Newsletter – Issue 016

🔥 Headlines

In the context of Google IO (web talks), Google presented its support of WebGPU in Chrome with the article Unlocking modern GPU access in the browser, the video Introducing WebGPU with Corentin Wallez and Brandon Jones, and the Your First WebGPU App codelab.

Brandon Jones was on the Voices of VR podcast Primer on WebGPU with Kent Bye, and mcc wrote the excellent I want to talk about WebGPU, which is great to learn about the history of WebGPU and graphics APIs.

WebGPU already received performance improvements in Chrome 114, and WebTransport is now enabled by default in Firefox 114.

🏎 Engines & Libraries

• N8AO (repo), an efficient implementation of Screen Space Ambient Occlusion by N8, is out and usable with pmndrs/postprocessing and react-three/postprocessing. (demo 1, demo 2, demo 3).
• Three.js r153 – Includes glTF Anisotropy support for MeshPhysicalMaterial (changelog, migration guide).
• Drei v9.70 – Adds SpriteAnimator by netgfx, OrbitControls keyEvents prop.
• Ultimate Lens Flare (demo) – Beautiful lens flare effect for R3F by Anderson Mancini.
• Floating character controller (repo, demo) for R3F + Rapier by Andrew Chen.
• Triplex, the R3F editor by Douges, has new documentation, and is now open source.
• r3f-project-boilerplate – R3F boilerplate with Typescript, Tailwind and Vite by Brian Breiholz.
• TresJS 2.1.0 – now open source – Better types, HMR, OrbitControls. Adds Contact Shadows, Precipitation.
• nuxt-tres-starter (demo) by Francesco Michelini.
• PlayCanvas Engine v1.63.0 – Debug render mode API, faster glTF load times, WebGPU enhancements.
• PlayCanvas Editor v1.30.0+ – Some small breaking changes, engine update, draco compression settings.
• Babylon.js v6.6.0
• Phaser Editor 2D v3.61.0 – Adds Hit-Area tool, enhancements to nested prefabs, and a new variable scope.
• Needle 3.6.x – Adds N8AO support, progressive texture loading for custom shaders, Rapier tree-shaking, draco and meshopt mesh compression, USDZ export fixes and QuickLook on iOS, AR Image Tracking, vertical and horizontal LayoutGroups for Unity. There is also a NextJS on Vercel sample by Marcel Wiessler.
• Orillusion – A new JavaScript WebGPU Engine with a component system.
• Wonderland Engine 1.0.0 - Includes a revamped JavaScript architecture.
• 🦀 Bevy 0.11 (Rust) now supports WebGPU (video).

🛠 Tools

• Multiplayer framework Colyseus 0.15 by Endel is out and is now fully independent again.
• GLSL Exercises Playground by SimonDev.
• GDevelop, the open-source no-code platform, is going 3D (video).
• compute.toys is a WebGPU shadertoy-like playground by Cornus Ammonis and David A Roberts.
• iframed.page – Simple tool to check how your page behaves in an iframe by Jesper the End.
• Alma, the node-based shader graph editor by Emil Widlund is now open source.

🎬 Videos

• Three.js In-Depth Course for All Levels (2 hours) by Chris Courses
• 3D Portfolio with R3F - Avatar animations by Wawa Sensei
• Webflow + R3F + CodeSandbox tutorial (1 hour) by Diego Toda de Oliveira
• Threlte 6 at Svelte Summit by Grischa Erbe
• TresJS v2 First steps by Alvaro Sabu
• Introduction to PlayCanvas by MikeTheTech
• Phaser Turns 10! Massive 3.60 Release by Game From Scratch
• Athena Crisis at Reactathon (DOM-based game) by Christoph Nakazawa
• Platformer Tutorial with KaboomJS by JS Legend
• 🎓 Recreating Counter Strike 2’s Smoke Grenades by Acerola
• 🌎 No-Budget DIY Marketing for Indie Games by Michelle Lega
• 🎁 Low-Poly Character Modeling in Blender 3.5 (2 hours) by Imphenzia

✍️ Articles

• Debug – How It’s Made (upcoming game) by Trezy
• Phaser Dev Log - May 2023 by Richard Davey
• Explanation of Deferred Rendering by Kylin - JiangWei
• WebXR at the Presence Platform Hackathon by Diarmid Mackenzie
• 🎓 Line Rendering Deep Overview by Panthavma
• 🤖 Modding Age of Empires II with AI by Neilson Koerner-Safrata
• 🎙 Three.js Monthly Talk – May with Anderson Mancini, N8, 0beqz, and Maxime Heckel

🎮 Games

• The Race by Merci Michel – Use the Konami code to control the car with your phone! 🏎
• I Want It All by Merci Michel – Great-looking Breakout/Arkanoid 🏏
• Dungeon Survivors (source) by Vincent Douchin – Vampire Survivors-like with 2 characters 🧙
• Golf Party by Lucas Jones – Multiplayer golfing game ⛳️
• Kana Game (source, video tutorial) by Wawa Sensei – Brush up on your Japanese skills 🇯🇵
• Cybernetic Serenade by Tetra Flora – Vampire Survivors-like synced with the background music 🎵

✨ Demos

• Pixel Engine by x1m4
• Dynamic heightmap (demo) by VoR
• Top-down controller (demo) by Solar Games
• glTF from Google Earth API by Omar Shehata
• 🤖 NPCs with AI-generated voiced dialogue by jedijosh920

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