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

Defining the Encounter Zone

An Encounter Table is what it says on the box: it’s a tabular format of probabilities for certain events to occur based on a random factor. In tabletop and RPG-style games, the random factor is provided by rolling one or more dice of various numbered sides. In computer-based games, the same thing applies, except that instead of tossing physical dice, we’ll generate encounters based on the output of a random number generator.

Like much of the rest of the game objects, the Encounter Zones (EZs) are updateable game components, while each Encounter serves as a container for data defining that encounter. This allows the EncounterManager to choose which EZ should be responsible for running encounter checks, simplifying the logic required in the EZ. Easy, right?

Encounters Overview

The structure of an Encounter table is simple. Down each row is a specific event or encounter that the game designer wants to make possible. A probability column...