Babylon Native

Welcome! Babylon Native is a collection of technologies intended to bring the power and flexibility of Babylon.js to cross-platform applications beyond the browser. The goal of this project is to allow the same JavaScript that powers Babylon.js apps on the Web to work identically in native apps on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux.

Check out the project's announcement and home page for more information.

NOTE: This project is under heavy development and not all platforms/features are currently available. Please refer to the sections below for details.

Current Status

Babylon Native is currently available as a public preview. Many features are currently available, and additional features are being added regularly, but certain features are currently unstable or not yet implemented.

The following major features are currently supported and expected to work. Note that this list is not exhaustive.

Developing Babylon Native on the following platforms: Windows 10, macOS.
Building and running the libraries and demo apps for the following platforms: Win32, UWP, macOS, iOS, Android.
Loading and executing JavaScript code on all supported platforms.
Loading and rendering glTF objects on all supported platforms.
Network requests (including accessing local files using the file:// protocol) made throught the Babylon.js APIs.
Extending JavaScript functionality using N-API and native plugins.
Debugging JavaScript with V8 on the following platforms: Win32.

The following major features are partially implemented but not yet supported. Note that this list is not exhaustive.

Developing Babylon Native on the following platforms: Linux.
Mixed reality powered by OpenXR on the following platforms: Win32, UWP.

The following major features are not yet supported or implemented, even as previews, but are expected to be supported in the future. Note that this list is not exhaustive.

Debugging JavaScript with V8 on the following platforms: Android, Apple, UWP, iOS, Linux.
User input.
Font rendering.
Sub-window, multi-window, and out-of-process rendering.

This section will be updated frequently. If you have any questions, please reach out to us on the Babylon forum.

Documentation

Babylon Native documentation is available in this repo. From extending Babylon Native using your very own features to debugging the rendering on iOS, you'll find extensive documentation here.

For Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) regarding build and other issues, You can check this page.

Build System and Extensions

The Babylon Native build system strives for simplicity, modularity, and scalability using a lateral dependency management strategy founded on Git Submodules and CMake targets. For specifics, please read our detailed documentation on the Babylon Native build system and extending Babylon Native.

Quick Start Guide

This quick overview will help you get started developing in the Babylon Native repository. We support development on Windows and macOS. (It is also possible, though not yet fully supported, to develop on Linux.) This overview is intended for reasonably experienced developers familiar with common native development principles.

Graphics API

For Win32, Android and Linux, it's possible to build for different Graphics API. With CMake, add this parameter to the command line:

-DGRAPHICS_API=XXX

Where XXX can be D3D11 (default), D3D12 or Vulkan for Windows. Vulkan or OpenGL (default) for Linux.

For Android, the switch to Vulkan instead of OpenGL (default) is done with Gradle by adding a command line parameter:

-PGRAPHICS_API=Vulkan

If no GRAPHICS_API is provided, the build will use the default.

Note

For Apple devices, Metal is the only possible choice.
Vulkan and D3D12 are under development and might not be stable enough for your production.

All Development Platforms, Common First Steps

Required Tools: git, CMake, node.js

The first step for all development environments and targets is to clone the repo. Use a git-enabled terminal to follow the steps below. The --recursive flag is necessary as Babylon Native makes extensive use of submodules to supply its dependencies.

git clone --recursive https://github.com/BabylonJS/BabylonNative.git

Babylon Native requires Babylon.js. You will need to install NPM packages to resolve these dependencies.

cd <repo root>
cd Apps
npm install

Babylon Native's build system is based on CMake, which customarily uses a separate build directory. Build directory location is up to you, but we recommend just creating a Build directory within your clone of the Babylon Native repository (Babylon Native's .gitignore file is already set up to ignore this Build directory).

cd <repo root>
mkdir Build
cd Build

NOTE: CMake considers what are sometimes called "build flavors" (Win32 x86 versus Win32 x64 versus UWP x64, etc.) to be entirely different build targets which should have separate build folders. For cross-platform development, we commonly use multiple subfolders inside the Build folder, such as Build/win32_x86 and Build/uwp_x64, to house the builds for different platforms, with each subfolder treated just like the Build folder in the instructions below.

Building on Windows 10, Targeting Windows Desktop (Win32)

Required Tools: Visual Studio 2019 with C++ development tools, Python 3.0 or newer (required by dependencies)

For Windows development, CMake will generate a Visual Studio Solution. From a terminal with access to CMake located in your BabylonNative/Build directory, type the following (amend paths for alternative build directories):

cmake ..

Note that, by default, this will target the same processor architecture that is being used to build the solution; so if your developer computer has 64-bit CPU, CMake's generated solution will target 64-bit CPUs by default. To manually target specific architectures, tell CMake the intended architecture using the -A flag, as shown below. Supported arguments for using this flag with Babylon Native include Win32 for 32-bit processors and x64 for 64-bit processors.

cmake -A Win32 ..

CMake will generate a new BabylonNative.sln file in your working directory. Please be patient; this process can take several minutes. When the process is completed, open BabylonNative.sln by double-clicking on it in Windows Explorer or by entering the following command:

start BabylonNative.sln

By default, the "Playground" demo app should be set as the Visual Studio start-up project. Build and run this app by pressing the green "Play" button or by pressing F5 on your keyboard.

Building on Windows 10, Targeting the Universal Windows Platform (UWP)

Required Tools: Visual Studio 2019 with C++ and UWP development tools, Python 3.0 or newer (required by dependencies)

For Windows development, CMake will generate a Visual Studio Solution. By default it will target Win32, so to target UWP (which CMake describes as "Windows Store") you have to specify certain CMake variables. From a terminal with access to CMake located in your BabylonNative/Build directory, type the following (amend paths for alternative build directories):

cmake -D CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=WindowsStore -D CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION=10.0 ..

cmake -D CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=WindowsStore -D CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION=10.0 -A arm64 ..

start BabylonNative.sln

By default, the "Playground" demo app should be set as the Visual Studio start-up project. Build and run this app by pressing the green "Play" button or by pressing F5 on your keyboard.

Building on Windows 10, Targeting HoloLens 2

Required Tools: Visual Studio 2019 with C++ and UWP development tools, Python 3.0 or newer (required by dependencies)

HoloLens 2 supports arm64 UWP applications. To create a HoloLens 2 Visual Studio solution for a physical device, run the following command from the BabylonNative/Build directory:

cmake -D CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=WindowsStore -D CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION=10.0 -A arm64 ..

Additional notes for HoloLens 2 development:

At this time, running immersive applications on HoloLens 2 emulators is NOT supported. We are tracking support for HoloLens 2 emulators here.
For the Playground app, setting the hololens javascript variable to true in experience.js will configure the experience for HoloLens 2.
HoloLens 2 immersive experiences require the Spatial Perception UWP capability. This capability is enabled in the application's Package.appxmanifest. When creating a custom BabylonNative project, one will need to enable the Spatial Perception UWP cability in their app's Package.appxmanifest. For more information on UWP capabilities, see here.
HoloLens 2 immersive experiences are built on top of OpenXR. Updates to the OpenXR runtime should automtically be installed on physical HoloLens 2 devices through the Windows Store. If for some reason updates are not automatically installed (custom device configurations, lack of network connectivity, etc), developers may need to manually install updates for the OpenXR runtime through the Windows Store. For more information on installing newer versions of OpenXR, see here.

Building on macOS, Targeting macOS

Required Tools: Xcode 11 or newer, Python 3.0 or newer (required by dependencies)

This has been tested on MacOS Catalina (10.15).

cmake -G Xcode ..

Starting with Xcode 12, it's mandatory to set the targeted CPU architectures (X86_64 and/or arm64).

cmake .. -GXcode "-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64;arm64"

CMake will generate a new BabylonNative.xcodeproj file in your working directory. Please be patient; this process can take several minutes. When the process is completed, open the project by double-clicking on it in Finder or by entering the following command:

open BabylonNative.xcodeproj

To select which project to build with Xcode, select the correct project name in the menu to the right of the greyed-out "Stop" button adjacent to the "Play" button in the top-left corner of the Xcode window. For example, to build and run the Playground demo app, click on the project selector and find "Playground" in the list of possible selections. The "Play" button will subsequently allow you to build, run, and debug the selected Babylon Native demo app.

For macOS 11.0 Big Sur and ARM based CPU, you'll need to use XCode 12. Also, The CMake command line is different to indicate the use of other architecture:

cmake -G Xcode .. "-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64;arm64"

If CMake is not available on your platform, you'll have to clone it and build it. CMake repo

Building on macOS, Targeting iOS

Required Tools: Xcode 11 or newer, Python 3.0 or newer (required by dependencies)

This has been tested on MacOS Catalina (10.15) and iOS 13.

For macOS development, CMake by default will generate a Makefile. It may be possible to build Babylon Native for macOS using this approach, but at present only the Xcode method is supported. To generate an Xcode project using CMake, you must specify the correct build system generator for CMake to use. Additionally, you must tell CMake what toolchain to use, which provides additional information about how to generate an iOS Xcode project correctly. Furthermore, a number of capabilities within Babylon Native's dependencies must be deactivated in order for the project to build correctly; these capabilities are set to their correct state by the additional CMake variables in the following command:

cmake -G Xcode -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../Dependencies/ios-cmake/ios.toolchain.cmake -DPLATFORM=OS64COMBINED -DENABLE_ARC=0 -DDEPLOYMENT_TARGET=12 -DENABLE_GLSLANG_BINARIES=OFF -DSPIRV_CROSS_CLI=OFF ..

To enable bitcode support, add this option to the cmake command line parameters:

-DENABLE_BITCODE=ON

open BabylonNative.xcodeproj

Building on Windows, Targeting Android

Required Tools: Android Studio, Node.js, Ninja

The minimal requirement target is Android 5.0 with an OpenGL ES 3.0 compatible GPU.

Only building with Android Studio is supported. CMake is not used directly. Instead, Gradle is used for building and CMake is automatically invocated for building the native part. An .apk that can be executed on your device or simulator is the output.

First download the latest release of Ninja, extract the binary, and add it to your system path.

Next install the Javascript engine dependencies. This is done by the Node.js npm package system.

cd Apps
npm install

Babylon Native on Android supports two Javascript engines: V8 and JavaScriptCore. V8 is used by default if no engine is specified. To change the engine to JavaScriptCore, open the file Apps\Playground\Android\gradle.properties and add the following line:

JSEngine=jsc

Once the npm packages are installed, with AndroidStudio, open the project located at Apps\Playground\Android. Then in the menu, select Run->Run 'app'. If you don't have an Android device plugged in or no Android image in the Android simulator, that option will be greyed and inaccessible. Instructions and tips on how to install the simulator are available here.

Building on Ubuntu, Targeting Linux

Required Tools: Clang or GCC

The minimal requirement target is an OpenGL 3.3 compatible GPU. Clang 9+ or GCC 9+ are required for building.

First step is to install packages mandatory for building. For example, with Clang-9 toolchain:

sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev clang-9 libc++-9-dev libc++abi-9-dev lld-9 ninja-build

Depending on the JavaScript engine you wan't to use, you will have to install the package accordingly:

JavaScriptCore

Install the following package:

sudo apt-get install libjavascriptcoregtk-4.0-dev

Then, run cmake targetting a Ninja make file:

cmake -GNinja -DJSCORE_LIBRARY=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjavascriptcoregtk-4.0.so -DNAPI_JAVASCRIPT_ENGINE=JavaScriptCore ..

V8

Install the following package:

sudo apt-get install libv8-dev

Then, run cmake targetting a Ninja make file:

cmake -GNinja -DNAPI_JAVASCRIPT_ENGINE=V8 ..

And finally, for any JavaScript engine, run a build:

ninja

You can switch compiler between GCC and Clang by defining shell variables. And example for clang

export CC=/usr/bin/clang
export CXX=/usr/bin/clang++

and GCC

export CC=/usr/bin/gcc
export CXX=/usr/bin/g++

You will have to run CMake again to take changes into account.

Included Components

For an overview of the major components included with the Babylon Native repository, please read the dedicated Components documentation page. Particularly important components are discussed in dedicated pages for JsRuntime, AppRuntime, and NativeEngine.

Contributing

Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for details on our code of conduct, and the process for submitting pull requests.

Reporting Security Issues

Security issues and bugs should be reported privately, via email, to the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) at [email protected]. You should receive a response within 24 hours. If for some reason you do not, please follow up via email to ensure we received your original message. Further information, including the MSRC PGP key, can be found in the Security TechCenter.

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