This week I think I will get back into making some simple python examples, and I think many of them should be basic simple command line tools and games. So in order to make such examples I think I should start with at least a few basic examples of the cmd standard library that is built into python. This library can be used to create a simple command line prompt that will allow for me to interact with a python script from the command line.

The basic use case of the cmd library seems to be to create a class that builds on top of the Cmd class that is given by the library. There are a number of methods in this class that can be over written, or left to there default behavior. For example there is the empty line method of the cmd class that by default will call the last command called when an empty line command is called. This might be okay in some situations but I like to make it so that the help menu will print when an empty line command is given.

Read More

I have wrote a number of posts on threejs that is the standard library for doing anything with 3d modeling in a client side javaScript environment it would seem. Many of the posts that I have wrote so far have to do with the various features of threejs itself, but thus far I can not say that I have made any kind of real project with threejs. That is until I started a collection of posts that have to do with making some kind of real application rather than just demos of various features of threejs. So this post is a kind of index of all of these kinds of posts thus far that I intend to expand on, and come back to edit often.

There is the official set of threejs examples that I think people should check out first and foremost before looking at other peoples examples on random blogs such as this one. The examples there are not just application examples also mind you, as there are a great deal of official modules for doing all kinds of things that are not baked into the core of the library itself. However often I might find myself wanting to do something to which there is not an official example of, which it turn would lead me to various posts on stack overflow, and the occasional blog post such that is a collection of threejs project example ideas. This is then my take on that kind of post so lets get to the examples I have thus far.

Read More

Today I think I will continue with my biplane model in threejs by making a model of models that will serve as another threejs example when it comes to working out some fun project examples of three.js in action.

So in other words in this example I will take the biplane model that I worked out in my last post and make another model that is just a group of these biplane models. This is a comment theme in programing where I have a single instance of something, and then a collection of instances of that something. There are then methods that I use with a single instance of that something and then methods that i use with a collection of them. I will not be doing anything to advanced with this project though and for the most part this is just yet another examples where I am just building on top of previsions examples that I have all ready made before hand.

I do not think I want to sink to much time into this, but it can still prove to be a little fun as a quick side project, and this also might prove to be a learning experience as aways to say the least. Also I think that there is only so much more to write about when it comes to the basics of three.js, so when it comes to continuing to write about threejs the next steps forward are going to have to be about some actual projects, or simple examples at least, where I am making use of the library.

Read More

When it comes to threejs maybe there is still a great deal more for me to learn about the framework itself, however for now I would like to make at least a few examples of what can be done with three.js when it comes to making some kind of actual project.

With that said there is the prim and proper way of going about creating a 3d model of something, and that is all fine and good, but it also strikes me as something that would end up eating up a lot of time. So there is also the not so prim and proper way to go about creating a 3d model of something. It is the later that I will be going over today by making a simple crude yet effective 3d model of a Biplane using just the built in three.js geometry constructors mainly the box geometry constructor and groups.

This example will involve create a bunch of mesh objects, combining them into a group, and then positioning and skinning things to make something that looks like a little plane. It would then be fun to add a few more models to create a plane, and a main world object for a crude scene of some kind. For now I think I would like to have just one plane, and have it fly around in a circle, and move the camera around to have a nice neat looping animation.

Read More

In threejs there is a standard way of adding custom user data for a mesh object, and any other object3d class based object, which is the user data object. This is just an empty object that is not used by any internal logic of threejs itself, thus it is a safe place to park custom, user defined key value pairs in an object3d based object. There is a similar kind of object in other kinds of classes in threejs such as geometry, and materials.

If I need to park some custom application data that has to do with a specific object, it is a good idea to do so by adding it to this user data object, as that will help to make sure that it is done in a safe way that will not conflict with anything internal with threejs. Many other libraries and frameworks have some kind of data object that is part of an instance of some kind of class as a way to park data that I want to have assigned to a given object also, and it makes sense to use it as that is what it is there for.

Just adding custom stuff to the root of an object3d based object itself can cause problems in the event that there is a conflict. Also making use of the user object helps to make things more clear as to what has to do with the logic of the application and what is part of threejs itself so I would say that this also helps with code readability. If I am looking at some code and I see stuff assigned to the user data object I right away know that it has to do with data that works with a little additional code on top of threejs.

With that said, in this post I will be going over a few simple examples of the user data object of the object3d class. Nothing major for starers at least, but I think I would like to get into some more advanced examples if I can get to it in order to really help showcase what this object is for when it comes to being creative and having a little fun with threejs.

Read More