Top all-time · #13437
Anukari 3D Physics Synthesizer Devlog
Company blog · anukari.com/blog/devlog · on HN as humbledroneprogramminggames
Anukari 3D Physics Synthesizer Devlog is the company blog at anukari.com, writing about programming and games. Since 2024, 5 different Hacker News readers have linked it 31 times, most often “Show HN: I built a synthesizer based on 3D physics”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-08-20, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (1) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Devlog for Anukari, a 3D physics synthesizer. One HN commenter links it as a related spring-mass synthesis project, pointing readers to the synth rather than commenting on the posts.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 1 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Build instruments from masses, springs and more in 3D space and hear what happens. A physics-powered synthesizer and effects plugin for VST3, AU, and AAX.
Most-linked posts?
- Show HN: I built a synthesizer based on 3D physics2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-08-13
- Had a super productive conversation with an Apple Metal engineer2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-05-06
- Anukari on the CPU (part 2: CPU optimization)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-11-07
- Lions, tigers, and high-DPI, oh my2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-10-23
- Waste Makes Haste?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-12-14
What Hacker News says?
For anyone seeing this post a bit late: I need a bit of help from someone inside Apple who works on Metal. If you know someone, it would be great if you could connect me to them: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43901619 https://anukari.com/blog/devlog/an-appeal-to-apple
Comment linking /blog/devlog/an-appeal-to-apple
on “Show HN: I built a synthesizer based on 3D physics”Submitted Show HN: I built a synthesizer based on 3D physics as a story · 512 points
HN discussionThis is a long story, which is still ongoing. The GPU code is very, very heavily optimized (though I do still have some ideas on how to go further). The main problem we're having on Mac hardware is that the OS heuristics for when to turn the clock rate up on the GPU work really poorly for the audio use case. If you want gory details, I've written about it: https://anukari.com/blog/devlog/waste-makes-haste If anyone…
Comment linking /blog/devlog/waste-makes-haste
on “Show HN: I built a synthesizer based on 3D physics”Submitted An appeal to Apple from Anukari as a story · 405 points
HN discussionSome info about custom 3D models is here: https://anukari.com/support/faq#custom-skins The animations have some subtlety, but the basic idea is that they all to from t=0 to t=1, and then Anukari drives that t parameter. So for example, the mallet would go from resting at t=0 to fully extended at t=1, and Anukari will animate it at the right speed from 0, up to some value based on the velocity, back to zero. Some of…
Comment linking /support/faq
on “Show HN: I built a synthesizer based on 3D physics”Submitted Waste Makes Haste? as a story · 17 points
HN discussionShort answer: it has been a big pain in the butt. The GPU hardware is mostly really great, but the drivers/APIs were not designed for such a low-latency use case. There's (for audio) a large overhead latency in kernel execution scheduling. I've had to do a lot of fun optimization in terms of just reducing the runtime of the kernel itself, and a lot of less-fun evil dark magic optimization to e.g. trick macOS into ra…
Comment linking /blog/devlog/tags/optimization
on “Show HN: I built a synthesizer based on 3D physics”Submitted Anukari on the CPU (part 2: CPU optimization) as a story · 14 points
HN discussionYou can replace all the 3D models and skyboxes. Everything is in open formats, wrapped up in zip files. See: https://anukari.com/support/faq#custom-skyboxes https://anukari.com/support/faq#custom-skins AFAIK nobody has attempted this yet, so the write-up might not be perfect. If you try it, let me know how it goes!
Comment linking /support/faq
on “Show HN: I built a synthesizer based on 3D physics”Submitted Anukari 3D Physics Synthesizer as a story · 7 points
HN discussionHey everyone, it worked, I had a super productive conversation with exactly the right person on the Metal team! Thanks for helping me get Apple's attention. I didn't at all expect this amount of support. https://anukari.com/blog/devlog/productive-conversation-appl...
Comment linking /blog/devlog/productive-conversation-apple-metal
on “An appeal to Apple from Anukari”Submitted Railway knows better than you as a story · 4 points
HN discussionIf you like this you might also like Anukari's 3D Physics Synthesizer. It is also a spring-mass synth but with Midi and audio and much more options. https://anukari.com/
Comment linking /
on “Show HN: Web Audio Spring-Mass Synthesis”Submitted Had a super productive conversation with an Apple Metal engineer as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Lions, tigers, and high-DPI, oh my as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Anukari: The Path to 1.0 as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Anukari on the CPU (part 2: CPU optimization) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Multichannel, ASIO, Radeon, and Randomization as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Anukari Apple Performance Progress as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Anukari: 3D Physics Synthesizer (On the GPU) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Show HN: An interactive guide to how my spring-mass physics synthesizer works as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Abandoning Resend.com for Email as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Anukari on the CPU (part 3: in retrospect) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Anukari on the CPU (part 1: GPU issues) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Anukari has macros, and a preset API as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Anukari working better on some Radeon chips as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Anukari: macOS Performance Improvements as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Lions, tigers, and high-DPI, oh my as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Devlog for a 3D physics audio synthesizer as a story · 1 points
HN discussion