pixi.js

What is pixi.js?

Pixi.js is a fast 2D rendering engine that uses WebGL and HTML5 Canvas to create interactive graphics and animations. It is widely used for creating games, interactive applications, and other visual content on the web.

What are pixi.js's main functionalities?

Creating a Basic Application

This code initializes a new Pixi.js application with a specified width and height, and appends the canvas element to the document body.

const app = new PIXI.Application({ width: 800, height: 600 });
document.body.appendChild(app.view);

Loading and Displaying a Sprite

This code loads an image and creates a sprite from it. The sprite is then positioned at the center of the canvas and added to the stage.

PIXI.Loader.shared.add('bunny', 'path/to/bunny.png').load((loader, resources) => {
  const bunny = new PIXI.Sprite(resources.bunny.texture);
  bunny.x = app.renderer.width / 2;
  bunny.y = app.renderer.height / 2;
  bunny.anchor.set(0.5);
  app.stage.addChild(bunny);
});

Animating a Sprite

This code adds an animation loop that rotates the sprite continuously. The `delta` parameter ensures smooth animation regardless of the frame rate.

app.ticker.add((delta) => {
  bunny.rotation += 0.1 * delta;
});

Creating Graphics

This code creates a new graphics object, draws a filled rectangle, and adds it to the stage.

const graphics = new PIXI.Graphics();
graphics.beginFill(0xDE3249);
graphics.drawRect(50, 50, 100, 100);
graphics.endFill();
app.stage.addChild(graphics);

Other packages similar to pixi.js

three

Three.js is a popular 3D library that provides a wide range of features for creating 3D graphics and animations. While Pixi.js focuses on 2D rendering, Three.js is more suitable for complex 3D scenes and visualizations.

phaser

Phaser is a fast, robust, and versatile game framework that supports both 2D and 3D rendering. It is more game-oriented compared to Pixi.js, offering built-in physics, input handling, and other game development features.

konva

Konva is a 2D canvas library that provides a high-level API for creating complex shapes, animations, and interactions. It is similar to Pixi.js but focuses more on ease of use and simplicity for creating interactive graphics.

README

Pixi.js — A 2D JavaScript Renderer

The aim of this project is to provide a fast lightweight 2D library that works across all devices. The Pixi renderer allows everyone to enjoy the power of hardware acceleration without prior knowledge of WebGL. Also, it's fast. Really fast.

If you want to keep up to date with the latest pixi.js news then feel free to follow us on twitter (@doormat23, and @rolnaaba) and we will keep you posted! You can also check back on our site as any breakthroughs will be posted up there too!

Your support helps us make Pixi.js even better. Make your pledge on Patreon and we'll love you forever!

What to Use Pixi.js for and When to Use It

Pixi.js is a rendering library that will allow you to create rich, interactive graphics, cross platform applications, and games without having to dive into the WebGL API or deal with browser and device compatibility.

Pixi.js has full WebGL support and seamlessly falls back to HTML5's canvas if needed. As a framework, Pixi.js is a fantastic tool for authoring interactive content, especially with the move away from Adobe Flash in recent years. Use it for your graphics rich, interactive websites, applications, and HTML5 games. Out of the box cross-platform compatibility and graceful degredation mean you have less work to do and have more fun doing it! If you want to create polished and refined experiences relatively quickly, without delving into dense, low level code, all while avoiding the headaches of browser inconsistencies, then sprinkle your next project with some Pixi.js magic!

Boost your development and feel free to use your imagination!

Demos

• WebGL Filters!
• Run pixie run
• Fight for Everyone
• Flash vs HTML
• Bunny Demo
• Storm Brewing
• Filters Demo
• Render Texture Demo
• Primitives Demo
• Masking Demo
• Interaction Demo
• photonstorm's Balls Demo
• photonstorm's Morph Demo

Thanks to @photonstorm for providing those last 2 examples and allowing us to share the source code :)

Resources

• API Documentation is here.
• Feature Examples are here.
• The Pixi.js Forum is here.
• Other misc tutorials and resources are on the Wiki.

Contribute

Want to be part of the pixi.js project? Great! All are welcome! We will get there quicker together :) Whether you find a bug, have a great feature request or you fancy owning a task from the road map above feel free to get in touch.

Make sure to read the Contributing Guide before submitting changes.

Current features

• WebGL renderer (with automatic smart batching allowing for REALLY fast performance)
• Canvas renderer (Fastest in town!)
• Full scene graph
• Super easy to use API (similar to the flash display list API)
• Support for texture atlases
• Asset loader / sprite sheet loader
• Auto-detect which renderer should be used
• Full Mouse and Multi-touch Interaction
• Text
• BitmapFont text
• Multiline Text
• Render Texture
• Primitive Drawing
• Masking
• Filters
• User Plugins

Basic Usage Example

// You can use either `new PIXI.WebGLRenderer`, `new PIXI.CanvasRenderer`, or `PIXI.autoDetectRenderer`
// which will try to choose the best renderer for the environment you are in.
var renderer = new PIXI.WebGLRenderer(800, 600);

// The renderer will create a canvas element for you that you can then insert into the DOM.
document.body.appendChild(renderer.view);

// You need to create a root container that will hold the scene you want to draw.
var stage = new PIXI.Container();

// Declare a global variable for our sprite so that the animate function can access it.
var bunny = null;

// load the texture we need
PIXI.loader.add('bunny', 'bunny.png').load(function (loader, resources) {
    // This creates a texture from a 'bunny.png' image.
    bunny = new PIXI.Sprite(resources.bunny.texture);

    // Setup the position and scale of the bunny
    bunny.position.x = 400;
    bunny.position.y = 300;

    bunny.scale.x = 2;
    bunny.scale.y = 2;

    // Add the bunny to the scene we are building.
    stage.addChild(bunny);

    // kick off the animation loop (defined below)
    animate();
});

function animate() {
    // start the timer for the next animation loop
    requestAnimationFrame(animate);

    // each frame we spin the bunny around a bit
    bunny.rotation += 0.01;

    // this is the main render call that makes pixi draw your container and its children.
    renderer.render(stage);
}

How to build

Note that for most users you don't need to build this project. If all you want is to use pixi, then just download one of our prebuilt releases. Really the only time you should need to build pixi.js is if you are developing it.

If you don't already have Node.js and NPM, go install them. Once you do, you can then install the gulp executable:

$> npm install -g gulp

Then, in the folder where you have cloned the repository, install the build dependencies using npm:

$> npm install

Then, to build the source, run:

$> gulp build

This will create a minified version at bin/pixi.min.js and a non-minified version at bin/pixi.js with all the plugins in the pixi.js project.

If there are specific plugins you don't want, say "interaction" or "extras", you can exclude those:

$> gulp build --exclude extras --exclude interaction

You can also use the short-form -e:

$> gulp build -e extras -e interaction -e filters

How to generate the documentation

The docs can be generated using npm:

$> npm run docs

There is also a gulp task to generate them if you want to:

$> gulp jsdoc

The documentation uses Jaguar.js and the jsdoc format, the configuration file can be found at gulp/utils/jsdoc.conf.json

License

This content is released under the (http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT) MIT License.