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

For the person looking to make the launch page their own or who wants to dive deeper into the potential possibilities opened up by this chapter, here are some things you might consider doing:

  • Add a cool hover-in/out effect to the launch button so that when the cursor hovers over it, a color and/or animated effect is applied. Do the same for clicking the button.
  • Improve the landing page’s navigational structure with links to the GitHub repos, and so on.
  • Make the central hero area into an image carousel that can be populated with additional concept art, screenshots, gameplay videos, and so on.
  • Use CSS to blend the canvas animation with the hero image in an interesting fashion. You can do different types of blending, such as difference, exclusion, screen, and so on, along with other cool transformations.