Newsletter – Issue 024

📆 2024-12-19

This is the last issue of 2024! Got any cool game ideas you want to work on during the holidays? 👀 🎄

🔥 Headlines

Three.js r171 has been released, and it’s a major milestone for WebGPU integration with third-party libraries such as React Three Fiber and bundlers like Vite or Next.js. We can now just do this with zero configuration:

Vanilla Three.js

import * as THREE from 'three'
import { WebGPURenderer } from 'three/webgpu'
 
const renderer = new WebGPURenderer()

React Three Fiber

import { Canvas } from '@react-three/fiber'
import { WebGPURenderer } from 'three/webgpu'
 
<Canvas gl={canvas => new WebGPURenderer({ canvas })}>

It also works with Threlte, which supports passing a custom renderer to the canvas, and Tres support is coming too. In practice, there are some minor gotchas to be aware of. I have set up a repo of test cases with workarounds. React Three Fiber folks who like to live on the bleeding edge can use React 19, R3F 9 RC, Next 15, and even RSCs with Three.js r171, WebGPU, and TSL for cross-renderer shaders. It all works! Now is a great time to jump in and start using WebGPU with Three.js. 🚀

The Khronos Group has launched the Slang Initiative to oversee and advance the open-source Slang shading language and compiler originally developed by NVIDIA. Slang has experimental support for WebGPU (not WebGL).

Support for PWAs in the Meta Horizon Store is coming soon.

The State of JS 2024 results are out!

GSAP has been acquired by Webflow.

Poki is on a mission to create the ultimate online playground – where players and developers come together to play and create! Together with a growing 400+ game developer community and 90 million players each month, we’re creating a new standard for web games. Interested in working together? Share your game with us!

Web Game Dev! Check out the link in this #showcase post on Discord to get access to our new Playtest feature. This allows you to get free and unlimited playtests of your game with our players! Learn more about Poki in this presentation.

🏎 Engines

Three.js r171 – Changelog, migration guide.
Drei Vanilla v1.20.0 – Adds meshPortalMaterial.
R3F v9 RC – Support for React 19 is coming with R3F v9. See the WIP migration guide and these examples.
Drei v9.120.0 – MultiMaterial, FaceControls improvements, WebcamVideoTexture and ScreenVideoTexture.
TresJS v4.3.0 – UseLoader and UseTexture as components.
TresJS Post-processing v1 – Add post-processing to your TresJS scenes.
PlayCanvas Engine v2.3.0 and v2.1.0 – New 3D Gaussian Splat custom shader architecture and RenderPass architecture, glTF exporter enhancements.
Phaser v3.87 and v4.0.0 Beta 1 – Discord Activity Launcher, Phaser Editor v4.7.0, Create Game CLI Update.
PixiJS v8.6.0 – PixiJS Create CLI, ParticleContainer.
Babylon.js – Make WGSL materials, particles, post processes, and textures directly with Node Materials.
Needle launched Needle Cloud (thread).
Wonderland Engine 1.2.4 – The Wonderland Editor is now available on Flathub.
Construct r416 – Linux export option which supports SteamDeck and ARM architectures like Raspberry Pi’s.
Excalibur v0.30.0 – Browser extension, new sample games and templates, GPU particles, and a lot more.

🛠 Tools

TypeGPU – Type-safe abstraction over WebGPU by Software Mansion.
three-low-poly – Procedurally-generated models based on Three.js geometries by Jason Sturges.
Three Shader Baker – Bake your Three.js shaders or materials into textures, by Faraz.
👾 Koota ECS state management with React bindings by Kris Baumgarter – R3F Starter by Brian Breiholz.
react-three-gpu-pathtracer – R3F abstraction of three-gpu-pathtracer by Faraz and Dennis Smolek.
Broider – CSS 9-slice generator by Max Bittker.
9-slicer – Another CSS 9-slice generator by Lean Rada.
EZ-tree – Procedural tree generator by Dan Greenheck.
🤖 Trellis (repo) – AI-generated 3D models from images by Microsoft. Try it on Hugging Face.
You can export Blender Geometry Nodes as GLTF to Three.js Instanced Mesh.
glTF Tools VS Code Extension – Preview and debug glTF 3D models from Visual Studio Code.
UltraLoot – Extendable loot table system by Harry Mustoe-Playfair.

🎬 Videos

✍️ Articles

🎮 Games

Under the Red Sky by Dedra Games – 3D parkour game with challenges to complete.
CombiMon by ARF Games – Game in which you farm and evolve monsters.
Jump Only by Kimo – Satisfying puzzle game where you only jump left or right.
Path to Glory by Rémi Vansteelandt – Beat 'em up that won JS13K 2023, originally 13KB.
Johnny Trigger by SayGames – Time your shots perfectly to complete levels.
Netlify: 5 Million Devs by Little Workshop – Marble Madness-inspired promotional game.
Carillon by Sven Frankson – Crillion-like game made for Revival Jam 2024.

✨ Demos

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