---
name: drei-a9845262b3e5
description: >-
  Drei (@react-three/drei) is the helper library for React Three Fiber with
  ready-made 3D components: orbit controls, environment lighting, text, HTML
  overlays, model and texture loaders, instancing and performance tools. Use
  when someone asks to "add OrbitControls", "load a GLTF model in React Three
  Fiber", "add an HDR environment", "put HTML labels in a 3D scene", "render 3D
  text", or "speed up a three.js scene in React".
license: Apache-2.0
compatibility: 'React 19, @react-three/fiber 9, three r159 or newer (drei 10)'
metadata:
  author: terminal-skills
  version: 1.1.0
  category: design
  repository: https://github.com/pmndrs/drei
  tags: "3d, react, threejs, r3f, helpers"
---

# Drei — Essential Helpers for React Three Fiber

## Overview

Drei is the companion library of React Three Fiber (R3F). It adds controls, environment and lighting helpers, text, HTML in 3D, loaders and performance utilities as components and hooks, so you skip the Three.js plumbing. Checked against `@react-three/drei` 10.7.9 and `@react-three/fiber` 9.8.2: drei 10 needs React 19 and fiber 9; for React 18 and fiber 8 stay on drei 9.

## Instructions

### Install

```bash
npm install three @react-three/fiber @react-three/drei
npm install -D @types/three
```

Every drei component must render inside a fiber `<Canvas>`. Components that load files (`useGLTF`, `useTexture`, `Environment`, `Text`) suspend, so wrap the scene in `<Suspense>`.

```tsx
import { Canvas } from "@react-three/fiber";
import { Suspense } from "react";
import { Environment, OrbitControls, useGLTF } from "@react-three/drei";

function Sneaker() {
  const { scene } = useGLTF("/models/sneaker.glb");
  return <primitive object={scene} />;
}

export default function Viewer() {
  return (
    <Canvas camera={{ position: [0, 1, 4], fov: 45 }}>
      <Suspense fallback={null}>
        <Sneaker />
        <Environment preset="studio" />
      </Suspense>
      <OrbitControls makeDefault enablePan={false} />
    </Canvas>
  );
}
```

### Components by task

#### Controls

```tsx
import { OrbitControls, MapControls, FlyControls, ScrollControls } from "@react-three/drei";

// Orbit around an object (product viewer)
<OrbitControls enablePan={false} autoRotate autoRotateSpeed={0.5} />

// Map-style controls (top-down, pan + zoom)
<MapControls enableRotate={false} />

// Fly through scene (game, architectural viz)
<FlyControls movementSpeed={5} rollSpeed={0.5} />

// Scroll-linked animation (landing pages)
<ScrollControls pages={3} damping={0.25}>
  <SceneContent />   {/* useScroll() inside to read scroll position */}
</ScrollControls>
```

#### Environment and Lighting

```tsx
import { Environment, Lightformer, Sky, Stars, Stage } from "@react-three/drei";

// HDR environment map (realistic reflections)
<Environment preset="sunset" />
<Environment files="/hdri/warehouse.hdr" />

// Custom studio lighting
<Environment>
  <Lightformer position={[0, 5, 0]} scale={10} intensity={2} />
  <Lightformer position={[5, 0, 0]} scale={5} color="blue" />
</Environment>

// Quick product staging (auto lighting + shadows)
<Stage environment="city" intensity={0.5} shadows adjustCamera>
  <Model />
</Stage>

// Procedural sky
<Sky sunPosition={[100, 10, 100]} turbidity={8} />
<Stars radius={100} depth={50} count={5000} />
```

#### Text and HTML

```tsx
import { Text, Text3D, Html, Billboard } from "@react-three/drei";

// 2D text in 3D space (SDF rendering, crisp at any distance)
<Text fontSize={0.5} color="white" anchorX="center" font="/fonts/Inter.woff">  {/* .woff/.ttf/.otf; woff2 is not supported */}
  Hello World
</Text>

// Extruded 3D text (needs a typeface.js JSON font, not a .woff/.ttf)
<Text3D font="/fonts/Inter_Bold.json" size={1} height={0.2} bevelEnabled bevelSize={0.02}>
  3D TEXT
  <meshStandardMaterial color="gold" metalness={0.8} />
</Text3D>

// HTML DOM elements in 3D space
<Html position={[0, 2, 0]} center distanceFactor={5} occlude>
  <div className="bg-white p-4 rounded-lg shadow">
    <h3>Product Info</h3>
    <button onClick={handleBuy}>Buy Now</button>
  </div>
</Html>

// Always face camera
<Billboard><Text>Always visible</Text></Billboard>
```

#### Loaders and Assets

```tsx
import { useGLTF, useTexture, useVideoTexture, useFBX, Preload } from "@react-three/drei";

// GLTF model
const { scene, nodes, materials } = useGLTF("/model.glb");

// Textures (cached; suspends until loaded)
const [colorMap, normalMap, roughnessMap] = useTexture([
  "/textures/color.jpg",
  "/textures/normal.jpg",
  "/textures/roughness.jpg",
]);

// Video as texture (for screens, billboards)
const videoTexture = useVideoTexture("/video/demo.mp4");

// Preload everything inside the Canvas's Suspense boundary
<Preload all />

// Optional: start fetching a model before the component mounts
useGLTF.preload("/model.glb");
```

#### Shapes and Helpers

```tsx
import {
  RoundedBox, Sphere, Torus, Line, QuadraticBezierLine,
  Float, MeshWobbleMaterial, MeshDistortMaterial, ContactShadows,
  Grid, GizmoHelper, GizmoViewport,
} from "@react-three/drei";

// Pre-built geometries
<RoundedBox args={[1, 1, 1]} radius={0.1} smoothness={4}>
  <meshStandardMaterial color="blue" />
</RoundedBox>

// Animated materials
<Sphere args={[1, 64, 64]}>
  <MeshDistortMaterial color="#8B5CF6" speed={2} distort={0.3} />
</Sphere>

// Floating animation
<Float speed={2} rotationIntensity={0.5} floatIntensity={1}>
  <Model />
</Float>

// Ground shadows (no shadow plane needed)
<ContactShadows position={[0, -1, 0]} opacity={0.5} blur={2} />

// Debug grid
<Grid infiniteGrid fadeDistance={30} cellColor="#6f6f6f" />
```

#### Performance

```tsx
import { AdaptiveDpr, AdaptiveEvents, PerformanceMonitor, Instances, Instance, Detailed } from "@react-three/drei";

// Auto-adjust quality: PerformanceMonitor reports, you lower the Canvas dpr
const [dpr, setDpr] = useState(1.5)
<Canvas dpr={dpr}>
  <PerformanceMonitor onDecline={() => setDpr(1)} onIncline={() => setDpr(1.5)} />
  <AdaptiveDpr pixelated />   {/* lowers dpr while the camera moves */}
</Canvas>

// LOD (Level of Detail)
<Detailed distances={[0, 20, 50]}>
  <HighPolyModel />    {/* Close */}
  <MedPolyModel />     {/* Medium */}
  <LowPolyModel />     {/* Far */}
</Detailed>

// GPU instancing for 1000s of objects
<Instances limit={1000}>
  <boxGeometry />
  <meshStandardMaterial />
  {positions.map((pos, i) => <Instance key={i} position={pos} />)}  {/* limit must be >= number of instances */}
</Instances>
```

## Examples

### Example 1: Product viewer
**User:** "Show our sneaker.glb in a React page that people can rotate, with soft lighting and a shadow under it."

Use the `Viewer` above and wrap the model in `<Stage environment="city" intensity={0.5} shadows adjustCamera>`, which adds lighting, a contact shadow and camera framing. `OrbitControls` with `makeDefault` handles rotation; `enablePan={false}` keeps the product centered. Run `npx tsc --noEmit` to confirm the imports resolve; at runtime the model appears centered with a soft ground shadow.

### Example 2: Labels and many objects in one scene
**User:** "Put clickable price tags over 500 boxes in a warehouse scene and keep it at 60 fps."

Render the boxes with one `<Instances limit={500}>` and 500 `<Instance>` children (one draw call). Add a single `<Html>` tag only for the hovered or selected box rather than 500 DOM overlays, and add `<PerformanceMonitor>` plus `<AdaptiveDpr pixelated />` to lower resolution when the frame rate drops.

## Guidelines

- Presets (`<Environment preset="sunset" />`) download their HDR from a public CDN at runtime, and `useGLTF` fetches the Draco decoder from `gstatic.com` unless you configure your own. For offline, privacy-restricted or production-critical sites, self-host an HDR and pass `files="/hdri/warehouse.hdr"`, and call `useGLTF.setDecoderPath("/draco/")`.
- Always add an `<Environment>`; PBR materials look flat without one.
- `Html` creates real DOM nodes: fine for a few labels, wasteful for hundreds. `occlude` hides them behind meshes.
- Use `<Instances>` for many copies of one geometry; `limit` must be at least the instance count.
- `ContactShadows` is much cheaper than real shadow maps; use it to ground objects.
- Put `<Preload all />` inside the Suspense boundary so assets load before first render.
- Import from `@react-three/drei`, not its internal paths; React Native projects use `@react-three/drei/native`.
- Do not mix drei 10 with React 18; install a matching pair or you get peer-dependency errors.


---
Source attribution: terminal-skills
Original project: https://github.com/TerminalSkills/skills/blob/8a9852d489f274538be9bf1c9121aeb403750b1c/skills/drei/SKILL.md
License: Apache-2.0
License information: https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Mega AI Hub.

## Upstream license notice

                                 Apache License
                           Version 2.0, January 2004
                        http://www.apache.org/licenses/

   TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION

   1. Definitions.

      "License" shall mean the terms and conditions for use, reproduction,
      and distribution as defined by Sections 1 through 9 of this document.

      "Licensor" shall mean the copyright owner or entity authorized by
      the copyright owner that is granting the License.

      "Legal Entity" shall mean the union of the acting entity and all
      other entities that control, are controlled by, or are under common
      control with that entity. For the purposes of this definition,
      "control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the
      direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or
      otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the
      outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.

      "You" (or "Your") shall mean an individual or Legal Entity
      exercising permissions granted by this License.

      "Source" form shall mean the preferred form for making modifications,
      including but not limited to software source code, documentation
      source, and configuration files.

      "Object" form shall mean any form resulting from mechanical
      transformation or translation of a Source form, including but
      not limited to compiled object code, generated documentation,
      and conversions to other media types.

      "Work" shall mean the work of authorship, whether in Source or
      Object form, made available under the License, as indicated by a
      copyright notice that is included in or attached to the work
      (an example is provided in the Appendix below).

      "Derivative Works" shall mean any work, whether in Source or Object
      form, that is based on (or derived from) the Work and for which the
      editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications
      represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship. For the purposes
      of this License, Derivative Works shall not include works that remain
      separable from, or merely link (or bind by name) to the interfaces of,
      the Work and Derivative Works thereof.

      "Contribution" shall mean any work of authorship, including
      the original version of the Work and any modifications or additions
      to that Work or Derivative Works thereof, that is intentionally
      submitted to the Licensor for inclusion in the Work by the copyright owner
      or by an individual or Legal Entity authorized to submit on behalf of
      the copyright owner. For the purposes of this definition, "submitted"
      means any form of electronic, verbal, or written communication sent
      to the Licensor or its representatives, including but not limited to
      communication on electronic mailing lists, source code control systems,
      and issue tracking systems that are managed by, or on behalf of, the
      Licensor for the purpose of discussing and improving the Work, but
      excluding communication that is conspicuously marked or otherwise
      designated in writing by the copyright owner as "Not a Contribution."

      "Contributor" shall mean Licensor and any individual or Legal Entity
      on behalf of whom a Contribution has been received by the Licensor and
      subsequently incorporated within the Work.

   2. Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
      this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual,
      worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
      copyright license to reproduce, prepare Derivative Works of,
      publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute the
      Work and such Derivative Works in Source or Object form.

   3. Grant of Patent License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
      this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual,
      worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
      (except as stated in this section) patent license to make, have made,
      use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work,
      where such license applies only to those patent claims licensable
      by such Contributor that are necessarily infringed by their
      Contribution(s) alone or by combination of their Contribution(s)
      with the Work to which such Contribution(s) was submitted. If You
      institute patent litigation against any entity (including a
      cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work
      or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct
      or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses
      granted to You under this License for that Work shall terminate
      as of the date such litigation is filed.

   4. Redistribution. You may reproduce and distribute copies of the
      Work or Derivative Works thereof in any medium, with or without
      modifications, and in Source or Object form, provided that You
      meet the following conditions:

      (a) You must give any other recipients of the Work or
          Derivative Works a copy of this License; and

      (b) You must cause any modified files to carry prominent notices
          stating that You changed the files; and

      (c) You must retain, in the Source form of any Derivative Works
          that You distribute, all copyright, patent, trademark, and
          attribution notices from the Source form of the Work,
          excluding those notices that do not pertain to any part of
          the Derivative Works; and

      (d) If the Work includes a "NOTICE" text file as part of its
          distribution, then any Derivative Works that You distribute must
          include a readable copy of the attribution notices contained
          within such NOTICE file, excluding any notices that do not
          pertain to any part of the Derivative Works, in at least one
          of the following places: within a NOTICE text file distributed
          as part of the Derivative Works; within the Source form or
          documentation, if provided along with the Derivative Works; or,
          within a display generated by the Derivative Works, if and
          wherever such third-party notices normally appear. The contents
          of the NOTICE file are for informational purposes only and
          do not modify the License. You may add Your own attribution
          notices within Derivative Works that You distribute, alongside
          or as an addendum to the NOTICE text from the Work, provided
          that such additional attribution notices cannot be construed
          as modifying the License.

      You may add Your own copyright statement to Your modifications and
      may provide additional or different license terms and conditions
      for use, reproduction, or distribution of Your modifications, or
      for any such Derivative Works as a whole, provided Your use,
      reproduction, and distribution of the Work otherwise complies with
      the conditions stated in this License.

   5. Submission of Contributions. Unless You explicitly state otherwise,
      any Contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the Work
      by You to the Licensor shall be under the terms and conditions of
      this License, without any additional terms or conditions.
      Notwithstanding the above, nothing herein shall supersede or modify
      the terms of any separate license agreement you may have executed
      with Licensor regarding such Contributions.

   6. Trademarks. This License does not grant permission to use the trade
      names, trademarks, service marks, or product names of the Licensor,
      except as required for reasonable and customary use in describing the
      origin of the Work and reproducing the content of the NOTICE file.

   7. Disclaimer of Warranty. Unless required by applicable law or
      agreed to in writing, Licensor provides the Work (and each
      Contributor provides its Contributions) on an "AS IS" BASIS,
      WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
      implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions
      of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A
      PARTICULAR PURPOSE. You are solely responsible for determining the
      appropriateness of using or redistributing the Work and assume any
      risks associated with Your exercise of permissions under this License.

   8. Limitation of Liability. In no event and under no legal theory,
      whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise,
      unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly
      negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall any Contributor be
      liable to You for damages, including any direct, indirect, special,
      incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising as a
      result of this License or out of the use or inability to use the
      Work (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill,
      work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all
      other commercial damages or losses), even if such Contributor
      has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

   9. Accepting Warranty or Additional Liability. While redistributing
      the Work or Derivative Works thereof, You may choose to offer,
      and charge a fee for, acceptance of support, warranty, indemnity,
      or other liability obligations and/or rights consistent with this
      License. However, in accepting such obligations, You may act only
      on Your own behalf and on Your sole responsibility, not on behalf
      of any other Contributor, and only if You agree to indemnify,
      defend, and hold each Contributor harmless for any liability
      incurred by, or claims asserted against, such Contributor by reason
      of your accepting any such warranty or additional liability.

   END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

   Copyright 2025 Terminal Skills

   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
   You may obtain a copy of the License at

       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
   limitations under the License.



# Mega AI Hub resource metadata

Creator / publisher: terminal-skills
Original project: https://github.com/TerminalSkills/skills/blob/8a9852d489f274538be9bf1c9121aeb403750b1c/skills/drei/SKILL.md
Attribution basis: Source repository record

Fields of work: Development & Engineering, Product Management, Design
Roles: Frontend Developer, Product Manager, UX Designer
Specialties: Frontend, API, Cross Platform
Tools: @React Three/Drei
Country applicability: Country not specified
Classification basis: Source category, role and specialization labels
Instruction SHA-256: a91d920e99099e278da4f0ea0915aae6abe41b7848511a936a6d73c72c43db99