Newsletter โ Issue 015
๐ฅ Headlines
๐ The Interview with Steven Yau (opens in a new tab) (yaustar (opens in a new tab)) is out! Learn about the games industry from a veteran game developer who has worked for EA, King, and PlayCanvas at Snapchat. Steven shared his thoughts on the web games ecosystem, monetization, web engines, and more. Come find Steven and the rest of us on Discord (opens in a new tab)!
Microsoft released Babylon.js 6.0 (opens in a new tab)! See the
announcement article (opens in a new tab) and
video (opens in a new tab). The release includes Performance Priority
modes that can produce up to 50x faster rendering and performance, fluid rendering, improved
screen-space reflections, texture decals, new glTF extensions support, Node Material Ray Marching,
new Tri-Planar and Bi-Planar nodes, and the v1 of the GUI Editor. But the feature that is getting
the most attention is the integration of Havok (opens in a new tab), a physics engine that
powers numerous AAA games (opens in a new tab). This Havok
integration comes with a complete overhaul of the Babylon.js Physics API with Physics V2. Physics V2
performs up to 20x faster than V1, which is based on either Cannon.js, Oimo.js, or Ammo.js. Try
Havok in the Playroom demo (opens in a new tab)!
This is all fantastic news for Babylon.js users, but that doesn't end there. Havok for the Web is also available as an MIT-licensed standalone Wasm library (opens in a new tab) that can be used with any engine and is available on NPM (opens in a new tab) with TypeScript typings! ๐ N8 (opens in a new tab) already created a Three.js integration demo (opens in a new tab) (repo (opens in a new tab)) with 10.000 rigid bodies.
Chrome 113 is out of the beta channel and rolling out to
stable (opens in a new tab), so WebGPU is now available to
up-to-date Chrome users without any flag. Let the revolution begin! ๐
๐ Tools & Updates
Three.js r152 (opens in a new tab) โ Includes the ColorManagement (opens in a new tab) API enabled by default, a Rapier physics instancing example (opens in a new tab), and Node-based WebGPU backdrop (opens in a new tab) and shadows (opens in a new tab). (changelog (opens in a new tab), migration guide (opens in a new tab)).
Drei v9.66 (opens in a new tab) โ Adds <Resize> (opens in a new tab) by Antoine Bernier (opens in a new tab), which resizes your meshes to 1 via a boundary box while preserving proportions. It makes it easier to size models in your scene (demo (opens in a new tab)).
react-three-offscreen (opens in a new tab) (repo (opens in a new tab)) โ Offscreen worker canvas for R3F by 0xca0a (opens in a new tab).
react-three-next v2 (opens in a new tab) by Renaud (opens in a new tab) โ Adds portal divs, synced DOM/3D views and events, App Router support.
AutoFocusDOF (opens in a new tab) (demo (opens in a new tab)) for R3F by Anderson Mancini (opens in a new tab). Available in react-postprocessing 2.10.0 (opens in a new tab).
control-kit (opens in a new tab) โ Composable camera controls by Neftaly (opens in a new tab).
TresJS 2.0.0-beta.11 (opens in a new tab) โ Adds abstractions like Levioso (opens in a new tab) and Smoke (opens in a new tab). There is now a TresJS Twitter account (opens in a new tab).
PlayCanvas (opens in a new tab) โ A brand new in-editor Asset Store (opens in a new tab) with real-time previews.
Phaser 3.60 (opens in a new tab) โ The last newsletter went out right before the announcement post (opens in a new tab) was published!
Phaser Editor 2D v3.60 (opens in a new tab) is now out of beta.
A-Frame v1.4.2 (opens in a new tab) โ Bug fixes and improvements.
Needle (opens in a new tab) 3.3.x (opens in a new tab) โ Screenspace UI (opens in a new tab) and improved RectTransform support.
ion 3D Engine (opens in a new tab) by
Samrun (opens in a new tab) โ A new library for building 3D websites and VR experiences,
powered by Three.js. It seems particularly useful to create 3D UIs for VR.
๐ค recast-navigation-js (opens in a new tab) โ A WebAssembly port of Recast Navigation (opens in a new tab) with Three.js integration (opens in a new tab) by Isaac Mason (opens in a new tab), bringing Recast's navmesh generation, pathfinding, and crowd simulation to JavaScript (demo 1 (opens in a new tab), demo 2 (opens in a new tab)).
๐พ Jolt Physics (opens in a new tab) by Jorrit Rouwe (opens in a new tab) reached v3.0.0 (opens in a new tab) and is now available on NPM (opens in a new tab). Isaac Mason (opens in a new tab) created a R3F demo (opens in a new tab).
๐ก PartyKit (opens in a new tab), an early-access platform to build real-time apps and games deployed at the edge by Sunil Pai (opens in a new tab) (creator of Glamor, ex-React core team), went open source.
And last but not least, WebGPU
devtools (opens in a new tab)
(repo (opens in a new tab), Chrome
extension (opens in a new tab))
by takahiro (opens in a new tab).
๐ฌ Videos
Build SimCity with Three.js (opens in a new tab) (playlist) by Dan Does Dev (opens in a new tab)
Three.js Optimization - Best Practices and Techniques (opens in a new tab) by Valentin Vannay (opens in a new tab)
How to Learn Three.js in 2023 (opens in a new tab) by Visionary 3D (opens in a new tab)
Dynamic Character Controller With Three.js + Rapier (opens in a new tab) by Visionary 3D (opens in a new tab)
Slider with masked images in Three.js (opens in a new tab) by akella (opens in a new tab), based on this portfolio (opens in a new tab)
React Three Fiber Tutorial - Rapier Physics Engine (opens in a new tab) by Wawa Sensei (opens in a new tab)
TresJS v2 beta - What's hot? (opens in a new tab) by Alvaro Sabu (opens in a new tab)
Babylon 6 Engine - Massive Update (opens in a new tab) by Game From Scratch (opens in a new tab)
Phaser April 2023 Games Showcase (opens in a new tab) by Richard Davey (opens in a new tab)
โ๏ธ Content
How we built the Storybook Day 3D animation (opens in a new tab) by Varun Vachhar (opens in a new tab)
๐ Three.js Monthly Talk - April 2023 (opens in a new tab) with Anderson Mancini (opens in a new tab), N8 (opens in a new tab), Palash Bansal (opens in a new tab) and Prashant Sharma (opens in a new tab)
๐ฎ Games
BAPBAP (opens in a new tab) by BAP HQ (opens in a new tab) โ A very polished MOBA Battle Royale game โ๏ธ
Raccoon Retail (opens in a new tab) by Pelican Party (opens in a new tab) โ Shoppers are making a mess in your raccoon supermarket! ๐ฆ
Nugget Royale (opens in a new tab) by Pelican Party (opens in a new tab) โ Fight against other chickens to survive! ๐
Enion Online (opens in a new tab) by Ertuฤrul รetin (opens in a new tab) โ Orcs vs Humans MMORPG in early access ๐ง
Threltemania (opens in a new tab) by Grischa Erbe (opens in a new tab) โ TrackMania-inspired game to showcase the upcoming Threlte 6 (opens in a new tab) ๐
Rocket Bot Royale (opens in a new tab) by Winter Pixel Games (opens in a new tab) โ A tank battle royale 2D game on Worms-like maps ๐
Ciabatta's Revenge (opens in a new tab) (video (opens in a new tab)) by Drew Conley (opens in a new tab) โ DOM-based puzzle game about a bread corporation! ๐ฅ
โจ Demos
Hordes.io's new login screen (opens in a new tab) by dek (opens in a new tab) (this is a test server, the live game is here (opens in a new tab)) and map editor (opens in a new tab).
Conundrum (opens in a new tab) by Daniel Esteban (opens in a new tab)
Skydiving (opens in a new tab) (demo (opens in a new tab)) by Sรฉbastien Lempens (opens in a new tab), uses a Blockade Labs skybox (opens in a new tab)
One, Stop (opens in a new tab), a new musical experience from A Number From the Ghost (opens in a new tab) by Peter Adams (opens in a new tab)
Hand-drawn (opens in a new tab) and pencil (opens in a new tab) shaders by Will Maddicott (opens in a new tab)
WebGPU with React Three Fiber (opens in a new tab) by Faraz (opens in a new tab)
Cyberpunk example project (opens in a new tab), available for free in the Cocos Store (opens in a new tab)
CSS-only checkbox games demo (opens in a new tab) by Jamie Coulter (opens in a new tab) โ Check out his DOM-based games (opens in a new tab).
Prototyping hex grids with line of sight (opens in a new tab) by u/coque (opens in a new tab)
- ๐ค Visualization of implementing bot AI (opens in a new tab) by Rรฉmi Vansteelandt (opens in a new tab) for Earth's Greatest Defender (opens in a new tab)
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