Chapter 1, Hello, Three.js, describes what Three.js is and what it does, how to start writing code with it, and a basic scene.

Chapter 2, Building a World, explains the components of a Three.js scene including renderers, geometries, materials, and lighting for building a procedurally generated city.

Chapter 3, Exploring and Interacting, explains mouse and keyboard interaction, basic physics, and creating a first-person shooter game.

Chapter 4, Adding Detail, explains particle systems, sound, graphic effects, and managing external assets such as 3D models in addition to building a capture-the-flag game.

Chapter 5, Design and Development, describes game design for the web, including development processes, performance considerations, and the basics of networking.

You will need a web browser. To fully experience all the features discussed in this book, use Chrome 22 or later or Firefox 22 or later. Internet Explorer 11 or later should also work. A text editor is also recommended, especially if you are not using Chrome, as discussed in Chapter 1, Hello, Three.js. You will need an Internet connection at certain points in the book such as when downloading the Three.js library (these points will be identified in the text).

This book is for people interested in programming 3D games for the web. Basic familiarity with JavaScript syntax and a basic understanding of HTML and CSS is assumed. No prior exposure to Three.js is assumed. This book should be useful regardless of prior experience with game programming, whether you intend to build casual side projects or large-scale professional titles.

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "The THREE variable is global."

A block of code is set as follows:

renderer = new THREE.CanvasRenderer();
renderer.setSize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight);
document.body.appendChild(renderer.domElement);

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer();
renderer.setSize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight);
document.body.appendChild(renderer.domElement);

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "If you want to experiment with WebGL features that are still in development, you can enable some of them in Canary's about:flags page."

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