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

The completed snippet meets the immediate needs of our application, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to improve it! The following are a few ideas you might pursue on your own that could enhance the scene. Join the BJS and the Space-Truckers community by posting and sharing your snippets over at the Space-Truckers Discussions board (https://github.com/jelster/space-truckers/discussions) or over on the BJS forums (https://forum.babylonjs.com/). The discussion boards and forum aren’t just there to share your accomplishments, however. They’re a place where you can post questions or issues you’re encountering, with a thriving community that loves to help.

You could do the following:

  • Remove the helix-like appearance of the planet trails. The spin animation and the trail mesh are both parented to the planet. As the planet rotates, the trail mesh gets twisted around. One approach to fixing this could be to add a TransformNode...