/whereisnow

Primary LanguageJavaScriptMIT LicenseMIT

Networked-Aframe

Bringing Social VR to the Web

Write full-featured Social VR experiences on the web, with minimal networking knowledge required.

Built on top of the wonderful A-Frame.

Features — Getting Started — Examples — Documentation — Contact

Features

  • Includes everything you need to create multi-user WebVR apps and games.
  • WebRTC with no experience required. Take advantage of low-latency, peer-to-peer networking over UDP with minimal effort.
  • Audio streaming to let your users talk in-app.
  • Bandwidth sensitive. Only sends network updates when a synced component has changed. Option to compress network updates.
  • Extendable. Sync any A-Frame component, including your own, without changing the component code at all.
  • Cross-platform. Works on all modern Desktop and Mobile browsers. Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Google Cardboard supported.

Getting Started

git clone https://github.com/haydenjameslee/networked-aframe.git  # Clone the repository.
cd networked-aframe
npm install && npm run easyrtc-install  # Install dependencies.
npm start  # Start the local development server.

With the server running, browse the examples at http://localhost:8080. Open another browser tab and point it to the same URL to see the other client.

Basic Example

<html>
  <head>
    <title>My Networked-Aframe Scene</title>
    <script src="https://aframe.io/releases/0.5.0/aframe.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/socket.io/1.4.5/socket.io.min.js"></script>
    <script src="easyrtc/easyrtc.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/networked-aframe/dist/networked-aframe.min.js"></script>
    <script>
      function onConnect () {
        NAF.entities.createAvatar('#avatar-template', '0 1.6 0', '0 0 0');
      }
    </script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <a-scene network-scene>
      <a-assets>
        <script id="avatar-template" type="text/html">
          <a-sphere></a-sphere>
        </script>
      </a-assets>
    </a-scene>
  </body>
</html>

More Examples

Open in two tabs if nobody else is online.

Documentation

Overview

Networked-Aframe works by syncing entities and their components to connected users. To connect to a room you need to add the network-scene component to the a-scene element. For an entity to be synced, you need to create a network entity. By default the position and rotation components are synced, but if you want to sync other components or child components you need to define a schema. For more advanced control over the WebRTC datachannel see the sections on Broadcasting Custom Messages and Options.

Scene component

Required on the A-Frame <a-scene> component.

<a-scene network-scene="
  app: <appId>;
  room: <roomName>;
  audio: false;
  debug: false;
  onConnect: onConnect;
  connectOnLoad: true;
  signallingUrl: /;
">
  ...
</a-scene>
Property Description Default Value
app Unique app name default
room Unique room name. Can be multiple per app default
audio Turn on / off microphone audio streaming for your app false
debug Turn on / off Networked-Aframe debug logs false
onConnect Function to be called when client has successfully connected to the server onConnect
connectOnLoad Connect to the server as soon as the webpage loads true
signallingUrl Customize where the signalling server is located /

Creating Network Entities

NAF.entities.createAvatar(template, position, rotation)

Create an avatar that follows your camera's movements. Should only be called once. The avatar is hidden for you but visible for other players.

NAF.entities.createNetworkEntity(template, position, rotation)

Create an instance of a template to be synced across clients. The position and rotation will be synced by default. The aframe-lerp-component is added to allow for less network updates while keeping smooth motion.

Parameter Description
template A css selector to a script tag stored in <a-assets> - Template documentation
position An A-Frame position string for the initial position of the entity, eg. '0 0 0'
rotation An A-Frame rotation string for the initial rotation of the entity, eg '0 45 0'

Deleting Network Entities

Currently only the creator of a network entity can delete it. To delete, simply delete the element from the HTML and Networked-Aframe will handle the syncing automatically.

Syncing Custom Components

By default, the A-Frame position and rotation components on the root entity are synced when a network entity is created.

To sync other components and components of child entities you need to define a schema per template. Here's how to define and add a schema:

var avatarSchema = {
  template: '#avatar-template',
  components: [
    'position',
    'rotation',
    'scale',
    {
      selector: '.head',
      component: 'material'
    },
    {
      selector: '.hairs',
      component: 'show-child'
    }
  ]
};
NAF.schemas.add(avatarSchema);

Components of the root entity can be defined with the name of the component. Components of child entities can be defined with an object with both the selector field, which uses a standard CSS selector to be used by document.querySelector, and the component field which specifies the name of the component.

Once you've defined the schema then add it to the list of schemas by calling NAF.schemas.add(YOUR_SCHEMA).

Component data is retrieved by the A-Frame getData function. During the network tick each component's data is checked against its previous synced value; if the data object has changed at all it will be synced across the network.

Broadcasting Custom Messages

NAF.connection.subscribeToDataChannel(dataType, callback)
NAF.connection.unsubscribeToDataChannel(dataType)
NAF.connection.broadcastData(dataType, data)
NAF.connection.broadcastDataGuaranteed(dataType, data)

Subscribe and unsubscribe callbacks to network messages specified by dataType. Send messages to other clients with the broadcastData functions.

broadcastData messages are sent P2P using UDP and are not guaranteed to make it to other clients (although they will most of the time, see why). broadcastDataGuaranteed messages are currently sent via the websocket connection to the server using TCP, and hence not using WebRTC at all. These messages are guaranteed to be delivered to all connected clients. In the future a reliable protocol may be added on top of UDP instead of relying on the TCP websocket connection.

Parameter Description
dataType String to identify a network message. u is a reserved data type, don't use it pls
callback Function to be called when message of type dataType is received.
data Object to be sent to all other clients

Misc

NAF.connection.isConnected()

Returns true if a connection has been established to the signalling server. Don't create entities before this is true.

Options

NAF.options.updateRate

Frequency the network component sync function is called, per second. 10-20 is normal for most Social VR applications. Default is 15.

NAF.options.useLerp

By default when an entity is created the aframe-lerp-component is attached to smooth out position and rotation network updates. Set this to false if you don't want the lerp component to be attached on creation.

NAF.options.compressSyncPackets

Compress each sync packet into a minimized but harder to read JSON object for saving bandwidth. Default is false.

To measure bandwidth usage, run two clients on Chrome and visit chrome://webrtc-internals

Stay in Touch

  • Follow Hayden on Twitter
  • Follow changes on GitHub
  • Hang out with the A-Frame community: join the A-Frame Slack
  • Let us know if you've made something with Networked-Aframe! We'd love to see it!

Help and More Information

Folder Structure

  • / (root)
    • Licenses and package information
  • /dist/
    • Packaged source code for deployment
  • /server/
    • Server code
  • /server/static/
    • Examples (basic.html & dance-party.html)
  • /src/
    • Client source code
  • /tests/
    • Unit tests

Roadmap

  • Master client concept
  • Scene entities that can be defined in the HTML
  • Positional audio
  • Support physics libraries

Interested in contributing? Shoot me a message or send a pull request.

Other A-Frame Networking Libraries

aframe-firebase-component

aframe-webrtc

License

This program is free software and is distributed under an MIT License.