The popular 3D game engine/framework for the web, Babylon.js just released Babylon 8. This release comes a year after the release of Babylon 7, so this annual release is absolutely jam packed with new features.
Highlight features of Babylon.js 8 include:
IBL Shadows
Image-Based Lighting is a computer graphics lighting technique that approximates environment lighting based on a source image. Babylon.js first introduced support for IBL over 8 years ago and it has quickly become one of the most used features of the engine. A great contribution from Adobe leveled up IBL in Babylon by adding shadows to the mix. Now both light and shadows for the scene environment can be approximated from a source image.
Area Lights
This new addition to the lighting palette allows you to specify a 2D shape that emits light from it, much like a large diffuse light that you might find on a movie set. We can’t wait to see how you use this new light type to bring a new dimension to your scene!
Node Render Graph Alpha Release
With the Node Render Graph, you now have full control of the entire render pipeline. This means that you can fully customize and control every part of the process of how your frames are rendered on the GPU. It comes with a new Node Graph tool to customize your own render pipeline without writing complex render process code. Please note that the Node Render Graph is still in Alpha version.
All New Lightweight Viewer
This new viewer is designed to harness the same rendering beauty and power of the full engine but comes in a smaller bundle footprint and uses dynamic imports and capabilities (audio or animation for example) depending on the model that is loaded. It can be added to any web page with just a few lines of HTML, is fully extensible and comes with a super easy-to-use configurator.
Native WGSL
All the core engine shaders for Babylon.js are now available in both GLSL and WGSL. This means direct support for WebGPU right out of the box with no conversion layer. The Node Material Editor is also able to render in the WebGPU shader language, in addition to WebGL.
Overhauled Audio Engine
Babylon.js 8.0 brings an entirely refreshed audio engine. It was designed to be powerful — taking advantage of the full suite of web-audio features, modern — class names and architecture you’ve come to expect, and simple-to-use — allowing anyone to leverage these features, no matter what your experience level.
Gaussian Splat Updates
Babylon.js 8.0 builds on the exciting foundation of Gaussian Splat support with some exciting new updates such as SPZ and compressed PLY formats, spherical harmonics, as well as runtime optimizations for memory footprint and CPU/GPU usage.
Havok Character Controller
With Babylon.js 8.0, we’ve continued our amazing partnership with the very talented team at Havok, this time bringing their fully featured character controller into Babylon.js. This brings a state-of-the-art character controller to your toolbox allowing you to start making your very own character-centered game with just a few lines of code!
In addition to several other smaller fixes, changes and improvements.
Key Links
Babylon.js 8 Release Announcement
You can learn more about the Babylon game engine/framework and about the Babylon.js 8 release specifically in the video below.