109 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
109 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
# 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;
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- [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;
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- `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.
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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` 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
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404 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
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by an HTTP server because of browser security, see
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[SOP](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/Same-origin_policy)
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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
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would like to use `elm-reactor`, run the command and then click on `index.html`
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in the 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 on the idea of a minimalist programming
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language. The touted safety and correctness were noticeable, and using the Elm
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debugger to be able to step back in time through the game was eye-opening in
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showing what's possible when you architect your state management system with
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immutability in mind. It would be interesting to see if a modern game engine
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could switch between the functional, immutable data structures in a debug
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context and the cache-friendly mutable data structures for improved performance
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in a release build. Thus boosting productivity during development, while still
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remaining performant in the hands 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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