DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 vs Minimax M3.1 Flash Same prompt. Same task. Deepseek Time: 1 h 28 min 27 s Tokens: 89.487.454 Cost: $0,54 Minimax Time: 1 h 6 min 51 s Tokens: 8.120.000 Cost: $0,22 Which one is better?

it is very different style, but i'd say deepseek

I agree, I also prefer deepseek

tho i feel the Minimax have this old Dark souls vibe a bit less cartoonesc so i think some people might prefer it

Exactly, perfect definition, it seems something recorded using an old camera

The campfires are back! <3 Both are mid imho but I'd still go with DeepSeek, even if the fire itself looks so bad.

Very cozy :) Deepseek was better I agree, mini max really disappointing

Deepseek. Hey Ruben please include the prompt. Something like? "Build a cinematic 3D animation of a cozy campfire in a dark forest at night". Any tool or other dependencies?

it is bigger than that, let me send... PROJECT: THE LAST EMBER — A Photorealistic Forest Campfire Create a breathtaking, photorealistic 3D cinematic animation of a cozy campfire burning deep inside a forest at night. The final result must look like real footage captured with a professional cinema camera, not a video game, stylized animation, or a typical procedural Three.js demonstration. The scene should evoke warmth, peace, solitude, and comfort, with the beautiful contrast between the warm firelight and the cold, mysterious nighttime forest. This is a visual-quality benchmark. Push procedural 3D rendering as far as technically possible. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 1. ABSOLUTE TECHNICAL CONSTRAINTS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Everything visible MUST be created entirely through code. STRICTLY PROHIBITED: - Blender or any 3D modeling software - Downloaded or imported 3D models - External textures, photographs, or images - HDRI files or premade environment maps - Stock assets, sprites, or particle textures - Pre-rendered backgrounds or footage - AI-generated images or video - External asset-generation services - Any audio or sound effects ALLOWED: - Three.js - WebGPU or WebGL2 - Custom GLSL/WGSL shaders - Procedural geometry and instancing - Mathematical noise functions - Procedural texture generation - GPU particle simulations - Custom post-processing - Browser-native rendering and video encoding - JavaScript/TypeScript libraries when necessary Every tree, rock, leaf, log, flame, spark, cloud, shadow, and environmental detail must originate from procedural algorithms written in code. Do not use flat images or billboard sprites as substitutes for the main volumetric elements. OUTPUT SPECIFICATIONS: - Duration: EXACTLY 30 seconds - Resolution: 1920 × 1080 - Aspect ratio: 16:9 - Frame rate: 30 FPS - Total frames: exactly 900 - Format: MP4, H.264 when supported - Audio: NONE - No subtitles, logos, text, or watermarks Build a deterministic frame-by-frame capture pipeline so the final result does not depend on real-time playback performance. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 2. ART DIRECTION AND COMPOSITION ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SCENE: A small natural clearing deep within a dense, mature coniferous forest. It is a clear, peaceful night. At the center of the clearing, a beautifully detailed campfire burns inside a roughly circular arrangement of natural stones. The surrounding forest gradually disappears into darkness, with tall trees silhouetted against a deep blue night sky. The campfire is the visual and emotional centerpiece. The composition must feel intimate and believable. CAMERA: Use a professional cinematic camera aesthetic. - Camera positioned approximately 1.2 meters above the ground - Medium-wide framing - Campfire positioned around the lower central third - Tall forest trees visible behind it - Some foreground branches providing natural framing - Subtle depth of field - Natural lens behavior - No exaggerated wide-angle distortion The viewer should feel as though they are sitting peacefully near the fire. Avoid large empty areas, artificial symmetry, and obvious procedural repetition. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 3. PHOTOREALISTIC CAMPFIRE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The fire is THE MOST IMPORTANT element. Spend a significant proportion of implementation effort on making it physically convincing. LOGS: Generate 5–8 highly detailed firewood logs in a naturally irregular arrangement. Each log must have: - Irregular cylindrical geometry - Procedural bark with deep cracks - Different lengths and diameters - Broken branches and splintered ends - Darkened and partially burned surfaces - Localized glowing embers - Charcoal forming around burning regions - Realistic roughness and normal variation Do not create perfectly smooth cylinders. FLAMES: Implement a sophisticated procedural flame system using custom shaders, volumetric approximations, and animated noise fields. The fire must have: - Bright white-yellow hottest regions - Golden yellow inner flames - Rich orange middle regions - Deep reddish translucent flame edges - Irregular upward motion - Convincing turbulence - Constantly changing flame shapes - Thin tongues of flame splitting and merging - Naturally intermittent bursts - Small flames licking individual logs - Physically plausible flame opacity - Organic nonlinear movement Use layered 3D geometry, volumetric raymarching, or another technically justified rendering approach. Avoid obvious flat flame planes, repetitive sine-wave deformation, cartoonish shapes, and cheap-looking transparent polygons. The fire must feel genuinely three-dimensional from the camera's perspective. EMBERS: Simulate glowing charcoal between and underneath the logs. Embers should: - Glow at different intensities - Pulse gradually and irregularly - Reveal detailed cracked surfaces - Emit convincing orange-red light - Occasionally brighten as the fire evolves SPARKS: Create GPU-animated glowing particles. They should: - Emerge naturally from the combustion zone - Rise with believable buoyancy - Drift slightly with the wind - Vary in size, brightness, and lifetime - Fade gradually as they cool - Appear intermittently, not continuously Avoid excessive spark density. SMOKE: Generate subtle, physically plausible smoke. - Thin wisps rising from burning wood - Turbulent motion - Natural dissipation - Slight wind interaction - Partial illumination by firelight - Increasing transparency with altitude Smoke should remain subtle and realistic. HEAT DISTORTION: Add localized heat shimmer above the hottest flames. Implement subtle screen-space refraction or another appropriate shader-based technique. The effect must be visible but never exaggerated. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 4. PROCEDURAL FOREST ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Create a dense, highly realistic forest environment. TREES: Procedurally generate mature pine and spruce trees with substantial structural detail. Use hierarchical branching algorithms, controlled randomness, and biologically plausible growth patterns. Each tree should have: - A unique silhouette - Naturally tapered trunk - Irregular bark - Branches of different lengths and angles - Secondary and tertiary branches - Realistic needle clusters - Occasional exposed or broken branches - Subtle trunk bends - Natural asymmetry - Different heights and ages IMPORTANT: Do not represent trees as green cones, stacked triangles, or simple low-poly primitives. Individual branches must be identifiable, especially on trees near the fire. Trees farther from the camera can use progressively optimized geometry while preserving realistic silhouettes. FOREST STRUCTURE: Include: - Large nearby trees framing the scene - Mid-distance trees illuminated partially by firelight - Dense distant forest silhouettes - Fallen branches and deadwood - Small shrubs and saplings - Subtle foliage variation Use natural clustering instead of uniform tree distribution. WIND: Simulate an extremely gentle nighttime breeze. Tree branches and needles should move subtly and independently. The movement must be physically restrained. This is a peaceful night, not a storm. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 5. EXTREMELY DETAILED FOREST FLOOR ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The ground must be richly detailed. Generate uneven terrain with procedural displacement. Include: - Dark soil - Pine needles - Fallen leaves - Small twigs - Scattered pine cones - Moss patches - Tiny grass clusters - Irregular stones - Exposed tree roots - Organic debris Use procedural material functions for albedo, roughness, and surface normals. Avoid large uniform surfaces. Around the campfire, the ground should show subtle signs of heat and human activity: - Slightly darker soil - Scattered ash - Charred wood fragments - Small pieces of charcoal - Flattened ground near the fire The firelight should reveal small surface details through grazing illumination and contact shadows. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 6. NIGHT SKY AND ATMOSPHERE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Create a deep, realistic nighttime sky entirely through procedural shaders. SKY: - Dark navy-blue zenith - Subtle atmospheric gradients - Natural star distribution - Stars with different brightness levels - Very faint distant cloud wisps - Physically restrained moonlight Avoid excessive stars or an unnaturally bright Milky Way. The sky should feel like a real night in a remote forest. MOONLIGHT: Use extremely subtle, cool blue moonlight. Moonlight should reveal just enough detail in distant trees to prevent the background from becoming an entirely black void. The fire must remain the dominant source of illumination. ATMOSPHERIC DEPTH: Add subtle environmental haze. - Light fog close to the forest floor - Atmospheric attenuation between tree layers - Slightly reduced contrast at greater distances - Extremely subtle light scattering - Natural transitions into darkness Do not create thick fantasy fog or overly dramatic god rays. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 7. CINEMATIC LIGHTING ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Lighting is critical to photorealism. The scene should contain two contrasting lighting environments: WARM FIRELIGHT: - Rich amber and orange tones - Strongest illumination near the logs - Gradual falloff with distance - Soft but recognizable shadows - Firelight bouncing onto nearby rocks and foliage - Dynamically changing intensity COOL MOONLIGHT: - Muted blue tones - Very low intensity - Soft environmental fill - Minimal illumination of distant trees The fire must dynamically illuminate: - Nearby tree trunks - Pine needles and small branches - Stones surrounding the fire - Exposed roots - Leaves and vegetation - Uneven terrain Synchronize light intensity with actual changes in flame behavior. The illumination must not resemble a simple random flickering point light. Use multiple coordinated emitters, emissive geometry, or a more physically convincing approximation. Implement high-quality shadow mapping and contact shadows. Prevent: - Floating logs - Missing shadows - Light leaking - Excessive orange saturation - Flat-looking vegetation - Overexposed flames - Completely crushed background blacks ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 8. CINEMATIC RENDERING ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Aim for film-quality rendering. Use the best appropriate rendering techniques available, including: - Physically based materials - Procedural normal and roughness maps - ACES-style cinematic tone mapping - High dynamic range lighting - High-quality anti-aliasing - Temporal accumulation when useful - Soft contact shadows - Screen-space ambient occlusion - Subtle volumetric atmospheric effects - Carefully controlled bloom - High-quality transparency handling - Accurate depth relationships - Stable temporal rendering Bloom should only emphasize the hottest portions of the fire and occasional glowing embers. Avoid aggressive bloom that destroys flame detail. Use a natural cinematic color grade with warm highlights, cooler shadows, and restrained contrast. The result should feel like genuine high-end nighttime cinematography rather than a heavily processed game screenshot. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 9. EXACT 30-SECOND CAMERA SEQUENCE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The animation must feel like a continuous, uninterrupted cinematic shot. NO cuts. NO transitions. NO artificial looping. TIMELINE: 00:00–00:08 Begin with a beautiful established composition of the campfire in the forest. The fire is already burning naturally. The camera remains almost stationary. Allow the viewer to appreciate the peaceful atmosphere. 00:08–00:18 Begin an extremely slow and subtle cinematic dolly forward. Use smooth interpolation without obvious acceleration. The flames change organically. Sparks occasionally drift upward. Warm firelight dances across nearby tree trunks and vegetation. 00:18–00:25 Continue the gentle camera movement. The camera is now slightly closer to the fire. Reveal additional details in the logs, embers, stones, and ground. A few brighter embers rise and fade into the darkness. 00:25–00:30 Gradually reduce camera movement until nearly stationary. Maintain the tranquil composition. The fire continues burning naturally. End on a beautiful cinematic frame. IMPORTANT: The camera movement must be extremely subtle. Do not orbit rapidly, zoom aggressively, or perform any dramatic camera tricks. The scene should feel like a real camera recording an actual campfire. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 10. ANIMATION AND PHYSICAL BELIEVABILITY ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Every animated element must behave independently and naturally. Implement: - Continuous non-repeating flame turbulence - Organic flame shape evolution - Variable combustion intensity - Realistic particle trajectories - Natural smoke dissipation - Subtle independent branch movement - Physically coherent illumination changes - Stable camera motion Use deterministic procedural simulation based on frame time. Do not rely on an uncontrolled real-time clock. Rendering frame 450 independently should produce the same result as rendering it during sequential playback. All animation should evolve continuously with no visible discontinuities. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 11. PERFORMANCE AND EXPORT ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Prioritize final image quality over real-time FPS. The scene may take longer to render than its playback duration. Use: - GPU instancing - Efficient procedural geometry - Adaptive geometry detail - Shader optimizations - Deterministic animation - Frame-by-frame rendering Create a reliable automated export pipeline. Render exactly 900 frames at 1920×1080. Encode the completed sequence as a 30-second video at 30 FPS, with no audio track. Use browser-native video encoding and a code-based MP4 muxing solution where supported. If the browser cannot encode H.264, provide a clearly documented compatible fallback without silently compromising resolution or frame count. Do not use pre-rendered scene assets. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 12. QUALITY ASSURANCE — MANDATORY ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Do not consider the task complete simply because the scene renders. You are responsible for critically evaluating the visual result. Render and inspect representative frames at: - 00:00 - 00:05 - 00:10 - 00:15 - 00:20 - 00:25 - 00:29 Evaluate each frame against these criteria: 1. Does the fire look physically believable? 2. Do the flames have convincing depth? 3. Do the trees resemble real mature forest trees? 4. Is the forest floor detailed enough? 5. Does the firelight interact naturally with the environment? 6. Are shadows coherent? 7. Is the background appropriately visible? 8. Does the image genuinely evoke a cozy nighttime atmosphere? 9. Are there any obvious procedural artifacts? 10. Does the image resemble real cinematic footage? Be extremely critical. If the flames resemble flat polygons, improve them. If the trees look artificial, improve their branching and foliage. If the scene looks too dark, improve the balance between firelight and ambient illumination. If the scene resembles a video game, identify the specific visual weaknesses and fix them. Also inspect multiple consecutive frames to identify flickering, temporal instability, particle artifacts, and unnatural motion. Do not merely report issues. Implement improvements and render again. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 13. FINAL DELIVERABLES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Deliver: 1. Complete source code 2. Fully procedural 3D environment 3. All custom shaders and simulation code 4. A reproducible rendering pipeline 5. Final 30-second 1080p video without audio 6. A short technical summary of the rendering approach The project must be easy to run and reproduce. Do not stop at a prototype, placeholder scene, or proof of concept. VISUAL SUCCESS CRITERION: A viewer should initially believe the result was filmed in a real forest at night. The fire should feel alive. The trees should feel naturally grown. The illumination should feel physically coherent. The atmosphere should feel peaceful, warm, intimate, and immersive. The final result should be visually stunning even when viewed as a single still frame. Your objective is not merely to create a working Three.js scene. Your objective is to demonstrate the absolute limits of photorealistic, fully procedural, code-generated 3D cinematography. Make it extraordinary.

Perfect. this is really helpful for people. I see people posting these sort of benchmark and comparative artifact tweets and most people interested in them want to understand how they were generated. thanks!

No problem man, next time Im going to put in the first comment

honestly man, deepseek one is top-notch ( →▽→)

Yeah deepseek is working good for most of my tests

89 million tokens for 54 cents is wild (one of these models is clearly just typing to hear itself talk)

For some reason deepseek is very ineficient.

animation style ve realistic style

I prefer the realistic style tbh

DeepSeek for me

I agree my friend, gpt is surprising me

For same task, Minimax looks more efficient

yeah, it seems much more efficient, I need to test both more

DeepSeek looks cleaner to me. Why did it need 11x the tokens though?

For some reason, DeepSeek has been very inefficient every time I've tested it. I used the DeepSeek harness for this particular test.

Minimax looks way more efficient there.

I agree, but at the same time the output was not so good

Bro prompt ?

For sure: PROJECT: THE LAST EMBER — A Photorealistic Forest Campfire Create a breathtaking, photorealistic 3D cinematic animation of a cozy campfire burning deep inside a forest at night. The final result must look like real footage captured with a professional cinema camera, not a video game, stylized animation, or a typical procedural Three.js demonstration. The scene should evoke warmth, peace, solitude, and comfort, with the beautiful contrast between the warm firelight and the cold, mysterious nighttime forest. This is a visual-quality benchmark. Push procedural 3D rendering as far as technically possible. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 1. ABSOLUTE TECHNICAL CONSTRAINTS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Everything visible MUST be created entirely through code. STRICTLY PROHIBITED: - Blender or any 3D modeling software - Downloaded or imported 3D models - External textures, photographs, or images - HDRI files or premade environment maps - Stock assets, sprites, or particle textures - Pre-rendered backgrounds or footage - AI-generated images or video - External asset-generation services - Any audio or sound effects ALLOWED: - Three.js - WebGPU or WebGL2 - Custom GLSL/WGSL shaders - Procedural geometry and instancing - Mathematical noise functions - Procedural texture generation - GPU particle simulations - Custom post-processing - Browser-native rendering and video encoding - JavaScript/TypeScript libraries when necessary Every tree, rock, leaf, log, flame, spark, cloud, shadow, and environmental detail must originate from procedural algorithms written in code. Do not use flat images or billboard sprites as substitutes for the main volumetric elements. OUTPUT SPECIFICATIONS: - Duration: EXACTLY 30 seconds - Resolution: 1920 × 1080 - Aspect ratio: 16:9 - Frame rate: 30 FPS - Total frames: exactly 900 - Format: MP4, H.264 when supported - Audio: NONE - No subtitles, logos, text, or watermarks Build a deterministic frame-by-frame capture pipeline so the final result does not depend on real-time playback performance. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 2. ART DIRECTION AND COMPOSITION ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SCENE: A small natural clearing deep within a dense, mature coniferous forest. It is a clear, peaceful night. At the center of the clearing, a beautifully detailed campfire burns inside a roughly circular arrangement of natural stones. The surrounding forest gradually disappears into darkness, with tall trees silhouetted against a deep blue night sky. The campfire is the visual and emotional centerpiece. The composition must feel intimate and believable. CAMERA: Use a professional cinematic camera aesthetic. - Camera positioned approximately 1.2 meters above the ground - Medium-wide framing - Campfire positioned around the lower central third - Tall forest trees visible behind it - Some foreground branches providing natural framing - Subtle depth of field - Natural lens behavior - No exaggerated wide-angle distortion The viewer should feel as though they are sitting peacefully near the fire. Avoid large empty areas, artificial symmetry, and obvious procedural repetition. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 3. PHOTOREALISTIC CAMPFIRE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The fire is THE MOST IMPORTANT element. Spend a significant proportion of implementation effort on making it physically convincing. LOGS: Generate 5–8 highly detailed firewood logs in a naturally irregular arrangement. Each log must have: - Irregular cylindrical geometry - Procedural bark with deep cracks - Different lengths and diameters - Broken branches and splintered ends - Darkened and partially burned surfaces - Localized glowing embers - Charcoal forming around burning regions - Realistic roughness and normal variation Do not create perfectly smooth cylinders. FLAMES: Implement a sophisticated procedural flame system using custom shaders, volumetric approximations, and animated noise fields. The fire must have: - Bright white-yellow hottest regions - Golden yellow inner flames - Rich orange middle regions - Deep reddish translucent flame edges - Irregular upward motion - Convincing turbulence - Constantly changing flame shapes - Thin tongues of flame splitting and merging - Naturally intermittent bursts - Small flames licking individual logs - Physically plausible flame opacity - Organic nonlinear movement Use layered 3D geometry, volumetric raymarching, or another technically justified rendering approach. Avoid obvious flat flame planes, repetitive sine-wave deformation, cartoonish shapes, and cheap-looking transparent polygons. The fire must feel genuinely three-dimensional from the camera's perspective. EMBERS: Simulate glowing charcoal between and underneath the logs. Embers should: - Glow at different intensities - Pulse gradually and irregularly - Reveal detailed cracked surfaces - Emit convincing orange-red light - Occasionally brighten as the fire evolves SPARKS: Create GPU-animated glowing particles. They should: - Emerge naturally from the combustion zone - Rise with believable buoyancy - Drift slightly with the wind - Vary in size, brightness, and lifetime - Fade gradually as they cool - Appear intermittently, not continuously Avoid excessive spark density. SMOKE: Generate subtle, physically plausible smoke. - Thin wisps rising from burning wood - Turbulent motion - Natural dissipation - Slight wind interaction - Partial illumination by firelight - Increasing transparency with altitude Smoke should remain subtle and realistic. HEAT DISTORTION: Add localized heat shimmer above the hottest flames. Implement subtle screen-space refraction or another appropriate shader-based technique. The effect must be visible but never exaggerated. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 4. PROCEDURAL FOREST ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Create a dense, highly realistic forest environment. TREES: Procedurally generate mature pine and spruce trees with substantial structural detail. Use hierarchical branching algorithms, controlled randomness, and biologically plausible growth patterns. Each tree should have: - A unique silhouette - Naturally tapered trunk - Irregular bark - Branches of different lengths and angles - Secondary and tertiary branches - Realistic needle clusters - Occasional exposed or broken branches - Subtle trunk bends - Natural asymmetry - Different heights and ages IMPORTANT: Do not represent trees as green cones, stacked triangles, or simple low-poly primitives. Individual branches must be identifiable, especially on trees near the fire. Trees farther from the camera can use progressively optimized geometry while preserving realistic silhouettes. FOREST STRUCTURE: Include: - Large nearby trees framing the scene - Mid-distance trees illuminated partially by firelight - Dense distant forest silhouettes - Fallen branches and deadwood - Small shrubs and saplings - Subtle foliage variation Use natural clustering instead of uniform tree distribution. WIND: Simulate an extremely gentle nighttime breeze. Tree branches and needles should move subtly and independently. The movement must be physically restrained. This is a peaceful night, not a storm. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 5. EXTREMELY DETAILED FOREST FLOOR ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The ground must be richly detailed. Generate uneven terrain with procedural displacement. Include: - Dark soil - Pine needles - Fallen leaves - Small twigs - Scattered pine cones - Moss patches - Tiny grass clusters - Irregular stones - Exposed tree roots - Organic debris Use procedural material functions for albedo, roughness, and surface normals. Avoid large uniform surfaces. Around the campfire, the ground should show subtle signs of heat and human activity: - Slightly darker soil - Scattered ash - Charred wood fragments - Small pieces of charcoal - Flattened ground near the fire The firelight should reveal small surface details through grazing illumination and contact shadows. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 6. NIGHT SKY AND ATMOSPHERE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Create a deep, realistic nighttime sky entirely through procedural shaders. SKY: - Dark navy-blue zenith - Subtle atmospheric gradients - Natural star distribution - Stars with different brightness levels - Very faint distant cloud wisps - Physically restrained moonlight Avoid excessive stars or an unnaturally bright Milky Way. The sky should feel like a real night in a remote forest. MOONLIGHT: Use extremely subtle, cool blue moonlight. Moonlight should reveal just enough detail in distant trees to prevent the background from becoming an entirely black void. The fire must remain the dominant source of illumination. ATMOSPHERIC DEPTH: Add subtle environmental haze. - Light fog close to the forest floor - Atmospheric attenuation between tree layers - Slightly reduced contrast at greater distances - Extremely subtle light scattering - Natural transitions into darkness Do not create thick fantasy fog or overly dramatic god rays. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 7. CINEMATIC LIGHTING ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Lighting is critical to photorealism. The scene should contain two contrasting lighting environments: WARM FIRELIGHT: - Rich amber and orange tones - Strongest illumination near the logs - Gradual falloff with distance - Soft but recognizable shadows - Firelight bouncing onto nearby rocks and foliage - Dynamically changing intensity COOL MOONLIGHT: - Muted blue tones - Very low intensity - Soft environmental fill - Minimal illumination of distant trees The fire must dynamically illuminate: - Nearby tree trunks - Pine needles and small branches - Stones surrounding the fire - Exposed roots - Leaves and vegetation - Uneven terrain Synchronize light intensity with actual changes in flame behavior. The illumination must not resemble a simple random flickering point light. Use multiple coordinated emitters, emissive geometry, or a more physically convincing approximation. Implement high-quality shadow mapping and contact shadows. Prevent: - Floating logs - Missing shadows - Light leaking - Excessive orange saturation - Flat-looking vegetation - Overexposed flames - Completely crushed background blacks ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 8. CINEMATIC RENDERING ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Aim for film-quality rendering. Use the best appropriate rendering techniques available, including: - Physically based materials - Procedural normal and roughness maps - ACES-style cinematic tone mapping - High dynamic range lighting - High-quality anti-aliasing - Temporal accumulation when useful - Soft contact shadows - Screen-space ambient occlusion - Subtle volumetric atmospheric effects - Carefully controlled bloom - High-quality transparency handling - Accurate depth relationships - Stable temporal rendering Bloom should only emphasize the hottest portions of the fire and occasional glowing embers. Avoid aggressive bloom that destroys flame detail. Use a natural cinematic color grade with warm highlights, cooler shadows, and restrained contrast. The result should feel like genuine high-end nighttime cinematography rather than a heavily processed game screenshot. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 9. EXACT 30-SECOND CAMERA SEQUENCE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The animation must feel like a continuous, uninterrupted cinematic shot. NO cuts. NO transitions. NO artificial looping. TIMELINE: 00:00–00:08 Begin with a beautiful established composition of the campfire in the forest. The fire is already burning naturally. The camera remains almost stationary. Allow the viewer to appreciate the peaceful atmosphere. 00:08–00:18 Begin an extremely slow and subtle cinematic dolly forward. Use smooth interpolation without obvious acceleration. The flames change organically. Sparks occasionally drift upward. Warm firelight dances across nearby tree trunks and vegetation. 00:18–00:25 Continue the gentle camera movement. The camera is now slightly closer to the fire. Reveal additional details in the logs, embers, stones, and ground. A few brighter embers rise and fade into the darkness. 00:25–00:30 Gradually reduce camera movement until nearly stationary. Maintain the tranquil composition. The fire continues burning naturally. End on a beautiful cinematic frame. IMPORTANT: The camera movement must be extremely subtle. Do not orbit rapidly, zoom aggressively, or perform any dramatic camera tricks. The scene should feel like a real camera recording an actual campfire. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 10. ANIMATION AND PHYSICAL BELIEVABILITY ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Every animated element must behave independently and naturally. Implement: - Continuous non-repeating flame turbulence - Organic flame shape evolution - Variable combustion intensity - Realistic particle trajectories - Natural smoke dissipation - Subtle independent branch movement - Physically coherent illumination changes - Stable camera motion Use deterministic procedural simulation based on frame time. Do not rely on an uncontrolled real-time clock. Rendering frame 450 independently should produce the same result as rendering it during sequential playback. All animation should evolve continuously with no visible discontinuities. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 11. PERFORMANCE AND EXPORT ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Prioritize final image quality over real-time FPS. The scene may take longer to render than its playback duration. Use: - GPU instancing - Efficient procedural geometry - Adaptive geometry detail - Shader optimizations - Deterministic animation - Frame-by-frame rendering Create a reliable automated export pipeline. Render exactly 900 frames at 1920×1080. Encode the completed sequence as a 30-second video at 30 FPS, with no audio track. Use browser-native video encoding and a code-based MP4 muxing solution where supported. If the browser cannot encode H.264, provide a clearly documented compatible fallback without silently compromising resolution or frame count. Do not use pre-rendered scene assets. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 12. QUALITY ASSURANCE — MANDATORY ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Do not consider the task complete simply because the scene renders. You are responsible for critically evaluating the visual result. Render and inspect representative frames at: - 00:00 - 00:05 - 00:10 - 00:15 - 00:20 - 00:25 - 00:29 Evaluate each frame against these criteria: 1. Does the fire look physically believable? 2. Do the flames have convincing depth? 3. Do the trees resemble real mature forest trees? 4. Is the forest floor detailed enough? 5. Does the firelight interact naturally with the environment? 6. Are shadows coherent? 7. Is the background appropriately visible? 8. Does the image genuinely evoke a cozy nighttime atmosphere? 9. Are there any obvious procedural artifacts? 10. Does the image resemble real cinematic footage? Be extremely critical. If the flames resemble flat polygons, improve them. If the trees look artificial, improve their branching and foliage. If the scene looks too dark, improve the balance between firelight and ambient illumination. If the scene resembles a video game, identify the specific visual weaknesses and fix them. Also inspect multiple consecutive frames to identify flickering, temporal instability, particle artifacts, and unnatural motion. Do not merely report issues. Implement improvements and render again. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 13. FINAL DELIVERABLES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Deliver: 1. Complete source code 2. Fully procedural 3D environment 3. All custom shaders and simulation code 4. A reproducible rendering pipeline 5. Final 30-second 1080p video without audio 6. A short technical summary of the rendering approach The project must be easy to run and reproduce. Do not stop at a prototype, placeholder scene, or proof of concept. VISUAL SUCCESS CRITERION: A viewer should initially believe the result was filmed in a real forest at night. The fire should feel alive. The trees should feel naturally grown. The illumination should feel physically coherent. The atmosphere should feel peaceful, warm, intimate, and immersive. The final result should be visually stunning even when viewed as a single still frame. Your objective is not merely to create a working Three.js scene. Your objective is to demonstrate the absolute limits of photorealistic, fully procedural, code-generated 3D cinematography. Make it extraordinary.

Crazy Using threejs ?

Yes, everything was code, no blender

Minimax reminds be of an old Playstation game. In a good way.

It seems an old video game haha

I think deepseek is better

I agree, it seems more realistic

It's not even about fire but lights and shadows where DeepSeek clearly wins. Hoping for some real world work tests. 😊

I think MiniMax did a better job with the fire, but DeepSeek’s environment looks much better, in my opinion.

Wow, now it looks like 2000s era video game fire

You are right hahaha

I like fire from minimax

The fire in minimax is better you are right

Deepseek is really cooking.

Good model for sure

minimax for me. a third faster and less than half the cost on the same task is hard to argue with. deepseek burning 89 million tokens to get there feels like it was looping a lot. did both outputs actually work the same?

Minimax was much more efficient, no doubts. Deepseek details: API calls: 253 Input tokens — cache miss: 192,479 Input tokens — cache hit / cache read: 88,873,472 Cache write tokens: 0 Output tokens (reasoning + final response): 421,503 Total input tokens: 89,065,951 Total tokens (input + output): 89,487,454

U really spent 90M tokens for this shit? 😭🥀

I got some free credits

Deepseek >>

I agree mate

minimax got cooked on the visuals though

I liked deepseek style more too :)

89 million tokens in 90 minutes? How you do it? Can you open source this execution test? It would be huge help to learn 🙌

I know you just trying to make fun of the test, but I used Deepseek harness and that was the statistic the LLM gave. API calls: 253 Input tokens — cache miss: 192,479 Input tokens — cache hit / cache read: 88,873,472 Cache write tokens: 0 Output tokens (reasoning + final response): 421,503 Total input tokens: 89,065,951 Total tokens (input + output): 89,487,454 here to learn my friend, let me know if my read about this data is wrong

Deepseek is crazy

Deepseek is really good:)

Minimax looks good according to its cost

DeepSeek is insane🔥

Minimax was more efficient but deepseek output looks good

Minimax wins on efficiency! 😊

Yeah, much more efficient for sure

deepseek wins on looks but 22 vs 54 cents?? my wallet already voted lol

hahaha minimax is more efficient

efficient AND 54 cents?? pick one lol

minimax was $0.22

lol okay $0.22 wins, i take it back

Honestly DeepSeek much better

I agree man, minimax was disappointing

Deepseek looks good

I agree mate

mini max looks better

I agree, the flames look better, and if you prefer that old-school atmosphere, I agree MiniMax did a better job.

yes

Deepseek for me. Looks more detailed while minimax seems to have a pixelated mud with fire

Minimax seems like an old video game you know?

Hmm yeah could count 👀🤝

I prefer it when somebody actually film the fire log for real.

I agree, much more real haha

DeepSeek wins here

I agree 100%

I like Deepseek more

Deepseek looks great!

Very realistic, I love it