The scene, lights and camera

Background

babylon.scene paints what is behind the model: one colour (backgroundColour), a straight or round gradient between two or many colours, an image, or any CSS background. A skybox (enableSkybox, enableSkyboxCustomTexture) surrounds the scene with a picture of an environment and lights the model with it, which is what makes metal look like metal; hideSkybox keeps the light and hides the picture.

Light and shadow

drawDirectionalLight adds a sun: light from one direction everywhere, the usual choice for a model, with shadows when enableShadows is on. drawPointLight adds a bulb at a point. Shadows are drawn from a map of the scene seen from the light; in a large or a millimetre-scale scene, raise shadowGeneratorMapSize for sharper shadows and set shadowNormalBias in the scene's own units if the surfaces show stripes. fog fades distant geometry into a colour.

Camera

The scene starts with an orbiting camera aimed at the origin. adjustActiveArcRotateCamera moves it and sets its limits: how close and how far it may go, how far it may turn, and how fast it pans and zooms. babylon.camera builds other cameras: arcRotate to orbit a target, free to fly, target to look from a fixed spot; activateCamera switches to one.

Physics and the engine

enablePhysics turns on the physics engine with a gravity vector; in the editors that is Havok. babylon.engine hands you the engine and its canvas, for the renderer's own settings.

Every function

Scene

Function	What it does
activateCamera	Makes a camera the one the scene renders through, detaching the controls of the camera that was active before.
adjustActiveArcRotateCamera	Repositions the default orbiting camera, the one named Camera, and sets its limits and sensitivities.
backgroundColour	Fills the background of the scene with one plain color and removes any canvas background image or gradient set before.
canvasBackgroundImage	Shows an image behind the scene with the CSS background options for how it repeats, scales, sits and scrolls; the scene's clear color becomes transparent so the image shows through.
canvasCSSBackgroundImage	Paints any CSS background-image value behind the scene, a gradient or an image, by making the scene's clear color transparent and styling the canvas.
clearAllDrawn	Removes everything drawn from the scene: meshes, materials, textures, lights other than the default hemispheric one, transform nodes, shadow generators, fog and the environment texture, and restores the default camera when another was active.
drawDirectionalLight	Adds a light that shines the same way everywhere, like the sun, along direction.
drawDirectionalLightNoReturn	Adds a directional light to the scene, as drawDirectionalLight does, without giving it back; for scripts that only need the light to exist.
drawPointLight	Adds a light that shines in every direction from a point, like a bulb, with an optional small glowing sphere at its position.
drawPointLightNoReturn	Adds a point light to the scene, as drawPointLight does, without giving it back; for scripts that only need the light to exist.
enablePhysics	Turns on the physics engine for the scene with the given gravity, so bodies given physics fall and collide; the physics plugin must be set up on the context.
enableSkybox	Surrounds the scene with one of the built-in skyboxes and uses it as the environment lighting that reflective materials pick up.
enableSkyboxCustomTexture	Surrounds the scene with a skybox loaded from your own texture and uses it as the environment lighting.
enableSkyboxFromTexture	Surrounds the scene with a skybox built from a cube texture you loaded yourself and uses it as the environment lighting.
fog	Fades distant geometry into a color, the way haze does.
getActiveCamera	Gives the camera the scene currently renders through.
getScene	Gives the scene every draw call goes into, for direct use of the BabylonJS API on it.
getShadowGenerators	Lists the shadow generators of the lights created through this library, one per light with shadows enabled; drawn meshes are registered with them as casters.
multiColorLinearGradientBackground	Paints a straight gradient through several colors behind the scene, each at its own stop percentage; colors and stops must be the same length, or an error object comes back instead.
multiColorRadialGradientBackground	Paints a round gradient through several colors behind the scene, each at its own stop percentage; colors and stops must be the same length, or an error object comes back instead.
onPointerDown	Sets the function that runs when a pointer button is pressed on the canvas, replacing any function set before.
onPointerMove	Sets the function that runs whenever the pointer moves over the canvas, replacing any function set before; it runs often, so keep it light.
onPointerUp	Sets the function that runs when a pointer button is released on the canvas, replacing any function set before.
setAndAttachScene	Makes the given scene the one this library draws into, adding the shadow bookkeeping and root node it expects; for applications that create the scene themselves.
twoColorLinearGradientBackground	Paints a straight gradient between two colors behind the scene, in the given direction, with the stops as percentages along it.
twoColorRadialGradientBackground	Paints a round gradient between two colors behind the scene, spreading out from position in the given shape, with the stops as percentages from the center.
useRightHandedSystem	Switches the scene between the left-handed coordinate system BabylonJS uses by default and a right-handed one, the convention of most CAD tools and of glTF; the active camera is refreshed to match.

Lights

Function	What it does
shadowLight.setDirectionToTarget	Aims a shadow-casting light at a point in the scene, turning its direction to point from its position toward target.
shadowLight.setPosition	Moves a shadow-casting light to a point in the scene; for a directional light the position sets where its shadows are computed from.

Camera

Function	What it does
arcRotate.create	Creates a camera that orbits target at distance radius, controlled by the pointer on the canvas, and adds it to the scene without activating it.
free.create	Creates a camera at position looking at target that the keyboard and pointer fly around, and adds it to the scene without activating it.
freezeProjectionMatrix	Stops a camera from recomputing its projection every frame, saving work when its field of view and clipping distances no longer change.
getPosition	Reads where a camera is in the scene, as a point.
getSpeed	Reads how fast a camera moves in response to its controls.
getTarget	Reads the point a camera is looking at.
makeCameraOrthographic	Switches a camera to orthographic projection, where objects keep their size whatever their distance, as in technical drawings.
makeCameraPerspective	Switches a camera back to perspective projection, where distant objects look smaller, the default for cameras.
setMaxZ	Sets the far clipping distance of a camera: anything farther than maxZ scene units is not drawn.
setMinZ	Sets the near clipping distance of a camera: anything closer than minZ scene units is not drawn.
setPosition	Moves a camera to a point in the scene; a target camera keeps looking at its target from there.
setSpeed	Sets how fast a camera moves in response to its keyboard and pointer controls; 1 is the default pace.
setTarget	Turns a camera to look at a point in the scene.
target.create	Creates a camera at position looking at target with no navigation controls of its own, and adds it to the scene without activating it.
unfreezeProjectionMatrix	Lets a frozen camera recompute its projection again, needed after changing its field of view or clipping distances.

Engine

Function	What it does
getEngine	Gets the engine for the current context
getRenderingCanvas	Gets the rendering canvas on which scene cameras can be attached