With the rising interest in — and viability of — 3D and extended reality (XR) applications in web browsers, our teams have been experimenting with React Three Fiber for developing 3D experiences on the web. React Three Fiber is a library that takes the React.js component and state model and translates it to 3D objects rendered with the Three.js library. This approach opens up 3D web programming to the wider group of developers already familiar with React.js and the rich ecosystem of tools and libraries surrounding it. However, when developing applications with React Three Fiber, our teams often have to manipulate the 3D scene imperatively. This doesn't mix well with the reactive component paradigm provided by React. There is no escaping the need to understand the basic 3D rendering mechanisms. The jury is still out on whether React Three Fiber offers enough abstraction to warrant learning its idiosyncrasies or if it's better just to work with Three.js directly.
