117 lines
4.0 KiB
Markdown
117 lines
4.0 KiB
Markdown
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# FP Rendering Engine
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## TL;DR
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Graphics + Web + Functional Programming
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[Play it here](https://ferano.io/3d-fp/)
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## About
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The goal of this project is to learn about the intersection of 3 different
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topics; graphics, web, and functional programming. The FP acronym refers to both
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the fact that it's a \*F\*irst \*P\*erson camera, as well as being implemented
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using \*F\*unctional \*P\*rogramming. It uses Elm with WebGL to create a 3D
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first-person scene implementing several lower level graphics techniques
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including matrix transformations to model parent/child local transforms, texture
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mapping, and basic lighting with shaders.
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This is a prototype quality level project worked on for a few weeks in 2019.
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However, it was just thrown into a git repo without much consideration, along
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with other another small graphics project. I felt it deserved a little bit more
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TLC, so I decided to spruce it up a little bit. Here's the original
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[project](https://github.com/JosephFerano/elm-graphics).
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## Showcase
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## Building with Elm 0.18.0
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To install the binaries manually, follow this short guide; - [Install Binaries](https://sirfitz.medium.com/install-elm-0-18-0-in-2021-3f64ce298801)
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If you want to use `npm` instead; - `npm install -g elm@elm0.18.0`
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If you use `npm`, note that you will likely need an older version of Node.js, so
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it is recommended to use [`npm`](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm) for that. I have not attempted this method
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personally, fyi.
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Once you have the Elm compiler, go ahead and run
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`elm make Scene.elm`
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And that should first pull in all the dependencies then generate an `index.html`
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file.
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### Issues with dependencies
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One of the dependencies of this project, `Zinggi/elm-obj-loader`, is getting a 404
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when Elm tries to pull in all the deps during compilation. Therefore this
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dependency will be included in version control, on the off chance someone
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actually wants to build this.
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## Running
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In order to be able to load the textures and models, the files must be served by
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an HTTP server because of browser security, see [SOP](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/Same-origin_policy) and [CORS](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/CORS) if curious.
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If you have Python 3 installed, simply run `python3 -m http.server`. If you would
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like to use `elm-reactor`, run the command and then click on `index.html` in the
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nice project webview provided.
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## How to Play
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You can walk around the scene and also control the robot which I have named
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Emperor Sextus, Conqueror of the Luddites.
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### Keybindings
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- Look Around: `Mouse`
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- FPS Movement: `WASD`
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- Robot Movement: `◀ ▼ ▲ ▶`
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- Rotate Robot: `N | M`
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- Rotate Robot Arm: `H | J`
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- Rotate Robot Hand: `Y | U`
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## Takeaways
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The Elm WebGL library provides a few abstractions (namely `WebGL.Entity`) that
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help reduce some of the boilerplate usually associated with creating a WebGL
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application from scratch. While it was useful for the purposes of this
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prototype, it remains to be seen if it would scale if this would become a proper
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3D rendering engine.
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Despite what might be potentially undiscovered performance issues, Elm was
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pleasant to work with, and it sold me two ideas; functional programming and
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minimalism. The touted safety and correctness were noticeable, the learning
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curve wasn't as steep, and using the Elm debugger to be able to step back in
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time through the game was eye-opening in showing what's possible when you
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architect your state management with immutability in mind. It would be
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interesting to see if a modern game engine could switch between the functional,
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immutable data structures in a debug context and the cache-friendly mutable data
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structures for improved performance in a release build. Thus boosting
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productivity during development, while still remaining performant in the hands
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of players.
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## License
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This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT license. For more
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information, see the included LICENSE file.
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