TRELLIS.2
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 5 3D model generators
Open-source image-to-3D model that people use to generate 3D assets with PBR materials, and run locally. Critics say it is hard to use and falls short of its demos.
Open-source image-to-3D model that people use to generate 3D assets with PBR materials, and run locally. Critics say it is hard to use and falls short of its demos.
32 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 27
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 84%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 27 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 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
High-quality 3D output
“it seems Trellis 2 has higher quality and it also generates PBR materials and textures.”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “TRELLIS.2: state-of-the-art large 3D generative model (4B)” “I experimented with it and the quality is surprisingly good”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Claude Code skills that build complete Godot games” “Its a step change in quality.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “TRELLIS.2: state-of-the-art large 3D generative model (4B)” Free, runs locally without cloud GPUs
“iterate locally without paying for cloud GPUs or waiting in queues”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: TRELLIS.2 image-to-3D running on Mac Silicon – no Nvidia GPU needed” “thats how I got Trellis2 working on windows and tiny VRAM”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “AirLLM 70B inference with single 4GB GPU” “Trellis is like a year old and practically free.”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “An autopsy of AI-generated 3D slop” Fits 3D asset creation pipelines
“Trellis2 is very cool. Ive managed to put together a sdxl -> trellis -> unirig pipeline to generate 3d characters with mixamo skeletons that's working pretty well.”
Comment from 10 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: What happened to self-hosted models?” “there's also a huge huge opportunity in the TRELLIS.2 / Pixal3D space for quickly generating props and 3D assets”
Comment from 6 Aug 2026 in “Cyberpunk Video Games” “All great for creation pipelines.”
Comment from 21 May 2026 in “Ask HN: Is the next big thing locally running coding agents?” PBR materials and clean topology
“it seems Trellis 2 has higher quality and it also generates PBR materials and textures.”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “TRELLIS.2: state-of-the-art large 3D generative model (4B)” “the PBR materials and clean quad topology are a clear upgrade”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Meshcraft – Turn any photo into a 3D model in seconds”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Results fall short of claims
“The results from arbitrary pictures are not nearly as good as what's shown in the posting.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “TRELLIS.2: state-of-the-art large 3D generative model (4B)” “Trellis isn't and has never been state of the art.”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “An autopsy of AI-generated 3D slop” “over-promise and under-deliver”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “An autopsy of AI-generated 3D slop” - Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: TRELLIS.2 image-to-3D running on Mac Silicon – no Nvidia GPU needed”
Other 3D model generators people recommend
The four most recommended other 3D model generators, 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.
See all 5 3D model generators, rankedWhat people said
30 of the 34 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I've stumbled upon a reliablish pipeline”
“there's also a huge huge opportunity in the TRELLIS.2 / Pixal3D space for quickly generating props and 3D assets”
“thats how I got Trellis2 working on windows and tiny VRAM”
“They work pretty darn well and take a lot of the burden out of not just modeling”
“it’s astonishing how much cool stuff comes out the other side”
“Probably easier with Trellis 2 or Meshy.ai”
“All great for creation pipelines.”
“it’s still very useful though”
“Going after the CUDA-specific kernels with pure-PyTorch alternatives is the kind of work that ages well”
“This is the kind of porting work I always hope for when I see a CUDA-only release.”
“This is fantastic, great work.”
“iterate locally without paying for cloud GPUs or waiting in queues”
“it does fair on geometry and visual fidelity among open-source options”
“So much effort, but no examples in the landing page.”
“this model is not very good”
“I experimented with it and the quality is surprisingly good”
“Trellis makes this easy — each session is scoped to the worktree you're working in.”
“this 3d trellis 2 video tutorial blew my mind”
“Trellis is like a year old and practically free.”
“over-promise and under-deliver”
“Yes, slightly better than the open source Trellis, but still nearly impossible to work with”
“Trellis isn't and has never been state of the art.”
“the PBR materials and clean quad topology are a clear upgrade”
“Trellis2 is very cool. Ive managed to put together a sdxl -> trellis -> unirig pipeline to generate 3d characters with mixamo skeletons that's working pretty well.”
“a new 3D model with a new idea - more data”
“I want to highlight what I believe is the coolest innovation: their novel O-Voxel data structure.”
“it seems Trellis 2 has higher quality and it also generates PBR materials and textures.”
“The results from arbitrary pictures are not nearly as good as what's shown in the posting.”
“Its a step change in quality.”
“it’s actually open (full dataset, training and inference)”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.