Canvas3D JS Library

Introduction

The Canvas 3D JS Libary (C3DL) is a javascript library that will make it easier to write 3D applications using WebGL. It provides a set of math, scene, and 3d object classes to make the canvas more accessible for developers that want to develop 3D content in browser.

Contributors

Catherine Leung
Mark Paruzel (CodeBot)
Andrew Smith
Chris Bishop (Javascript)
Andor Salga
Patrick Lam (Picking - Javascript)
James Boston (Garbage collection)
Peter Callaghan

Downloads

You can get the extension from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7171 (use suckmenot@mailinator.com/bugmenot for authentication).

For the library, samples, and tutorials, go to http://www.c3dl.org/

Links

Our Web Site
Our SVN Repo: svn://cdot.senecac.on.ca/canvas3d
canvas3d source code in Vlad's hg repo

Related Resources

Documentation

Documentation can be found within the SVN repository in the documentation directory as well as here [1].

Web site Task List

Write particle system tutorial
Write camera tutorial
Write keyboard control tutorial
Write callback function tutorial
Write transition tutorial for flash developers
Write blender tutorial: How to export to collada and import into the library
Write debugging tutorial: Creating meaningful debug output with and without firebug
At end of tutorials, provide link to demo showing what user can now do

1.1 Task List

Fix backface culling
Speed up rendering
Implement drawing lines and points
Detect and warn users if they try to initialize a Collada object without first using addModel()
Refine distance calculations for overlapping objects for picking

WebGL Compatibility Task List

Fix instanceof problem
Add VBO support for COLLADA
Add VBO support for points
Add VBO support for sphere points
Add VBO support for lines

Library Task List

Add dynamic object loading.
Add sound support.
Create a mechanism to prevent scripts from running before everything (textures, models) is done loading.
Catch and report error on "Access to restricted URI denied", which occurs if user tries to access a model file which does not exist.
Create a progress bar which includes percentage complete of model and texture loading.
Add particle system size attenuation.
Allow users to specify texture filtering
Delete texture objects when textures are deleted from library.
Create and post a hierarchical diagram of the library classes
Investigate overriding space bar and arrow keys from browser's default behavior.
Add option to change back-face culling.
Add option to use orthographic projection.
Add picking for orthographic projection.
Generate error if user tries to place camera at (0,0,0) and set's it's lookat to (0,0,0)

Bug List

Collada
- fix FindNode for Collada's scenegraph.
Objects
- Fix angular velocity/gc bug. If object is set to spin on more than one axis, its angular velocity will change when the gc starts.
- Same linear velocity for Models and Collada objects makes one type 'overtake' the other.
Picking
- ~~Picking does not work when the canvas width isn't equal to the canvas height~~ - fixed
Particle System
- Error when creating a particle system without texture
BoundingSphere
- When the bounding Sphere is rendered, it is not the correct size until the user clicks on the canvas. At that point all BoundingSpheres will change their sizes.
- Rendering of BoundingSphere crashes on Windows
General
- slowdown in update callback slows down rendering.

Ideas List

Here are the wishlist of things we want to be able to do with the library.... If you want something add it to the list

3D Asteroids - Good use of Collision detection, animation, particles, camera work, both mouse and keyboard controls.

Solar System Explorer - Pull the positions of our planets from some sort of webservice and display them, allowing users to see their relative alignment.

Simulation of 3D path finding

3D graphs

    - Display social networks and their relationships
    - Get earthquake Richter-scale values from a service and show graphs on a map
    - Display 3D graphs beside one another, gas prices along stock market values
    - 3D flowcharts

3D Traceroute - graphical view of an IP's path across the internet. More details in this blog post

3D Canvas Racing Demo - like this but better, to show that it's both easier to use, more funcionality is available, and runs much faster (hopefully)

Molecule Viewer - Rotate 3D molecules. Similar to this

3D Sudoku

3D Rubik's Cube

House Explorer/Designer - Load a mesh of a room or a house and allow users to navigate through the environment or design a room in a house.

3D Photo Album - Download images and create a 3D photo album similar to this.

Matrix - Query search engines for sites, chat logs, blogs, etc. and display all the text in a matrix-like fashion.

Really fancy animation of a bar graph, with columns growing and arrow moving. Will be an instant hit with businessmen. Usable as easy as google's toy

Generic model viewer application, with back/forward/index + zoom/rotate buttons that would download and display models from the web. Would have to be able to convert 3dsmax models in JS. So a museum or such could just slap the app on the page and give it an array of URLs for the stuff to show.

Pong. Should be fairly easy, we just need to code the collision detection.

multi-player network air hockey. Supports up to 8 players. Create an arena based on number of players . Each wall has a hole and a paddle that players can move left and right. A ball is randomly sent flying and each time it goes through a hole, the player loses a point. Lose 10 points and that player is eliminated. Last person alive wins.

2 Player Online Chess

    - Orbit camera can be used to orbit around the board.
    - Effects can be used to change what material the pieces and board use such as metal, wood, etc.
    - Picking can be used to allow a simple interface to move the pieces. Either clicking on two tiles can move a piece or clicking on a piece and then a tile can move the piece.
    - Further research is needed to determine the best server-side language to use to share board state between players.
    - Animation can be achieved simply by setting velocities of pieces.

Meeting Summaries

May 29

For next week:

Mark: Add to library and do some bug fixes based on what Chris found

Chris: Work on putting his apps on site

Andrew: Work on making the libraries work with shaders. Provide a method for detecting capability of client to use a 2.0 context and switch

Andor: was absent but will work on shaders

June 04

Mark:

Cathy: send andrew a simple model to play with. Add equivalent of hello world tutorial for library. Begin documentation

Chris:

Release Version 2 of the Type Game. New feature is vertical movement.

Andrew: figure out how to load files form http:// in javascript to be able to load a model from the internet; and display a model that's in some ascii format

Andor:

Get textures applied to cubes (no uv's yet) in 1.1 context.
Investigate box skewing problem in 2.0 context.
Get camera working in 2.0 context.
Clean up shader code converter and upload to repo.

June 12

General goal: establish a format for models. 0.3 release date goal: end of june.

Cathy: Work on more tutorials involving keyboard and camera control. Look for bugs, document the functions

Mark: test changes with the basic demo (especially involving 2.0 context) when changing rendering.

Chris: studying for midterms

Andrew: Fix the 2.0 rendering. Work on loading and displaying models. Give Andor some idea about the preffered format.

Andor: figure out the model format, get model and texture working in 1.1 context, get texture working in 2.0 context(?)

June 19

Cathy: continue on tutorials.