Solo dev builds true-scale universe atlas (8.4M stars) in a week with Fable
A developer used Fable to build a atlas that renders the entire universe at real measured size, distance, and speed, in about a week. It's one continuous zoom from the cosmic web down to quarks, including 8.4 million real stars from Gaia DR3 with accurate proper motion, 2.6 million SDSS galaxies placed at their true distances, planets on real orbits, live-tracked satellites, and a recreation of the August 12 total eclipse crossing Iceland that lines up with the real event within about ten minutes. Navigation works via mouse, keyboard, or touch, with a guided tour triggered by pressing T.
The creator, a general software engineer with hobby game-dev experience, used Fable 5 on the Max (5x) plan together with Claude Code to produce 92 merged , 237 commits, and roughly 14,500 lines of TypeScript and WGSL code in just over a week. Fable wrote essentially all the code, including the renderer, orbital mechanics, Kepler solvers, SGP4 satellite propagation, and a ray-marched atmosphere effect. The engine runs on raw WebGPU with no game engine and zero , compiling to a 90 KB gzipped bundle.
The project requires a WebGPU-capable browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox on Windows, or Safari on macOS/iOS 26), and its source code is published under the MIT license.
Key points
- Built with Fable and Claude Code in about a week: 92 merged PRs, 237 commits, ~14,500 lines of TypeScript/WGSL
- Renders 8.4 million real Gaia DR3 stars and 2.6 million SDSS galaxies at true distances
- Fable wrote physics code too, including Kepler orbit solvers, SGP4 satellite tracking, and a ray-marched atmosphere
- Engine is raw WebGPU with no game engine, 90 KB gzipped, zero
- Source published under MIT license; requires a WebGPU browser (Chrome/Edge, Windows Firefox, macOS/iOS 26 Safari)