Newsletter – Issue 014

🔥 Headlines

WebGPU ships in Chrome 113 (currently in the Beta channel). This release marks a new era for GPU-accelerated graphics on the web. Three.js, Babylon.js, and PlayCanvas all have some initial support for WebGPU, but expect a bumpy road if you want to support both WebGL and WebGPU, considering that WebGPU uses WGSL instead of GLSL for shaders. The transition will be rough, but the future is bright!

Phaser 3.60.0 is out! This massive update has been in the works for over a year. It also marks the 10th anniversary of the first Phaser release on GitHub on April 12th, 2013. The most recent beta versions include the Timeline class and a Matter.js v0.19 update. Check out the complete Changelog of this major update!

Anslo shared his thoughts on JavaScript game development and explained some of the performance optimizations and techniques used in Slow Roads in an excellent tech article on Google’s web.dev website.

We are one step closer to The Matrix scenario with this paper of a simulation involving 25 AI-driven characters hanging out in a virtual town. Watch the replay while wondering who is currently watching yours.

🛠 Tools & Updates

• enhance-shader-lighting (demo, repo) by 0beqz – Makes lighting more realistic in Three.js.
• Drei v9.65 – Adds <Wireframe> (tweet, demo), useCubeCamera and useEnvironment hooks.
• PlayCanvas Engine v1.62 – Initial WebGPU support, glTF Viewer update, some shader breaking changes.
• PixiLayout – A new CSS-like library for arranging Pixi elements.
• Babylon.js v5.55.0
• Web3D Survey by Ben Houston – The Can I Use of WebGL and WebGPU APIs.

🎬 Videos

• Recreating Atmos with React Three Fiber – part 2 and part 3 by Wawa Sensei
• Cocos Game Compilation 2022 (mostly mobile Chinese games)

✍️ Articles

• Mastering Theatre.js Animations by The Ebenezer
• Safari releases are a development hell by Ashley Gullen
• CPU performance tips by N8
• 🌐 PWAs in app stores by Thomas Steiner

🎮 Games

• Super Mario Bros Movie Fan Game by supertommy – Uses Rapier, Miniplex, and howler.js. 🍄
• Duelyst GG by Hellgin – Revival fan project of the Duelyst collectible card game coded from scratch. 🃏

We need more web games! Join the 🍓 Open Jam – April 2023 on Discord and build something cool this month!

✨ Demos

• Fake liquid shader (source) by VoR ported from Joyce’s work.
• Voxels with physics (demo) by Daniel Esteban
• A responsive 3D scene by Bruno Simon and the R3F adaptation (demo) by 0xca0a.
• Cube and hexagon terrain generators by VoR, Julien Sulpis, and Faraz.
• Jesse’s Ramen portfolio by Jesse Zhou
• Arcade light guns by Steven Yau
• Your face on an animated model (source) by Xavier Bourry

See more on the ✨ Games & Demos page or 🎮 WebGamer.io.

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