High-speed anti-gravity racing inspired by F-Zero and Wipeout.
Nebula Rush is a high-speed 3D racing game built directly in the browser using modern web technologies. You pilot an anti-gravity ship through a series of tracks and compete against 19 AI opponents to top the leaderboard.
This project demonstrates a custom physics engine, procedural mesh generation, and performant 3D rendering with Three.js.
I originally started building this game for free using Claude in the web browser. The free version of the model seems to be inhibited, so I eventually took it to my IDE. The first version was pretty rough!
- High-Speed Anti-Gravity Physics: specialized handling model featuring hovering, banking, drifting, and air-braking.
- Procedural Track Generation:
- Complex 3D spline-based tracks with loops, banked turns, and verticality.
- Multiple unique tracks: The Awakening, Nebula Complex, Hyperion Raceway.
- Dynamic mesh generation for track surfaces and walls.
- Campaign Mode:
- Multi-race championship with cumulative points.
- Unlockable tracks (planned).
- Ship & Pilot Selection:
- 3 Ship Classes: Speedster (Fast), Fighter (Balanced), Tank (Heavy Grip).
- 8 Unique Pilots: Generated avatars with unique modifiers for Acceleration, Handling, and Velocity.
- Dynamic Environments:
- Day/Night cycles and Weather effects (Rain/Snow/Fog) that affect visibility.
- Runtime environment selection for testing.
- 19 Opponent AI: Competitive AI agents that race alongside you, complete with lane-switching logic.
- Combat & Speed mechanics:
- Boost Pads: Drivers must hit energized zones for speed bursts.
- Strafing: dedicated side-thrusters for tight cornering.
- Jumping: Vertical thrusters to hop over obstacles or cut corners.
- Full Race Loop:
- Start sequence with functional traffic lights.
- 5-Lap races with lap timing.
- Post-race leaderboard tracking rank and points.
- Dynamic Camera: Smart camera system that prevents motion sickness while maintaining the sensation of extreme speed.
- Minimap: Real-time track position visualization.
- Debug Tools:
- Track Analysis for gradient/curvature.
- Lighting Playground (Dev only).
| Action | Primary Key | Secondary Key |
|---|---|---|
| Accelerate | W |
Arrow Up |
| Steer Left/Right | Q / E |
← / → |
| Strafe (Side Thrust) | A / D |
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| Jump | Space |
S / ↓ |
| Screenshot | P |
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| Toggle HUD | H |
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| Cheat: Instant Win | F |
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| Cheat: Finish Opponents | G |
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Pro Tip: Combine Steer and Strafe to drift through tight corners without losing speed!
- Runtime: React 19 + Vite
- Language: TypeScript
- 3D Engine: Three.js
- Styling: Tailwind CSS
- Avatars: Nanobanana
src/App.tsx: Main UI router (Start, Selection Screens, Game).src/components/Game.tsx: Main entry point for the 3D scene. Handles the race state machine (intro,racing,finished,results), game loop, and rendering coordination.src/game/PhysicsEngine.ts: Core physics simulation. Calculates velocity, friction, hover suspension, and collision response. State is detached from Three.js objects for stability.src/game/TrackFactory.ts: Procedural content generation. Uses Catmull-Rom splines to generate the race track geometry and placement of game elements (boost pads, start line).src/game/OpponentManager.ts: Manages entity lifecycle for AI opponents and their simple steering behaviors.src/game/EnvironmentManager.ts: Controls lighting, skybox, and weather effects.
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Install dependencies:
npm install
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Start the development server:
npm run dev
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Build for production:
npm run build