Book Image

Going the Distance with Babylon.js

By : Josh Elster
Book Image

Going the Distance with Babylon.js

By: Josh Elster

Overview of this book

Babylon.js allows anyone to effortlessly create and render 3D content in a web browser using the power of WebGL and JavaScript. 3D games and apps accessible via the web open numerous opportunities for both entertainment and profit. Developers working with Babylon.js will be able to put their knowledge to work with this guide to building a fully featured 3D game. The book provides a hands-on approach to implementation and associated methodologies that will have you up and running, and productive in no time. Complete with step-by-step explanations of essential concepts, practical examples, and links to fully working self-contained code snippets, you’ll start by learning about Babylon.js and the finished Space-Truckers game. You’ll also explore the development workflows involved in making the game. Focusing on a wide range of features in Babylon.js, you’ll iteratively add pieces of functionality and assets to the application being built. Once you’ve built out the basic game mechanics, you’ll learn how to bring the Space-Truckers environment to life with cut scenes, particle systems, animations, shadows, PBR materials, and more. By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to structure your code, organize your workflow processes, and continuously deploy to a static website/PWA a game limited only by bandwidth and your imagination.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
1
Part 1: Building the Application
7
Part 2: Constructing the Game
13
Part 3: Going the Distance

Integrating with the Application

By constructing the playground driving demo, we’ve uncovered the techniques and basic design approach to use for the application code. The structure of our code is such that we should be able to simply lift and shift key pieces of functionality straight into the application’s code base, but only after we make modifications to prepare the way.

Playground logic aside, there are various hooks in SpaceTruckerApplication that need to be added or modified to get the driving phase to work properly, some of which include the ability to load into the driving game without going through Route Planning. Our basic input controls will need to be adapted to the input system of Space-Truckers, as well as the converse need to add new pieces of functionality to the input system. All of this starts with de-structuring and bringing in code from the Playground.

Splitting Up the Playground

spaceTruckerDrivingScreen is where the primary logic will reside...