Babylon.js 8

Quick Reference

Babylon.js is a powerful open-source 3D engine for the web. Version 8 supports WebGL2 and WebGPU.

Coordinate system: Left-handed (X=right, Y=up, Z=forward). Rotations in radians.

NPM packages:

@babylonjs/core - Engine, scene, meshes, materials, cameras, lights
@babylonjs/gui - 2D/3D GUI controls
@babylonjs/loaders - glTF, OBJ, STL loaders
@babylonjs/materials - Extra material types
@babylonjs/inspector - Debug inspector

Tree-shaking: Import from deep paths for minimal bundles:

import { Scene } from "@babylonjs/core/scene";
import { Vector3 } from "@babylonjs/core/Maths/math.vector";
import { Color3, Color4 } from "@babylonjs/core/Maths/math.color";
import { Mesh } from "@babylonjs/core/Meshes/mesh";
import { PBRMaterial } from "@babylonjs/core/Materials/PBR/pbrMaterial";
import { ArcRotateCamera } from "@babylonjs/core/Cameras/arcRotateCamera";

Side-effect imports (enable features without referencing exports):

import "@babylonjs/core/Meshes/thinInstanceMesh";
import "@babylonjs/core/Rendering/edgesRenderer";
import "@babylonjs/core/Collisions/collisionCoordinator";
import "@babylonjs/loaders/glTF/2.0/glTFLoader";

Minimal Scene Setup

import { Engine } from "@babylonjs/core/Engines/engine";
import { Scene } from "@babylonjs/core/scene";
import { ArcRotateCamera } from "@babylonjs/core/Cameras/arcRotateCamera";
import { HemisphericLight } from "@babylonjs/core/Lights/hemisphericLight";
import { Vector3 } from "@babylonjs/core/Maths/math.vector";
import { CreateSphere } from "@babylonjs/core/Meshes/Builders/sphereBuilder";
import { CreateGround } from "@babylonjs/core/Meshes/Builders/groundBuilder";

const engine = new Engine(canvas, true);
const scene = new Scene(engine);
const camera = new ArcRotateCamera("cam", 0, Math.PI/4, 10, Vector3.Zero(), scene);
camera.attachControl(canvas, true);
const light = new HemisphericLight("light", new Vector3(0, 1, 0), scene);
const sphere = CreateSphere("sphere", { diameter: 2 }, scene);
const ground = CreateGround("ground", { width: 6, height: 6 }, scene);
sphere.position.y = 1;

engine.runRenderLoop(() => scene.render());
window.addEventListener("resize", () => engine.resize());

Key Patterns

PBR Material (most common for realistic rendering)

const pbr = new PBRMaterial("pbr", scene);
pbr.albedoColor = new Color3(1.0, 0.766, 0.336);
pbr.metallic = 0.3;
pbr.roughness = 0.7;
// Optional: connect to environment for reflections
pbr.reflectionTexture = scene.environmentTexture;
mesh.material = pbr;

Thin Instances (high-performance batching)

import "@babylonjs/core/Meshes/thinInstanceMesh";
const buffer = new Float32Array(16 * count);
for (let i = 0; i < count; i++) {
  Matrix.Translation(x, y, z).copyToArray(buffer, i * 16);
}
mesh.thinInstanceSetBuffer("matrix", buffer, 16, false);
mesh.thinInstanceBufferUpdated("matrix");

Asset Loading (glTF)

import "@babylonjs/loaders/glTF/2.0/glTFLoader";
const container = await BABYLON.LoadAssetContainerAsync("model.glb", scene);
container.addAllToScene();

Observable Pattern (Babylon's event system)

scene.onBeforeRenderObservable.add(() => { /* per frame */ });
const observer = scene.onPointerObservable.add((info) => { /* pointer events */ });
scene.onPointerObservable.remove(observer); // unsubscribe

Procedural Modeling — Animation-Ready Hierarchy

Build complex models from primitives by placing a TransformNode at every joint before attaching geometry. One pivot per degree of freedom; geometry's local position is its offset from the joint.

const robotRoot = new TransformNode("robotRoot", scene);
const shoulderPivot = new TransformNode("shoulderPivot", scene);
shoulderPivot.parent = robotRoot;                  // pivot lives at the joint axis
const upperArm = CreateCapsule("upperArm", { height: 1.2, radius: 0.16 }, scene);
upperArm.parent = shoulderPivot;
upperArm.position.y = 0.6;                          // geometry sticks out from joint
// Animation later: shoulderPivot.rotation.y = ...  // rotates whole arm cleanly

For booleans (drilled holes, carved slots), use CSG2 (Babylon 8). For rotationally symmetric parts (bottles, hubs, columns) use CreateLathe. For path-swept parts (cables, rails) use CreateTube or ExtrudeShape. See [procedural-parametric-modeling.md](references/procedural-parametric-modeling

Reference Files

Read these files for detailed API patterns on specific topics:

core-concepts.md - Engine/Scene setup, cameras, lights, shadows, observables, coordinate system
meshes.md - Mesh builders, transforms, TransformNode, instances, thin instances, clones, merging, picking
procedural-parametric-modeling.md - Building high-quality 3D models in code from primitives. Full primitive catalog (lathe, tube, extrude, polyhedra, geodesics, CSG2 booleans, custom VertexData), quality techniques (tessellation, bevels, edges, material palettes), and a complete animation-ready parent/pivot hierarchy pattern with a worked robot-arm example. Read this when asked to build any non-trivial model in code or when a model will need to animate.
materials.md - PBR, Standard, textures, environment/HDR, Node Material, Shader Material
gui.md - AdvancedDynamicTexture, all control types, containers, layout, events
animation-loading.md - Animation API, groups, easing, skeletal animation, asset loading, AssetContainer
performance.md - Scene/mesh/material optimization, instancing strategy comparison, monitoring, memory management

On-Demand Documentation

For topics not covered in the reference files, fetch from the live docs:

Doc site: https://doc.babylonjs.com
GitHub raw markdown: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BabylonJS/Documentation/master/content/{path}.md
doc-urls.md - Complete URL map for all doc sections

To fetch a specific topic, read the URL map to find the path, then use WebFetch on the doc site URL or fetch raw markdown from GitHub.

Topics covered only in live docs (not in reference files)

Physics V2 (Havok): /features/featuresDeepDive/physics
WebXR/VR/AR: /features/featuresDeepDive/webXR
Post-processing pipelines: /features/featuresDeepDive/postProcesses
Solid Particle System: /features/featuresDeepDive/particles/solid_particle_system
Crowd navigation: /features/featuresDeepDive/crowdNavigation
Node Geometry (procedural): /features/featuresDeepDive/mesh/nodeGeometry
Frame Graph: /features/featuresDeepDive/frameGraph
Flow Graph: /features/featuresDeepDive/flowGraph
Smart Filters: /features/featuresDeepDive/smartFilters
Gaussian Splatting: /features/featuresDeepDive/importers (splat/ply formats)

Common Gotchas

Quaternion vs Euler: Setting mesh.rotationQuaternion disables mesh.rotation. To switch back: mesh.rotationQuaternion = null.
Side-effect imports: Features like thin instances, edge rendering, loaders, and collisions require importing their module even if you don't use the export directly.
Dispose everything: Babylon.js doesn't garbage-collect GPU resources. Always call .dispose() on meshes, materials, textures when done.
Material sharing: Modifying a shared material affects all meshes using it. Clone or create new materials for independent changes.
TransformNode vs Mesh: Use TransformNode for grouping/hierarchy. Empty Mesh objects waste CPU on frustum evaluation.
Left-handed coordinates: glTF is right-handed; Babylon auto-converts on import. Manual coordinate math may need adjustment.
Alpha sorting: Transparent meshes require proper render ordering. Use mesh.alphaIndex or rendering groups.
Thin instance limitations: All-or-nothing visibility, single bounding box, no per-instance material. Use regular instances when individual control is needed.
Pivot before geometry: When code-building animated models, create and parent the joint's TransformNode first, then attach geometry as a child with a local offset. Retro-fitting pivots after MergeMeshes is painful — merge only after the hierarchy works.
CSG2 setup: Babylon 8's CSG2 (boolean ops backed by Manifold) requires await InitializeCSG2Async() once before use and operates in world space. Always dispose intermediate CSG2.FromMesh objects — they hold WASM memory.
Negative scaling flips winding: Mirroring a hierarchy via scaling.x *= -1 inverts triangle winding and breaks backface culling. Fix with material.sideOrientation = Mesh.DOUBLESIDE or rebake.