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Three.js and TypeScript
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Design Patterns in TypeScript
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Dat GUI

Video Lecture

Dat GUI Dat GUI Dat GUI

Description

The Dat GUI is another very useful tool that we can use to learn about Three.js as it allows us to quickly add a very basic user interface which allows us to interact with our 3d scene and the objects within it.

The Three.js install includes a copy of dat.gui.module.js so we will use that.

However, the version of Three.js or the @types/three definitions, at the time of writing this lesson, don't include a type definition file for dat.gui.module.js.

Adding,

import { GUI } from 'three/examples/jsm/libs/dat.gui.module'

to our client.ts will indicate an error Could not find a declaration file for module 'three/examples/jsm/libs/dat.gui.module'.

We can manually install the type definition file.

npm install @types/dat.gui --save-dev

The installed type definition file will still not auto link with the dat.gui.module.js in the Threejs library folder just yet until we add the path to our TSConfig.

Add a path to the ./src/client/tsconfig.json that indicates to the VSCode IDE and TypeScript compiler which type definition file to use when it finds an import referencing three/examples/jsm/libs/dat.gui.module in our scripts.

./src/client/tsconfig.json

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{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "moduleResolution": "node",
        "strict": true,
        "paths": {
            "three/examples/jsm/libs/dat.gui.module": [
                "../../node_modules/@types/dat.gui"
            ]
        }
    },
    "include": ["**/*.ts"]
}

Final Script

Below is the client.ts how it is left at the end of the lesson.

./src/client/client.ts

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import * as THREE from 'three'
import { OrbitControls } from 'three/examples/jsm/controls/OrbitControls'
import Stats from 'three/examples/jsm/libs/stats.module'
import { GUI } from 'three/examples/jsm/libs/dat.gui.module'

const scene = new THREE.Scene()

const camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(
    75,
    window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight,
    0.1,
    1000
)
camera.position.z = 2

const renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer()
renderer.setSize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight)
document.body.appendChild(renderer.domElement)

const controls = new OrbitControls(camera, renderer.domElement)
//controls.addEventListener('change', render)

const geometry = new THREE.BoxGeometry()
const material = new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial({
    color: 0x00ff00,
    wireframe: true,
})

const cube = new THREE.Mesh(geometry, material)
scene.add(cube)

window.addEventListener('resize', onWindowResize, false)
function onWindowResize() {
    camera.aspect = window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight
    camera.updateProjectionMatrix()
    renderer.setSize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight)
    render()
}

const stats = Stats()
document.body.appendChild(stats.dom)

const gui = new GUI()
const cubeFolder = gui.addFolder('Cube')
cubeFolder.add(cube.rotation, 'x', 0, Math.PI * 2)
cubeFolder.add(cube.rotation, 'y', 0, Math.PI * 2)
cubeFolder.add(cube.rotation, 'z', 0, Math.PI * 2)
cubeFolder.open()
const cameraFolder = gui.addFolder('Camera')
cameraFolder.add(camera.position, 'z', 0, 10)
cameraFolder.open()

function animate() {
    requestAnimationFrame(animate)

    //stats.begin()
    //cube.rotation.x += 0.01
    //cube.rotation.y += 0.01
    //stats.end()

    render()

    stats.update()
}

function render() {
    renderer.render(scene, camera)
}

animate()
//render()

Boilerplate statsgui Branch

The official course boilerplate contains a branch including both the Stats and Dat.gui panels if you need.

You can clone the boilerplate into a new folder somewhere and checkout the statsgui branch.

git clone https://github.com/Sean-Bradley/Three.js-TypeScript-Boilerplate.git
cd Three.js-TypeScript-Boilerplate
git checkout statsgui
npm install
npm run dev

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8080/

With the Stats and Dat.gui panels