For this weeks post I worked out another threejs example, this time it is a module that helps me break down a project into a kind of timeline. This kind of project might be used in conjunction with, or maybe even as a replacement for a simular module that I use all the time in my video projects called sequnce hooks. Both of these projects are ways of breaking up a video into many parts in which differing logic will be used to update the over all scene of a threejs project. With sequence hooks I was thinking in terms of having an array of, well sequence objects that will be fired one after another. With this timeline project I am thinking more in terms of having a collection of objects that will only fire when a main alpha value that is the over all progress of the video is between a start and end value of a single object in a collection. So then this timeline project will allow for gaps between event objects.

There are a lot of other little details that I would like to work out with this kind of project rather than just making a replacement for sequence hooks. For one thing I would like to define a kind of start and end time that will be used as a way to define not the start and end time of an over all video, but rather the start and end time between a collection of events that are between these start and end times. The actual final time of the video can then be any about of time actually because all of these time stamps are just used to figure out what the alpha values should be for all of these timeline events.

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When it comes to my collection of electronjs examples thus far I do not have an example that is some kind of game project, so I have started one project that is a kind of Idle Game. The game prototype idea is called MrSun, and the general idea is to have a single object that is a sun, and a bunch of objects around the sun that are land sections. Each land section is then composed of a grid of slots, each of which can contain a block that will generate the main game currently which in this case is mana.

The sun can then be moved into other locations in the area between all the land section objects. When doing so the distance from the sun to each land section object will change which will result in temperature changes for each land section. The changes in temperature will then effect the rate at which mana for each block in a given land section is. That is that I have a base mana amount, and a temperature mana amount that together compose the total mana delta amount for each block in each slot in each land section.

I have made a whole lot of game prototypes in the past when it comes to my collection of html canvas examples, but this time around with my electronjs examples I would like to focus more so on quality rather than quantity. For this game prototype I have stayed in my lane for the good part of a month, and on top of that I have plans to continue working on this project in a stand alone repository as well. So then this will not just be yet another prototype but a game that I will keep working on, and playing myself, for a little while every day.

What I have in mind here then is not just another idle game, but a game that also pulls in elements of strategy, simulation, and sandbox type games. The core features of an idle game are there is the prototype all ready, and as I keep working on this as a stand alone project I will be seeking to further refine the features in place as well as take additional steps with various other ideas that I think will add more value to this project.

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The slerp method of the quaternion class in threejs is a way to go about transitioning from one quaternion state to another. The method can be called off of an instance of a quaternion object, then another quaternion object to transition to can be given as the first argument, followed by an alpha value. The alpha value is then a number between 0 and 1 that is used to transition the quaternion object. This slerp method will mutate in place, however it can be used in conjunction with other methods like copy and clone to address that.

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As of late I have been working on demos that have to do with Quaternion objects in order to gain a better understanding of them. Thus far I have found that there is a core set of prototype methods that I am going to want to use to start working with these. Maybe the very first method that one will want to get solid with is the set from axis angle method, but I have found that the set from unit vectors method is also often fairly useful as well as a tool for just setting the state of one of these objects to begin with. I say that because often I will want to set a starting orientation to begin with, and then from the preform one or more additional rotations. With that said todays post will be on this set from unit vectors method of the quaternion class.

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The premultiply method of the quaternion class in threejs comes in handy when I find myself in a situation in which I need to preform not one but two rotations. Say that I have a sphere and I want to rotate the sphere on an axis that is say 45 degrees so that the top and bottom of the sphere geometry is aligned with the sphere, and on top of that I want to rotate the sphere on this axis. So in a way I actually have two axis vectors and two angles. One set of axis and angle is aligned with the geometry to begin with, and the other is to adjust the geometry to an additional orientation that I want. In this post then I will be going over a number of code examples that make use of this method as this is a major part of working with quaternion objects for setting the orientation of objects.

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