Fwd: Choosing a graphics library/framework

Reposted with permission from WebVR mailing list.



-------- Forwarded Message --------

I'd recommend the following frameworks for building WebVR experiences:

• A-Frame – https://aframe.io/ (entity-component WebVR framework, built 
atop three.js)
• LÖVR – http://lovr.org/docs/WebVR (scenes can be written in Lua and 
executed natively, and packaged to WebVR using emscripten + asm.js: 
http://lovr.org/share)
• Primrose – https://www.primrosevr.com/ (built atop three.js)
• three.js – https://threejs.org/examples/?q=webvr (underlying and 
here's a good example of an open-source experience: 
https://github.com/stewdio/day-and-night-webvr)
• Babylon.js – 
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/get-started/adding-webvr-to-a-babylonjs-game 
(WebGL engine, alternative to three.js)
• Vizor – https://vizor.io/ (easy WebVR content-creation tool + hosting 
service)
• PlayCanvas – https://developer.playcanvas.com/user-manual/vr/ 
(powerful WebGL 3D game engine with a custom WebGL engine, 
entity-component framework, and hosting service)
• Hologram – https://hologram.cool/ (easy-to-use macOS native 
application, built atop A-Frame)

IYCMI: Here's a case study of a recent experiment by Shopify built using 
PlayCanvas: 
https://medium.com/shopify-vr/building-a-vr-shopping-experience-for-the-web-tips-and-takeaways-shopify-4a8017d5f6f5 
<https://medium.com/shopify-vr/building-a-vr-shopping-experience-for-the-web-tips-and-takeaways-shopify-4a8017d5f6f5> 



[Indirectly in response to...]


On Tue, Aug 22, 2017 at 11:53 AM, Leonard Daly <web3d@realism.com 
<mailto:web3d@realism.com>> wrote:

    Hi John,

    As others have pointed out, you are mixing different
    technologies/layers here. The closest two being THREE and Babylon.

     From my perspective, you are trying to build a Metaverse. That is a
    lot of content. As long as it works, people (as in users) are not
    going impressed with your underlying technology. So choose the
    technology that males your work (and that of user/developers) easy
    -- as long as it works.

    WebGL is when you absolutely need it to run fast. Unless you are
    going to write your own bower, this is about as low as you can go.
    BTW, I put shaders here. You probably want to have a decent library
    of them so people don't have to write one.

    THREE/Babylon are programmatic interfaces to WebGL (there more than
    that, but it's a good first start). Writing code at this level is
    much easier to manage and maintain that WebGL code. If this is your
    choice, all metaverse developers will need to use one of these APIs
    -- meaning they will need to write JavaScript code.

    A-Frame is a semi-declarative language. It abstracts some of the
    features of THREE into a declarative language. If this is your
    choice, developers will need to write HTML-like code (tags and
    attributes), unless the particular desired feature is not available.
    Then the developer will need to write using the A-Frame API to
    THREE. (This is what makes it semi-declarative.) Carefully check the
    A-Frame documentation to make sure that it provides the features you
    are looking for. Also note that A-Frame is still in pre-release
    development (V0.6). Things will probably change.

    The W3C has a community group for Declarative VR
    (https://www.w3.org/community/decwebvr/
    <https://www.w3.org/community/decwebvr/>). Membership is open to
    everyone. (I am co-chair). The group is working on a fully
    declarative language. We would like your inputs as you work through
    the issues of what is needed for a declarative language that will
    fully integrate with HTML, DOM, CSS, and other W3C technologies. If
    you are interested, I can provide further information as to my
    findings and preliminary development.


    -- 
    *Leonard Daly*
    3D Systems Architect & Cloud Consultant
    President, Daly Realism - /Creating the Future/