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 technical requirements for this chapter are the same as the previous ones; however, there are some subjects and areas that might be useful to refresh or catch up on:

  • Vector math operations: This includes addition, subtraction, dot, cross, and others. You won’t need to perform the calculations or memorize any equations, but knowing the significance or purpose of them (for example, you can use vector subtraction to find the direction between two objects) is the key to making the knowledge useful.
  • Function graphs: Both Windows and macOS have built-in or freely available graphing calculators that can graph entered equations. This is useful in understanding the output of a piece of shader code across varying inputs. Graph like it’s TI-89! An online-only option is the Desmos Graphing Calculator at https://www.desmos.com/calculator.