avalanchers 0.1.0

Avalanche simulation with Rust and WebGPU

Avalanche Simulation with Rust and WebGPU

Try it yourself!

Most modern browsers now support WebGPU (check the current status). The application has been tested on Windows, Linux, and Android, though support on mobile devices may still be limited.

You can explore one of the predefined AvaFrame examples using the dropdown menu, or upload your own Austrian GPX file to run a custom simulation.

This project was initiated to streamline the development of avalanche simulations using WebGPU, building on concepts from weBIGeo. It provides an easy way to visualize results directly in the browser.

The core has since been rewritten in Rust, with Python and WebAssembly (WASM) bindings available. The underlying model is a block-based approach without particle interactions, enabling fast initial estimates of runout distance and flow routing.

Get started with Python

pip install avalanchers[viz] once pypi upload works. For now use the released wheel.

import avalanchers

sim = avalanchers.PySimulation.new()
sim.create_example("frontend/data/avaframe/avaMal.png")
sim.run()

# needs the viz option
avalanchers.plot2d(sim, "max_velocity")
avalanchers.plot3d(sim, "max_velocity")

Test examples are from AvaFrame under EUPL-1.2 license

Known Issues with Chrome

• Chromium on Windows currently ignores the high-performance option in powerPreference WebGPU flag if you have multiple GPUs [Issue]. Options are:
  1. Run slow on integrated GPU
  2. Start Chrome with high performance gpu flag "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --force_high_performance_gpu
  3. Activate flag in Chrome chrome://flags/#force-high-performance-gpu. I got slow runs about 50% of the time even though it actually runs on the fast GPU. Might work by now.
  4. Activate the dedicated GPU for Chrome in the system settings.

Development Setup

Windows

Install Rust, follow guide: https://rust-lang.org/tools/install/ Install Python

# wasm bindings
cargo install wasm-bindgen-cli
cargo install wasm-pack

# coverage
cargo install cargo-tarpaulin

# python bindings
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1  
python -m pip install maturin

Linux

Install dependencies

Install Rust, follow guide: https://rust-lang.org/tools/install/ (WSL (2026.04.04): curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh) Install Python

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y python3-venv python3-dev build-essential clang lld pkg-config libssl-dev

# wasm bindings
cargo install wasm-bindgen-cli
cargo install wasm-pack

# python bindings
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python3 -m pip install maturin

Build

# cli tool
cargo build -p cli --release

# python bindings
maturin develop 
maturin build --release

# wasm bindings
wasm-pack build crates/wasm_bindings --target web --out-dir ../../frontend/js/pkg --no-opt
wasm-pack build crates/wasm_bindings --target web --out-dir ../../frontend/js/pkg --release

Run

Python

1. Install module
2. See python avalanchers_example.py

Frontend

1. Go to this directory
2. Start server with python .\frontend\dev_server.py for disabled cache and a secure connection with self signed certs which are needed to use WebGPU (except for localhost where python -m http.server 8000 works as well)
3. Open Browser on https://localhost/index.html or https://localhost/index.html?debug=vscode for debugging mode or replace localhost with IP if accessing from another device.

Code Guidelines

Before pushing use:

Install pip install ruff

cargo fmt
cargo clippy -- -D warnings
cargo test -p compute_core -p data_processor
ruff check ./python
pytest python