Tinyrenderer
Shares rank 14 of 24 online tutorials by recommenders
Free hands-on course for building a software renderer in C from first principles, recommended as a well-taught resource for learning graphics.
Free hands-on course for building a software renderer in C from first principles, recommended as a well-taught resource for learning graphics.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Teaches software rasterizer from first principles
“learn how to build a software rasterizer (check out Tiny renderer)”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “What to Learn to Be a Graphics Programmer” “It was fun to work in pure C from first principles”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)” “Implement a CPU rasteriser, with just two stages”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “Learn computer graphics from scratch and for free” Well-regarded author and good tutorials
“The author of this course is among the best professors I've had back in university”
Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL” “tinyrenderer looks impressive! The tutorials look good too.”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)” Shared as a great resource
“This is a great resource. Some others along the same lines:”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “Implementing a Tiny CPU Rasterizer” “Here you go: https://haqr.eu/tinyrenderer/”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “Learn computer graphics from scratch and for free”
Other online tutorials people recommend
The four most recommended other online tutorials, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CSS-Tricks | 23 | 3 | 88% | 4 | — | Approved |
| Beej's Guide to Network Programmingby Brian Hall | 16 | 1 | 94% | 7 | 23 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Learn OpenGL | 15 | 3 | 83% | 3 | — | — |
| Let's Build a Compilerby Jack Crenshaw | 12 | 1 | 92% | 5 | — | Approved |
| TinyrendererThis page | 6 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The author of this course is among the best professors I've had back in university”
“excellent free alternative that covers all the basics”
“learn how to build a software rasterizer (check out Tiny renderer)”
“tinyrenderer looks impressive! The tutorials look good too.”
“It was fun to work in pure C from first principles”
“This is a great resource. Some others along the same lines:”
“Implement a CPU rasteriser, with just two stages”
“Here you go: https://haqr.eu/tinyrenderer/”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.