Show HN: Immersive Gaussian Splat tour of grace cathedral, San Francisco

A new interactive tour of San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral just dropped on Hacker News, and the crowd reaction was basically: is this magic now? Built by Vincent Woo and collaborators using PlayCanvas, the project lets people wander through the landmark online with a level of realism that had commenters openly gawking. One fan said they’d been showing off Woo’s earlier Sutro Tower demo on their phone like a party trick, and declared this cathedral version “stunning”—especially because the stained glass and reflections actually feel alive instead of flat and game-like.

The loudest mood in the comments was straight-up awe. People called the detail level “absolutely crazy” and “extraordinary,” with several treating it less like a tech demo and more like a glimpse of the future for preserving famous places. There wasn’t much of a fight in the thread, but there was definitely a mini-drama of expectations: one commenter immediately wanted European Gothic cathedrals next, while another basically asked the question lurking in everyone’s mind—how is this so clean without weird visual glitches everywhere? That turned the conversation from pure praise into a bit of fascinated detective work.

And yes, there’s a tiny flex-fest energy too: people are already using Woo’s scans as the thing they whip out to impress friends. When your church tour inspires both cultural preservation talk and “look what my phone can do” showboating, you know the internet is hooked