Documentation for THREE.js and PixAnvil

CS 493 Lecture, Dr. Lawlor

Here's the r55 documentation for THREE.js features you'll need for the homework:

THREE.Vector3, used everywhere. In PixAnvil, you can also call this class "vec3", and I've added single-letter value-based arithmetic, so you can do "var position37=origin.p(x.t(3).p(y.t(7)));"

Operation	Name	Example
+	p	var d=x.p(y);
+=	pe	x.pe(y);
-	m	var e=x.m(y);
-=	me	x.me(y);
* (a scalar)	t	var f=x.t(2);
*=	te	x.te(2);

THREE.Matrix4, used by Object3D.matrix. I added some column operations in the angular velocity + Matrix demo.
THREE.Object3D, used everywhere.
THREE.Camera, a type of Object3D that moves the world. To move the camera, move this. PixAnvil passes this to you as a predefined variable named "camera".

Also, my library PixAnvil includes a bunch of predefined variables that will be handy:

lib: user interface data, modeled after my SpriteLib and physics/world libraries. Currently includes:

Field	Purpose
lib.time	Simulated time so far, in seconds. Try "camera.position.z=Math.sin(lib.time);" to get a pretty extreme view bob.
lib.dt	Simulated time per frame. Use this to make your physics animate correctly despite variations in frame rate, like "camera.position.pe(cameraVelocity.t(lib.dt));"
lib.mouseleft	True if the mouse button is currently down.
lib.mousex	The mouse's current absolute X position onscreen, in pixels. (Also "lib.mousey" for Y coordinate.)
lib.mousedx	The mouse's relative X motion this frame, in pixels per frame. This is nonzero whenever the mouse is moving. (Also "lib.mousedy")
lib.key[]	Array of booleans indexed by keyboard key. "lib.key['x']" is true while the 'x' key is down. Useful for smooth keyboard motion and control. (Annoyingly, you may need to click once in the simulation window to tell the browser to route keystrokes there, not the code area.)

sim: an empty object where you can store your stuff. You can make up new field names by just writing to them: "sim.moose=3;" makes a new field named "moose", and sets it to 3. "sim.moosepos=new vec3(1,0,0);" makes a 3D vector.
camera: the main THREE.Camera used to view the scene. Change the vec3 "camera.position" to move the camera. To rotate it, use "camera.rotation" for Euler angles, or kick it into quaternion or matrix mode and use those.
scene: the main THREE.Scene being rendered. scene.add can splice in new geometry, although it then sticks around every frame (retained mode).
trace(): the trace function takes a string, number, or vec3, and logs it to the "Stats" tab. So "trace(camera.position);" will print the XYZ camera positions. Traced values get reset every frame.