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

Using IndexedDB to Persist Scores

Web developers needing to store information on a local client have traditionally had a limited number of options, most of which have had significant drawbacks. One of the oldest and simplest methods is the humble browser cookie. These little text files stored on the client’s browser are sent to the server alongside every request made by the browser client. Because of that, and for similarly related reasons, cookies aren’t an efficient or practical solution to many if not most client-side storage needs, including our own. For an in-depth examination of the different pros and cons of available client-side storage, see https://web.dev/storage-for-the-web/.

The IndexedDb Object Store (IDB) is a client-side, browser-sandboxed database enjoying a broad spectrum of consistently implemented support across major browsers and platforms. While the amount of data a site is allowed to store is limited to the disk space that’s available to...