Scene

How To Fast Build a World

There are a number of helpers that, once you to have put models into a scene, add cameras, light and environment that adjust to the models automatically allowing you to quickly view them. You can then make adjustments as you need.

For beginners to Babylon.js these two sections Fastest Build and Import and Fastest Build will quickly give you a viewable world and are a good way of getting a look at models. As such they are level 1 material. It is worth considering working through Babylon101 and parts of the level 1 material in order to make the other information and details on this page more understandable.

Helpers

The following is a list of the methods of the scene object that help in fast building a world, with a link to their API description:

• createDefaultCameraOrLight;
• createDefaultCamera;
• createDefaultLight;
• createDefaultEnvironment;
• createDefaultSkybox;

Fastest Build

To build a world very quickly just use createDefaultCameraOrLight along with createDefaultEnvironment as in this example

scene.createDefaultCameraOrLight(true, true, true);
scene.createDefaultEnvironment();

You can see how the camera automatically adjusts by adding a second box and re-positioning it

More information about these methods, including details about parameters, can be found in the individual sections below.

Create Default Camera or Light

As can be seen in the Fastest Build section the helper, createDefaultCameraOrLight creates both a camera and a light in one line. The three parameters it can take are the same as for the createDefaultCamera method, the second parameter also refers to the light and replaces any existing camera or light when true. The approach to accessing the camera or light is the same as for the individual methods.

Create Default Camera

The createDefaultCamera takes three boolean parameters, all set to false by default. They are

• createArcRotateCamera: creates a free camera by default and an arc rotate camera when true;
• replace: when true the created camera will replace the existing active one;
• attachCameraControls: when true attaches control to the canvas.

This code will create an arc rotate camera, replace any existing camera and attach the camera control to the canvas

scene.createDefaultCamera(true, true, true);

For a free camera

scene.createDefaultCamera(false, true, true);

The camera will adjust depending on the size and position of each mesh in the world.

Accessing the Camera

Since creating the camera this way makes the helper created camera the active camera the simplest way to access it is using

scene.createDefaultCamera(true, true, true);

var helperCamera = scene.activeCamera;

An alternative way to access the helper created camera immediately after creating it is, since it will be the last one in the scene.cameras array, to use

scene.createDefaultCamera(true, true, true);

var helperCamera = scene.cameras[scene.cameras.length - 1];

//OR

var helperCamera = scene.cameras.pop();
scene.cameras.push(helperCamera);

Create Default Light

The createDefaultLight takes just one boolean parameters, set to false by default:

• replace: when true the created light will replace all the existing ones; when false and there are no existing lights a hemispherical light is created; when false and lights already exist, no change is made to the scene.

When this method is used before the creation of any other lights then it is usually sufficient to use

scene.createDefaultLight();

Accessing the Light

Provided you access the helper created light immediately after creating it, it will be the last one in the scene.lights array.

You can obtain it using

scene.createDefaultLight();

var helperLight = scene.lights[scene.lights.length - 1];

//OR

var helperLight = scene.lights.pop();
scene.lights.push(helperLight);

Create Default Environment

The simple code

scene.createDefaultEnvironment();

adds a skybox and ground to the scene, sets a wide range of environmental parameters and returns an environmental helper to the scene.

You will also find below a helper for just a skybox.

When you look at the following playground

it is not obvious that a skybox and ground have been added. The defaults have been set so as to be really subtle and help give a grounding feeling to the objects

Moving the camera further out shows that the skybox is constructed.

You can also see the skybox and ground by using the options parameter and setting different values for the skybox texture and the ground color.

Options Parameters

As you can see in the above playground the createDefaultEnvironment method takes an options parameter. The full range of environmental helper options properties are available from the API

So, for example

to prevent the creation of the skybox:

var helper = scene.createDefaultEnvironment({
    createSkybox: false,
});

to enable ground reflection:

var helper = scene.createDefaultEnvironment({
    enableGroundMirror: true,
});

when you see z-fighting with the ground, modify the groundYBias to a larger number:

var helper = scene.createDefaultEnvironment({
    groundYBias: 0.01,
});

Applicable Methods

Since the createDefaultEnvironment method returns an environmentalHelper object then all the properties and methods of this object (as in the API) are available.

So, for example if the environment color is not your favorite choice you can modify it after creation

var helper = scene.createDefaultEnvironment();
helper.setMainColor(BABYLON.Color3.Teal());

or for instance should you wish to dispose of the ground after creation of the environment use

var helper = scene.createDefaultEnvironment();
helper.ground.dispose();

or how about changing the options parameters

var helper = scene.createDefaultEnvironment();
var options = {
    skyboxTexture: new BABYLON.CubeTexture("/textures/skybox", scene),
};
helper.updateOptions(options);

Environmental Helper

NOTE: The environment helper relies exclusively on the BackgroundMaterial to be as efficient as possible.

Create Default Skybox

The createDefaultSkybox method can be used when you do not want to create a full environment. The parameters used determine how the skybox is created.

for example

var texture = new BABYLON.CubeTexture("/assets/textures/SpecularHDR.dds", scene);
scene.createDefaultSkybox(texture, true, 100);

In this case the first two parameters used give the texture for the skybox and specify that a PBRMaterial is to be used (second parameter, true) as opposed to a standard material (second parameter, false - default value).

The third parameter defines the scale of your skybox (this value depends on the scale of your scene), the default value is 1000.

Import and Fastest Build

To import models and build a world very quickly just use createDefaultCameraOrLight along with createDefaultEnvironment as in this example

The camera adjusts its position automatically to make the world viewable depending on the scale and position of the models. More information on importing models with the scene helpers follows below.

Importing Models for Your World

Since the createDefault... helpers take into account any models in the scene they can only be applied after the model is loaded and so are placed in the callback function. For example

BABYLON.SceneLoader.Append("https://www.babylonjs.com/Assets/DamagedHelmet/glTF/", "DamagedHelmet.gltf", scene, function (meshes) {
    scene.createDefaultCameraOrLight(true, true, true);
    scene.createDefaultEnvironment();
});

There is then a problem. When creating a scene Babylon.js checks for a camera. When importing models, the existence of a camera will be checked for before the model has finished loading and so the scene will fail.

The solution is to replace the createScene function with the delayCreateScene function. Whether in a playground or in your own project this is a direct replacement.

NOTE: Other scene loader methods are available.

Using Scene Helpers with Import

All the helper methods described earlier on this page behave in exactly the same way when importing models. Just remember to call them within the scene loader callback.

Import Playground Examples