order worth reading it.

Start · 01 Essence of Linear Algebra →

The labs on this site cover the spine of this path — transforms, projection, the pipeline, light. This is where to go for the parts a browser tab cannot hold: the proofs, the depth, and the people who explain it best.

1. 01

   Build the intuition

   • See it · The Model Matrix

   Before any API. Graphics is linear algebra you can see, so start with the people who make it visible.

   • Essence of Linear Algebra

     3Blue1Brown

     Fifteen short films that turn matrices from a table of numbers into a motion. If one thing on this page changes how you see the subject, it is this. Their site was not answering when this list was last checked, on 10 September 2026 — if it hangs, the same series is on the 3Blue1Brown YouTube channel.

     Start hereA weekend

   • Immersive Linear Algebra

     Ström, Åström & Akenine-Möller

     A linear algebra book where every figure is draggable. The same idea as this site, applied to the maths underneath it.

     Start hereA few weeks

   • Explanations

     Bartosz Ciechanowski

     The high-water mark for interactive explanation on the web. Read the ones on lights, cameras and curves, then read the rest anyway.

     CoreA few weeks

   • Math for Game Developers

     Freya Holmér

     Splines, quaternions and the geometry you actually reach for, taught with unusual care about why the standard explanation confuses people.

     CoreA few weeks
2. 02

   Learn the pipeline

   • See it · Projection & the Frustum
   • See it · Coordinate Spaces
   • See it · Textures & Sampling
   • See it · Depth & Transparency

   What the GPU does with your vertices, and the API you use to tell it.

   • WebGL Fundamentals

     Gregg Tavares

     The best WebGL introduction there is, and refreshingly willing to say which of the conventions you have been taught are arbitrary.

     Start hereA few weeks

   • WebGL2 Fundamentals

     Gregg Tavares

     The sequel, for when you want instancing, transform feedback and the things WebGL1 makes painful.

     CoreA few weeks

   • LearnOpenGL

     Joey de Vries

     The canonical modern OpenGL course. Chapter for chapter it is still the clearest tour of the whole pipeline, and it translates directly to WebGL.

     CoreMonths

   • WebGL tutorial

     MDN

     The reference you will keep open in a second tab. Accurate about what each call actually requires.

     CoreA weekend

   • Scratchapixel

     Scratchapixel

     Derives rasterisation and ray tracing from first principles, with the algebra written out. Where to go when you want the proof, not the recipe.

     Go deepMonths
3. 03

   Write shaders

   • See it · Write a Shader

   The part where you stop arranging other people’s pixels and start computing your own.

   • The Book of Shaders

     Patricio Gonzalez Vivo & Jen Lowe

     Fragment shaders taught as a craft, with an editable canvas on every page. Unfinished for years and still the best starting point.

     Start hereA few weeks

   • Shadertoy

     Inigo Quilez & Pol Jeremias

     Thousands of shaders you can read and edit live. The fastest way to see how far a single fragment function can be pushed.

     CoreAn afternoon

   • Articles

     Inigo Quilez

     Signed distance functions, raymarching, noise and analytic tricks, from the person who worked most of them out.

     Go deepA few weeks
4. 04

   Get light right

   • See it · Light & Normals
   • See it · Colour & Gamma

   Shading models, materials, and the physics they are approximating.

   • Ray Tracing in One Weekend

     Peter Shirley and contributors

     You will have written a working ray tracer by Sunday evening. Nothing else teaches the light transport ideas so quickly.

     Start hereA weekend

   • Physically Based Rendering

     Pharr, Jakob & Humphreys

     The field’s standard reference, free online, and a literate program you can read end to end. Also an Academy Award winner, which is rare for a textbook.

     Go deepMonths

   • Filament: Physically Based Rendering

     Google

     The clearest write-up of a real-time PBR implementation, with every approximation and its cost stated plainly.

     Go deepA weekend

   • Real-Time Rendering resources

     Akenine-Möller, Haines & Hoffman

     The companion site to the field’s reference book: a maintained index of papers, courses and links for nearly every real-time topic.

     Go deepAn afternoon
5. 05

   Move to modern GPU

   • See it · Compute & Particles
   • See it · Draw Calls & Instancing

   WebGPU is where the web is going. The concepts carry over; the API is stricter and far more capable.

   • WebGPU Fundamentals

     Gregg Tavares

     The same clarity as the WebGL series, aimed at the API that replaces it. Start here rather than at the spec.

     Start hereA few weeks

   • WebGPU API

     MDN

     Reference for the API surface, including the bits the tutorials skip over.

     CoreAn afternoon

   • vgpu

     Vercel Labs

     A small WebGPU library with typed WGSL imports that runs the same code in the browser, in Node, and in tests. Good once you know what it is abstracting.

     CoreAn afternoon

   • Three.js

     Ricardo Cabello and contributors

     When you want a scene rather than a pipeline. Worth learning after the fundamentals, so you know what it is doing for you.

     CoreA few weeks

   • Three.js Journey

     Bruno SimonPaid

     The most thorough Three.js course available, and unusually strong on shaders. Paid, and generally judged worth it.

     CoreMonths