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

Extended Topics

Here are some ideas on ways to further your journey with the NME in particular, but also some resources on shaders in general:

  • Use the techniques we learned about in this chapter to create procedural clouds for the Planet Earth Material. One way to approach this would be to start with the existing cloud texture and distort it using some type of Noise node.
  • The Book of Shaders (https://thebookofshaders.com/) is a free online resource that, while still an evolving work-in-progress, can be, as the authors describe it, “a gentle step-by-step guide through the abstract and complex universe of Fragment shaders.” Even though it focuses entirely on Fragment shaders, it is nonetheless a spring-powered steppingstone toward improving your understanding of shaders. Each chapter introduces examples and exercises along with the necessary material – try reproducing examples from this book in the NME. Post your results on the BJS forums and see what...