WebGL Game Development

WebGL is the standard for rendering 3D graphics in a browser using JavaScript. This book will teach you to exploit the full potential of WebGL in game development by rendering complex 3D objects. The essential tutorial.

• Load and render complex 3D objects in WebGL using JavaScript
• Apply textures and lighting to game scenarios
• Load rigged 3D models and Skeletal Animations
• Add Physics Engines to WebGL games

In Detail

WebGL, the web implementation of Open GL, is a JavaScript API used to render interactive 3D graphics within any compatible web browser, without the need for plugins. It helps you create detailed, high-quality graphical 3D objects easily. WebGL elements can be mixed with other HTML elements and composites to create high-quality, interactive, creative, innovative graphical 3D objects.

This book begins with collecting coins in Super Mario, killing soldiers in Contra, and then quickly evolves to working out strategies in World of Warcraft. You will be guided through creating animated characters, image processing, and adding effects as part of the web page canvas to the 2D/3D graphics. Pour life into your gaming characters and learn how to create special effects seen in the most powerful 3D games. Each chapter begins by showing you the underlying mathematics and its programmatic implementation, ending with the creation of a complete game scene to build a wonderful virtual world.

What you will learn from this book

• Load 3D objects exported from Blender using WebGL
• Understand texture mapping and apply textures to 3D objects
• Add lights and a camera to a WebGL scene
• Create simple object animations utilizing matrix transformations
• Fiddle with complex object animations such as skeletal animations
• Get to grips with user interaction and picking
• Build multiplayer games in WebGL
• Handle difficult concepts such as animating skinned models using matrix transformations, quaternion mathematics, and linear interpolation
• Apply physics engine to your WebGL game

Approach

This book is set-by-step, example-based tutorial that provides details on gaming logic using Web GL.

Who this book is written for

If you are a programmer who wants to transform the skill of blending imagination and throughput in games, this is the book for you. You need to have a good understanding of object-oriented programming, JavaScript, and vector and matrix operations.