''PlayCanvas'' is an
open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
3D game engine/interactive 3D application engine alongside a proprietary cloud-hosted creation platform that allows for simultaneous editing from multiple computers via a browser-based interface. It runs in modern browsers that support
WebGL
WebGL (Short for Web Graphics Library) is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics within any compatible web browser without the use of plug-ins. WebGL is fully integrated with other web standards, allowing GPU-accelerated ...
, including
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and a ...
and
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS ...
. The engine is capable of rigid-body physics simulation, handling three-dimensional audio and 3D animations.
PlayCanvas has gained the support of ARM, Activision and Mozilla.
The PlayCanvas engine was open-sourced on June 4, 2014.
In April 2019 BusinessInsider.com reported that the company was acquired by
Snap Inc.
Snap Inc. is an American camera and social media company, founded on September 16, 2011, by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown based in Santa Monica, California. The company developed and maintains technological products and services, ...
in 2017
Features
The PlayCanvas platform has
collaborative real-time Editor
A collaborative real-time editor is a type of collaborative software or web application which enables real-time collaborative editing, simultaneous editing, or live editing of the same digital document, computer file or cloud-stored data – suc ...
that allows editing project by multiple developers simultaneously. The engine supports the
WebGL
WebGL (Short for Web Graphics Library) is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics within any compatible web browser without the use of plug-ins. WebGL is fully integrated with other web standards, allowing GPU-accelerated ...
1.0 and 2.0 standard to produce GPU accelerated 3D graphics and allows for scripting via the
JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...
programming language.
Projects can be distributed via a URL web link or packaged in native wrappers, p.g. for Android, using CocoonJS or for
Steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
using
Electron
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no kn ...
, and many other options and platforms.
Notable PlayCanvas applications
Various companies use PlayCanvas in projects of different disciplines of interactive 3D content in the web.
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
created an educational game for
Hour of Code
Code.org is a non-profit organization and eponymous website led by Hadi and Ali Partovi that aims to encourage people, particularly school students in the United States, to learn computer science. The website includes free coding lessons, sounds, ...
based on its ''
Moana'' film.
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
published ''Shuffle Cats Mini'' as a launch title for
Facebook Instant Games.
TANX -
massively multiplayer online game
A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players, often hundreds or thousands, on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent world, persistent open world, alt ...
of cartoon styled tanks.
Miniclip
Miniclip SA is a mobile game publisher and former browser game website that launched in 2001. It was started by Robert Small and Tihan Presbie with a budget of £40,000. In 2008, the company was valued at over £275 million.
In 2009, Miniclip ...
published number of games on their platform with increase of HTML5 games popularity on the web.
Mozilla
Mozilla (stylized as moz://a) is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, spreads and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting exclusively free software and open standards, wi ...
collaborated with PlayCanvas team creating ''After the Flood''
demo for presenting cutting-edge features of WebGL 2.0.
See also
*
List of WebGL frameworks Frameworks are available to create WebGL content quickly and easily without building from the ground up.
Note: The following list mixes WebGL libraries with game engines as well as cloud services without any distinctions.
See also
* WebGL
* ...
*
List of game engines
Game engines are tools available for game designers to code and plan out a video game quickly and easily without building one from the ground up. Whether they are 2D or 3D based, they offer tools to aid in asset creation and placement.
Engines ...
*
JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...
*
HTML5
HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...
*
WebGL
WebGL (Short for Web Graphics Library) is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics within any compatible web browser without the use of plug-ins. WebGL is fully integrated with other web standards, allowing GPU-accelerated ...
References
External links
PlayCanvas Official WebsitePlayCanvas Engine (Open Source)PlayCanvas API ReferencePlayCanvas TutorialsVarious free-to-play games built with PlayCanvas
{{Video game engines
Cloud applications
Collaborative real-time editors
Cross-platform free software
Free 3D graphics software
Free game engines
Free software programmed in JavaScript
Graphics libraries
IPhone video game engines
Software using the MIT license
Video game development software
Video game engines
Web applications
Web development
Web development software
Web software
WebGL