Josh Elster - Going the Distance with Babylon.js: Building extensible, maintainable, and attractive browser-based interactive applications using JavaScript

BABYLON.JS IS AN IMPRINT OF PACKT PUBLISHING

Building extensible, maintainable, and attractive browser-based interactive applications using JavaScript

Josh Elster

Copyright 2022 Packt Publishing

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First published: August 2022

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Writing this book would not have been possible without the people that have been important in my life. To my father, for gamely reading each chapter, knowing ahead of time that none of the material is even remotely near his wheelhouse. To my wife, for believing in me even when I didnt and for putting up with me when Im cranky. To my brothers, for their unwavering encouragement and faith in this project and in life. To Mitch Gitelman, for indulging in a long walk with me on a fine Washington Spring Day. Finally, this book is dedicated to the memory of Adrian Barcus, a.k.a. Colonel Ransom. Regardless of how long or far you might search, a better person will not be found.

Josh Elster

If at that time you had told me that one day someone would be motivated enough to write an actual book about it, I would have laughed a lot. And still, here we are. When Josh told me that he was on the verge of writing a real book about Babylon.js, I barely believed him.

The book that you have in your very hands right now is the culmination of a fantastic journey where people from around the globe joined and contributed to a common project without expecting anything more than a thank you. That fantastic community helped create hundreds of great projects and convince big names such as Microsoft and Adobe to bet on and contribute to a GitHub project for their 3D-based projects.

I know this is probably a really classic clich to employ, but I genuinely want to thank Josh for having poured his soul into this book in order to help our community to learn our platform.

I encourage you to use this book as a first step to joining the community and participating in our common effort to build a powerful and easy-to-use 3D engine freely available to all.

David Catuhe,

Creator and leader of the Babylon.js open source project, group engineering manager for the Microsoft Stream web client, technical expert on the WebGL/Javacript/TypeScript web technologies

Josh Elster spends most of his days working as a software engineering lead for a technology start-up and his nights patrolling the Babylon.js forums and working on various side projects. Unlike Bruce Wayne, however, he did not have a traumatic childhood incident involving bats.

From his home in the Windy City of Chicago, Josh likes to spend time outdoors, particularly in his woodshop when the weather indicates, and gaming, making music, or reading when it doesnt. His website is https://www.liquidelectron.com. A limited social media user, he can be found on LinkedIn and Twitter.

A huge thanks to everyone who helped me keep going on this journey. Special thanks are owed to my family, for their faith in me and this project. To Jason Carter and Kaustubh Manglukar, who were there at the conception of this book, Raanan Weber, who put up with my incessant questions (until one day he didnt), and to Carolina Herbster Mesquita Jorge, for allowing herself to fill that spot theres no way that this book would be a worthwhile read without your valuable contributions. To the members of the Babylon.js community you are the heart and soul of the Babylon.js project. Thank you for being part of and making such an amazing endeavor!

Jason Carter is humbled by his position and opportunity to lead the incredibly talented Babylon development team at Microsoft, having spent his entire career at the intersection of storytelling and technology. At the start of a career spanning decades, he spent years bringing animated characters and scenes to life at Dreamworks and later Disney Animation. Afterward, he then went on to help make holograms feel real by bringing the HoloLens to life. The latest stage in his career is to ultimately help the world create and share interactive 3D web experiences.

Raanan Weber is the tech lead of the 3D web engine Babylon.js. His first contribution to the framework was back in 2014, and he is not planning to stop any time soon. Among his latest contributions are the WebXR abstraction and the frameworks new build system.

Raanan lives with his wife and son in Berlin, Germany. He spends his weekends walking his wonderful dog and playing as much music as possible.

Carolina Herbster Mesquita Jorge is a computer graphics developer based in Brazil. In her free time, she likes to play video games, crochet, and play with her dog, Courage.

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