CODEWITHSUNDEEP
three.js
Avner Moshkovitz
Avner Moshkovitz

Reputation: 1374

what is the recommended way, in three js, to render (mostly) static scene

I have a scene that is mostly static, i.e. without user interaction it doesn't change (animations).
The user interacts with the scene. For example:

Originally I implemented the rendering via animate(), which calls:

function animate() {
  requestAnimationFrame( animate );
  render();
  controls.update();
}

This works fine (in terms of response) except that

So I re-implemented the rendering by calling, explicitly, after user action which change the scene

  render();
  controls.update();

This requires more work, because I have to cover all the cases where the scene changes. In one of the cases, the behaviour is not as expected (the rendered scene is black and explicit call to render does not fix the problem).

The link here says that if your scene is static, there is no reason for an animation loop.
The link here suggests to use animate().

My questions:

Upvotes: 3

Views: 802

Answers (1)

Mugen87
Mugen87

Reputation: 31026

The link here says that if your scene is static, there is no reason for an animation loop.

The answer of the respective stackoverflow question is also the correct one. The second link is unrelated to question whether to use on-demand rendering or not.

In general, having an animation loop requires more resources since you constantly render no matter if the scene changes or not. However, certain application like 3D viewers (without animation playback) do not need to do this. It's sufficient to render only when certain events happen (e.g. user interaction).

Is explicit render, a good pattern to use in three js for static scenes?

Yes, it is. It is a good pattern for 3D applications in general.

Are there pros to render only when needed, instead of calling animate which renders constantly, when this is not needed? In terms of resource load in general

The app requires less resources which is always a good thing. E.g. mobile device will save a lot of battery and laptops or desktops will be more quiet.

Upvotes: 2

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