follow @playcanvas
http://slid.es/davee/playcanvas-workshop

dave evans, co-founder







what is playcanvas



a cloud-hosted, collaborative, 
3D game-engine powered by HTML5

why develop in the cloud?

  • access your projects from any device
  • collaborate in real-time with your team
  • get instant help and feedback
  • share and browse projects

what are we doing here?

  • introduction to playcanvas
  • overview of 3D game development
  • playcanvas specific details
  • make a game!

logging in for the first time


terminology

  • pack - a level or scene.
  • entity - a thing in your game.
  • component - adds behaviour to an entity.
  • attribute - a property of a component.

graphics

  • ambient, directional, point and spot lights
  • static and skinned meshes
  • map types: diffuse, specular, emissive, normal
  • skyboxes
  • full screen effects

primitives

Basic shapes: box, sphere, cylinder, cone, capsule
useful for prototyping,  or making entire games

models

3D content that you upload to PlayCanvas


recommendations

  • use FBX format
  • textures can be embedded in FBX 

materials

A collection of textures (maps) 
used to modify the appearance of a model.


material editing

you can edit materials in the Designer
click once to select entity
click again to select the material on selected mesh

shadows

shadows add realism to your scene

limitations

  • keep the number of dynamic lights low
  • there is a light budget and each light type has a 'cost'
  • directionals are cheapest, then points, then spots

camera


represent your game's viewpoint

perspective

orthographic

let's try it

  1. Create a new Pack
  2. Rename root node 'Cameras'
  3. Create a new Box Entity
  4. Create a new Camera
  5. Position the camera to view box
  6. Launch!

scripting

  • add custom behaviours
  • javascript API

workflows

  • edit scripts on playcanvas.com
  • edit scripts locally, sync using github or bitbucket

scripting on playcanvas.com


scripting via github/bitbucket


scripting via github/bitbucket

anatomy of a script

entity communication

player.js
var monster = context.root.findByName("Monster");
monster.script.monster.takeDamage();

monster.js 

Monster.prototype = {
  takeDamage: function () {
    this.health -= 10;
    if (this.health < 0) {
      this.entity.destroy();
    }
};

debugging

take care

collaborative script editing is not done yet...

the last edit wins!

physics

quickly create complex and realistic behaviours

rigid body

idealised representation of a object
deformation is ignored

properties
position / orientation
linear / angular velocity
mass, friction, restitution

actions
apply force / impulse
apply torque / torque impulse

body types

  • static
  • dynamic
  • kinematic

collision primitives

  • box
  • sphere
  • capsule
  • mesh

defines the shape of a rigid body
or defines a volume for triggers

raycasting

  • visibility checks
  • character controllers
  • lasers!!1!
checkGround: function () {
    var self = this;
    var start = this.entity.getPosition();
    var end = pc.math.vec3.create();
    var groundCheckRay = pc.math.vec3.create(0, -1.1, 0);

    pc.math.vec3.add(start, groundCheckRay, end);
    this.onGround = false;

    // Fire ray straight down to just below the bottom of rigid body
    // If it hits something, the character is on the ground
    context.systems.rigidbody.raycastFirst(start, end, function (res) {
        self.onGround = true;
    });
}

contact detection

  • contact
  • collisionstart
  • collisionend
  • triggerenter
  • triggerleave

this.entity.collision.on("collisionstart", function (result) {  if (result.other.script && result.other.script.player) {    result.other.script.player.takeDamage();  }}

let's try it

  1. Create a new pack
  2. Rename root node 'Physics'
  3. Create a camera
  4. Create a static floor (create Box, add collision and rigidbody components)
  5. Create a dynamic ball above floor (same components as above)
  6. Set ball rigid body type to 'Dynamic'
  7. Launch!

audio

brings your game to life
don't make it an afterthought

3D audio

sources and listeners

source = speaker / mouth
listener = microphone / ear

controlling audio



play a sound effect 
this.entity.audiosource.play('jump_sound');


modify a sound while it is playing 
update: function (dt) {
    this.timer += dt;
    this.entity.audiosource.volume = Math.sin(this.timer) * 0.5 + 0.5;
}

finding content

publishing

getting people to play your games (i.e. the point!)




getting the word out

case study: Doom 3 Gangnam Style
twitter / facebook
reddit
hacker news
chrome experiments
webgl.com

monetization

publish to the web
self-publish or publish on PlayCanvas
take advantage of chrome web store
use paypal, amazon, google wallet

app stores

html5 to native

export from playcanvas, package using native wrapper







limitations
  • single canvas
  • limited-DOM
  • performance is not as native



thanks

dave@playcanvas.com
follow @playcanvas

building lunar lander

http://bit.ly/playcanvas-lander
http://er
bit.ly/playcanvas-lander

playcanvas workshop

By David Evans

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playcanvas workshop

PlayCanvas workshop from GameCity 2013

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