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

Technical Requirements

The source code for this chapter is located at https://github.com/jelster/space-truckers/tree/ch10. While we’ll still be looking at some Playground code, most of our work in this chapter lies elsewhere. For working with images and textures, the following non-exhaustive list of tools will be useful for preparing and converting image assets for use with Babylon.js.

Tools

The following tools will help you in this chapter:

Glossary of terms (abridged)

Here is a list of some of the more common acronyms and terms that you might encounter during this chapter or while reading other resources on the topic of 3D lighting and materials. It’s far from complete but will serve as a jumping-off point to expand your vocabulary further:

  • Direct Draw Surface (DDS): A file format that’s useful for storing high-resolution images. This includes MIP maps. Babylon.js supports the so-called “legacy” DX1 DDS...