@react-three/drei

What is @react-three/drei?

@react-three/drei is a collection of useful helpers and abstractions for react-three-fiber, which is a React renderer for three.js. It provides a wide range of components and utilities to simplify the creation of 3D scenes in React applications.

What are @react-three/drei's main functionalities?

Camera Controls

The OrbitControls component allows you to easily add camera controls to your 3D scene, enabling users to rotate, zoom, and pan the camera.

import { OrbitControls } from '@react-three/drei';

function Scene() {
  return (
    <Canvas>
      <OrbitControls />
      {/* other components */}
    </Canvas>
  );
}

Environment

The Environment component allows you to quickly set up a realistic lighting environment using HDRI images. You can choose from various presets like 'sunset', 'dawn', 'night', etc.

import { Environment } from '@react-three/drei';

function Scene() {
  return (
    <Canvas>
      <Environment preset="sunset" />
      {/* other components */}
    </Canvas>
  );
}

Loading Models

The useGLTF hook allows you to easily load and display GLTF models in your scene. It returns the loaded scene, which you can then use as a primitive object.

import { useGLTF } from '@react-three/drei';

function Model() {
  const { scene } = useGLTF('/path/to/model.glb');
  return <primitive object={scene} />;
}

function Scene() {
  return (
    <Canvas>
      <Model />
      {/* other components */}
    </Canvas>
  );
}

Text

The Text component allows you to easily add 3D text to your scene. You can customize the font, size, color, alignment, and other properties.

import { Text } from '@react-three/drei';

function Scene() {
  return (
    <Canvas>
      <Text
        color="black"
        fontSize={1}
        maxWidth={200}
        lineHeight={1}
        letterSpacing={0.02}
        textAlign={'left'}
        font="/path/to/font.woff"
        anchorX="center"
        anchorY="middle"
      >
        Hello World
      </Text>
      {/* other components */}
    </Canvas>
  );
}

Other packages similar to @react-three/drei

three

Three.js is the core library for creating 3D graphics in the browser. While it provides a comprehensive set of features for 3D rendering, it requires more boilerplate code compared to @react-three/drei, which offers higher-level abstractions and components.

react-three-fiber

React-three-fiber is a React renderer for three.js. It allows you to build and manage 3D scenes using React components. @react-three/drei is built on top of react-three-fiber and provides additional helpers and components to simplify common tasks.

aframe

A-Frame is a web framework for building virtual reality experiences. It is built on top of three.js and provides a declarative, HTML-like syntax for creating 3D scenes. While it is not React-based, it offers similar functionalities for building 3D environments.

README

A growing collection of useful helpers and abstractions for react-three-fiber.

npm install @react-three/drei

// Flat bundle
import { PerspectiveCamera, PositionalAudio, ... } from '@react-three/drei'
// Individual exports (better for bundle size!)
import { PerspectiveCamera } from '@react-three/drei/PerspectiveCamera'
import { PositionalAudio } from '@react-three/drei/PositionalAudio'
...

Index

Cameras PerspectiveCamera OrthographicCamera Controls OrbitControls FlyControls MapControls DeviceOrientationControls TrackballControls TransformControls PointerLockControls Abstractions Text Line Detailed PositionalAudio Billboard Environment Shaders MeshWobbleMaterial MeshDistortMaterial Sky Stars ContactShadows softShadows shaderMaterial

Misc useContextBridge Html Shadow Stats meshBounds useCamera useDetectGPU useHelper useAspect Reflector Loaders draco useGLTFLoader useFBXLoader useTextureLoader useCubeTextureLoader useProgress Modifiers useSubdivision useTessellation useSimplification Prototyping Loader useMatcapTexture useNormalTexture

Shapes Plane Box Sphere Circle Cone Cylinder Tube Torus TorusKnot Ring Tetrahedron Polyhedron Icosahedron Octahedron Dodecahedron Extrude Lathe Parametric RoundedBox

Exports

Cameras

PerspectiveCamera

A responsive THREE.PerspectiveCamera that can set itself as the default.

<PerspectiveCamera
  makeDefault // Registers it as the default camera system-wide (default=false)
  {...props} // All THREE.PerspectiveCamera props are valid
>
  <mesh />
</PerspectiveCamera>

OrthographicCamera

A responsive THREE.OrthographicCamera that can set itself as the default.

Controls

If available controls have damping enabled by default, they manage their own updates, remove themselves on unmount, are compatible with the invalidateFrameloop canvas-flag. They inherit all props from their underlying THREE controls.

OrbitControls

MapControls

TrackballControls

FlyControls

DeviceOrientationControls

TransformControls

PointerLockControls

Shapes

Buffer-geometry short-cuts:

<Plane args={[2, 2]} />
<Sphere>
  <meshBasicMaterial attach="material" color="hotpink" />
</Sphere>

Plane

Box

Sphere

Circle

Cone

Cylinder

Tube

Torus

TorusKnot

Ring

Tetrahedron

Polyhedron

Icosahedron

Octahedron

Dodecahedron

Extrude

Lathe

Parametric

RoundedBox

A box buffer geometry with rounded corners, done with extrusion.

<RoundedBox
  args={[1, 1, 1]} // Width, Height and Depth of the box
  radius={0.05} // Border-Radius of the box
  smoothness={4} // Optional, number of subdivisions
  {...meshProps} // All THREE.Mesh props are valid
>
  <meshPhongMaterial attach="material" color="#f3f3f3" wireframe />
</RoundedBox>

Abstractions

Text

Hi-quality text rendering w/ signed distance fields (SDF) and antialiasing, using troika-3d-text. All of troikas props are valid!

<Text
  color="black" // default
  anchorX="center" // default
  anchorY="middle" // default
>
  hello world!
</Text>

Line

Renders a THREE.Line2.

<Line
  points={[[0, 0, 0], ...]}       // Array of points
  color="black"                   // Default
  lineWidth={1}                   // In pixels (default)
  dashed={false}                  // Default
  vertexColors={[[0, 0, 0], ...]} // Optional array of RGB values for each point
  {...lineProps}                  // All THREE.Line2 props are valid
  {...materialProps}              // All THREE.LineMaterial props are valid
/>

Detailed

A wrapper around THREE.LOD (Level of detail).

<Detailed
  distances={[0, 10, 20]} // Camera distances, correspends to the # of the children
  {...props} // All THREE.LOD props are valid
>
  <mesh geometry={highDetail} />
  <mesh geometry={mediumDetail} />
  <mesh geometry={lowDetail} />
</Detailed>

PositionalAudio

A wrapper around THREE.PositionalAudio. Add this to groups or meshes to tie them to a sound that plays when the camera comes near.

<PositionalAudio
  url="/sound.mp3" // Url of the sound file
  distance={1} // Camera distance (default=1)
  loop // Repat play (default=true)
  {...props} // All THREE.PositionalAudio props are valid
/>

StandardEffects

Standard Effects has been removed from drei in favour of (react-spring/react-postprocessing)[https://github.com/react-spring/react-postprocessing]

Billboard

Adds a <Plane /> that always faces the camera.

<Billboard
  follow={true} // Follow the camera (default=true)
  lockX={false} // Lock the rotation on the x axis (default=false)
  lockY={false} // Lock the rotation on the y axis (default=false)
  lockZ={false} // Lock the rotation on the z axis (default=false)
/>

Environment

Sets up a global cubemap, which affects scene.environment, and optionally scene.background.

<Environment background={false} files={['px.png', 'nx.png', 'py.png', 'ny.png', 'pz.png', 'nz.png']} path={'/'} />

Shaders

MeshWobbleMaterial

This material makes your geometry wobble and wave around. It was taken from the threejs-examples and adapted into a self-contained material.

<mesh>
  <boxBufferGeometry attach="geometry" />
  <MeshWobbleMaterial
    attach="material"
    factor={1} // Strength, 0 disables the effect (default=1)
    speed={10} // Speed (default=1)
  />
</mesh>

MeshDistortMaterial

This material makes your geometry distort following simplex noise.

<mesh>
  <boxBufferGeometry attach="geometry" />
  <MeshDistortMaterial
    attach="material"
    distort={1} // Strength, 0 disables the effect (default=1)
    speed={10} // Speed (default=1)
  />
</mesh>

Sky

Adds a sky to your scene.

<Sky
  distance={450000} // Camera distance (default=450000)
  sunPosition={[0, 1, 0]} // Sun position normal (default=[0, 1, 0])
  {...props} // All three/examples/jsm/objects/Sky props are valid
/>

Stars

Adds a blinking shader-based starfield to your scene.

<Stars
  radius={100} // Radius of the inner sphere (default=100)
  depth={50} // Depth of area where stars should fit (default=50)
  count={5000} // Amount of stars (default=5000)
  factor={4} // Size factor (default=4)
  saturation={0} // Saturation 0-1 (default=0)
  fade // Faded dots (default=false)
/>

ContactShadows

A contact shadow implementation.

<ContactShadows
  opacity={1}
  width={1}
  height={1}
  blur={1} // Amount of blue (default=1)
  far={10} // Focal distance (default=10)
  resolution={256} // Rendertarget resolution (default=256)
/>

softShadows

Injects percent closer soft shadows (pcss) into threes shader chunk.

softShadows({
  frustrum: 3.75, // Frustrum width (default: 3.75)
  size: 0.005, // World size (default: 0.005)
  near: 9.5, // Near plane (default: 9.5)
  samples: 17, // Samples (default: 17)
  rings: 11, // Rings (default: 11)
})

shaderMaterial

Creates a THREE.ShaderMaterial for you with easier handling of uniforms, which are also automatically declared as setter/getters on the object.

import { extend } from 'react-three-fiber'
import glsl from 'babel-plugin-glsl/macro'

const ColorShiftMaterial = shaderMaterial(
  { time: 0, color: new THREE.Color(0.2, 0.0, 0.1) },
  // vertex shader
  glsl`
    varying vec2 vUv;
    void main() {
      vUv = uv;
      gl_Position = projectionMatrix * modelViewMatrix * vec4(position, 1.0);
    }
  `,
  // fragment shader
  glsl`
    uniform float time;
    uniform vec3 color;
    varying vec2 vUv;
    void main() {
      gl_FragColor.rgba = vec4(0.5 + 0.3 * sin(vUv.yxx + time) + color, 1.0);
    }
  `
)

extend({ ColorShiftMaterial }) < mesh > <colorShiftMaterial attach="material" color="hotpink" time={1} />

Misc

useContextBridge

Allows you to forward contexts provided above the <Canvas /> to be consumed from within the <Canvas /> normally

function SceneWrapper() {
  // bridge any number of contexts
  const ContextBridge = useContextBridge(ThemeContext, GreetingContext)
  return (
    <Canvas>
      <ContextBridge>
        <Scene />
      </ContextBridge>
    </Canvas>
  )
}

function Scene() {
  // we can now consume a context within the Canvas
  const theme = React.useContext(ThemeContext)
  const greeting = React.useContext(GreetingContext)
  return (
    //...
  )
}

Html

Allows you to tie HTML content to any object of your scene. It will be projected to the objects whereabouts automatically.

<Html
  prepend // Project content behind the canvas (default: false)
  center // Adds a -50%/-50% css transform (default: false)
  fullscreen // Aligns to the upper-left corner, fills the screen (default:false)
  scaleFactor={10} // If set (default: undefined), children will be scaled by this factor, and also by distance to a PerspectiveCamera.
  zIndexRange={[100, 0]} // Z-order range (default=[16777271, 0])
  portal={domnodeRef} // Reference to target container (default=undefined)
  {...groupProps} // All THREE.Group props are valid
  {...divProps} // All HTMLDivElement props are valid
>
  <h1>hello</h1>
  <p>world</p>
</Html>

Reflector

Easily add reflection to any object

<Reflector>
  <planeBufferGeometry args={[2, 5]} attach="geometry" />
</Reflector>

Shadow

A cheap canvas-texture-based circular gradient.

<Shadow
  color="black" // Color (default:black)
  colorStop={0} // First gradient-stop (default:0)
  opacity={0.5} // Alpha (default:0.5)
  fog={false} // Reacts to fog (default=false)
/>

Stats

Adds stats to document.body. It takes over the render-loop!

<Stats
  showPanel={0} // Start-up panel (default=0)
  className="stats" // Optional className to add to the stats container dom element
  {...props} // All stats.js props are valid
/>

You can choose to mount Stats to a different DOM Element - for example, for custom styling:

const node = useRef(document.createElement('div'))

useEffect(() => {
  node.current.id = 'test'
  document.body.appendChild(node.current)

  return () => document.body.removeChild(node.current)
}, [])

return <Stats parent={parent} />

meshBounds

A very fast, but often good-enough bounds-only raycast for meshes. You can use this if performance has precidence over pointer precision.

<mesh raycast={meshBounds} />

useCamera

A hook for the rare case when you are using non-default cameras for heads-up-displays or portals, and you need events/raytracing to function properly (raycasting uses the default camera otherwise).

<mesh raycast={useCamera(customCamera)} />

useHelper

A hook for a quick way to add helpers to existing nodes in the scene. It handles removal of the helper on unmount and auto-updates it by default.

const mesh = useRef()
useHelper(mesh, BoxHelper, 'cyan')

useDetectGPU

This hook uses DetectGPU by @TimvanScherpenzeel to determine what tier should be assigned to the user's GPU.

👉 This hook CAN be used outside the react-three-fiber Canvas.

const GPUTier = useDetectGPU()

// show a fallback for mobile or lowest tier GPUs
return (
  {(GPUTier.tier === "0" || GPUTier.isMobile) ? <Fallback /> : <Canvas>...</Canvas>

useAspect

This hook calculates aspect ratios (for now only what in css would be image-size: cover is supported). You can use it to make an image fill the screen. It is responsive and adapts to viewport resize. Just give the hook the image bounds in pixels. It returns an array: [width, height, 1].

const scale = useAspect(
  "cover",                  // Aspect ratio: cover | ... more to come, PR's welcome ;)
  1024,                     // Pixel-width
  512,                      // Pixel-height
  1                         // Optional scaling factor
)
return (
  <mesh scale={scale}>
    <planeBufferGeometry />
    <meshBasicMaterial map={imageTexture} />

Modifiers

useSubdivision

This hook mutates a mesh geometry using three's Subdivision modifier.

👉 Vertex count is quadrupled for each subdivision.

const meshRef = useSubdivision(4)

return (
  <mesh ref={meshRef}>
    <boxBufferGeometry args={[10, 10]} />
  </mesh>
)

useSimplification

This hook mutates a mesh geometry using three's Simplification modifier.

👉 The simplification code is based on this algorithm.

const meshRef = useSimplification(0.5) // the vertices will be halved

return (
  <mesh ref={meshRef}>
    <octahedronBufferGeometry args={[2, 5]} />
  </mesh>
)

useTessellation

This hook mutates a mesh geometry using three's Tessellation modifier. It will break-up faces withe edge longer than the maxEdgeLength parameter.

const meshRef = useTessellation(
  2, // passes - number of times the geometry will be subdivided
  8 // maxEdgeLength - faces with edges longer than this number will be broken up
)

return (
  <mesh ref={meshRef}>
    <octahedronBufferGeometry args={[2, 2]} />
  </mesh>
)

Loaders

useGLTFLoader

A convenience hook that uses useLoader, GLTFLoader and draco:

useGLTFLoader(
  url,
  true // use draco binaries in /draco-gltf/
)

useGLFTLoader(
  url,
  '/my-draco-binaries' // use draco binaries from a custom path
)

useFBXLoader

A convenience hook that uses useLoader and FBXLoader:

useFBXLoader(url)

function SuzanneFBX() {
  let fbx = useFBXLoader('suzanne/suzanne.fbx')
  // wrap fbx in primitive.
  return <primitive object={fbx} dispose={null} />
}

useTextureLoader

A convenience hook that uses useLoader and TextureLoader

const texture = useTextureLoader(url)

const [texture1, texture2] = useTextureLoader([texture1, texture2])

useCubeTextureLoader

A convenience hook that uses useLoader and CubeTextureLoader

const envMap = useCubeTextureLoader(['px.png', 'nx.png', 'py.png', 'ny.png', 'pz.png', 'nz.png'], { path: 'cube/' })

draco

Adds the Draco extension to your GLTFLoader, to be used in conjuction with useLoader and GLTFLoader when more control is needed.

useLoader(
  GLTFLoader,
  url,
  draco(
    '/draco-gtltf/' // Draco bin path (default='https://www.gstatic.com/draco/v1/decoders/')
  )
)

useProgress

A convenience hook that wraps THREE.DefaultLoadingManager's progress status.

function Loader() {
  const { active, progress, errors, item, loaded, total } = useProgress()
  return <Html center>{progress} % loaded</Html>
}

;<Suspense fallback={<Loader />}>
  <AsyncModels />
</Suspense>

If you don't want your progress component to re-render on all changes you can be specific as to what you need, for instance if the component is supposed to collect errors only. Look into zustand for more info about selectors.

const errors = useProgress((state) => state.errors)

👉 Note that your loading component does not have to be a suspense fallback. You can use it anywhere, even in your dom tree, for instance for overlays.

⚡️ Prototyping

Loader

A quick and easy loading overlay component that you can drop on top of your canvas. It will show an animated loadingbar and a percentage.

<Canvas>
  <Suspense fallback={null}>
    <AsyncModels />
  </Suspense>
</Canvas>
<Loader />

You can override styles, too.

<Loader
  containerStyles={...container} // Flex layout styles
  innerStyles={...inner} // Inner container styles
  barStyles={...bar} // Loading-bar styles
  dataStyles={...data} // Text styles
  dataInterpolation={(p) => `Loading ${p.toFixed(2)}%`} // Text
  initialState={(active) => active} // Initial black out state
>

useMatcapTexture

Loads matcap textures from this repository: https://github.com/emmelleppi/matcaps

(It is a fork of this repository: https://github.com/nidorx/matcaps)

const [matcap, url] = useMatcapTexture(
 0, // index of the matcap texture https://github.com/emmelleppi/matcaps/blob/master/matcap-list.json
 1024 // size of the texture ( 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 )
)

return (
 ...
 <meshMatcapMaterial matcap={matcap} />
 ...
)

👉 You can also use the exact name of the matcap texture, like so:

const [matcap] = useMatcapTexture('3E2335_D36A1B_8E4A2E_2842A5')

👉 Use the url to download the texture when you are ready for production!

useNormalTexture

Loads normal textures from this repository: https://github.com/emmelleppi/normal-maps

const [normalMap, url] = useNormalTexture(
  1, // index of the normal texture - https://github.com/emmelleppi/normal-maps/blob/master/normals.json
  // second argument is texture attributes
  {
    offset: [0, 0],
    repeat: [normRepeat, normRepeat],
    anisotropy: 8
  }
)

return (
  ...
  <meshStandardMaterial normalMap={normalMap} />
  ...
)

---