Fun and games

with A-Frame

Building Virtual Reality

experiences for the Web

Andrzej Mazur • @end3r • Enclave Games
GDG DevFest Poland 2017, Warsaw, Poland, December 9th 2017

Devices

What's WebVR?

Browser APIs that enable WebGL rendering to headsets and access to VR sensors.

Why WebVR?

Power of the Web
Front-end developers

Progressive enhancement

tiny.cc/sechelt

WebVR browser support

Documentation status

Editor's Draft

w3c.github.io/webvr

more info: mozvr.com, webvr.info.

Is WebVR Ready?

webvr.rocks

WebVR boilerplate

A-Frame to the rescue!

<a-scene>

Cube example

Cube example

<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>A-Frame demo - cube</title>
  <script src="aframe.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
  <a-scene>
    <a-cube color="#0095DD" position="0 1 0" rotation="20 40 0"></a-cube>
  </a-scene>
</body>
</html>

Entity Component System

Entities

<a-camera>, <a-light>, <a-cylinder>, <a-entity>...

Components - attributes

<a-entity
  geometry="primitive: torus; radiusTubular: 0.1; segmentsTubular: 12;"
  material="color: #EAEFF2; roughness: 0.1; metalness: 0.5;"
  rotation="10 0 0"
  position="-3 1 0">
</a-entity>

Registry

It's just JavaScript

var scene = document.querySelector('a-scene');
var cylinder = document.createElement('a-cylinder');
cylinder.setAttribute('color', '#FF9500');
cylinder.setAttribute('height', '2');
cylinder.setAttribute('radius', '0.75');
cylinder.setAttribute('position', '3 1 0');
scene.appendChild(cylinder);

Shapes

Animations

<a-cube color="#0095DD" rotation="20 40 0" position="0 1 0">
  <a-animation
    attribute="rotation"
    from="20 0 0"
    to="20 360 0"
    direction="alternate"
    dur="4000"
    repeat="indefinite"
    easing="ease">
  </a-animation>
</a-cube>

Animations

var t = 0;
function render() {
  t += 0.01;
  requestAnimationFrame(render);
  cylinder.setAttribute('position', '3 '+(Math.sin(t*2)+1)+' 0');
}
render();