Kiln: WebGPU-Native Out-of-Core Volume Rendering for Multi-GB Datasets

Hi there. I usually write rendering code rather than blog posts. This is a first. Let’s see how it goes. My first encounter with volume rendering was back in 2012 — volume raycasting and processing with OpenSceneGraph, C++ and CUDA, applied to subsurface data visualization during my master's thesis. It stuck with me. Since then it has been an on-and-off topic I keep coming back to. The question that pulled me back this time: how practical is WebGPU nowadays for volume rendering, and what does it actually take to handle large volumetric datasets in a browser? WebGPU volume rendering examples exist, but most assume the dataset is small enough to download in full prior to rendering. Kiln aims to handle datasets where a complete download would be impossible or at least impractical due to the large size of the datasets. Capable WebGL viewers exist as well. The motivation here, however, is to build the system fully around WebGPU from the beginning. So what is Kiln? Kiln is a WebGPU-native ou