about.md

procedural mesh generation

Generates an algorithmic 3D OBJ file with ThreeJS and Node.js.

# print to stdout
node generate-mesh.js > test.obj

# write to file
node generate-mesh.js test.obj

Assumes node@8.1.4, npm@5.3.0, three@0.87.1 (installed from npm).

The script can be browserified (useful if you wanted to build a real-time visualizer as you tweak the algorithm) or run with node.js.

See this tweet for screenshots.

generate-mesh.js

// Optional: this is for predictable randomness
require('seed-random')('1', { global: true });

// Require ThreeJS and extensions
// for this you can `npm install three`
global.THREE = require('three');
require('three/examples/js/exporters/OBJExporter');
require('three/examples/js/utils/GeometryUtils');

// If run in a browser, this will return an empty object
const fs = require('fs');

const randomFloat = require('random-float');

// The browser uses an empty array here
const argv = process.argv.slice(2);

// We can run all this code in the browser too,
// e.g. we could visualize it as we tweak the algorithm
const isBrowser = typeof document !== 'undefined';

// Generate your ThreeJS geometry
const geometry = generate();

// Export the Geometry to a file if specified, otherwise stdout
exportGeometry(geometry);

function generate () {
  const geometry = new THREE.Geometry();

  // this is our generative/algorithmic 3D code
  const rings = 20;
  const ringSpacing = 1 / rings * 2;
  let ringRadius = ringSpacing;
  for (let ringIndex = 0; ringIndex < rings; ringIndex++) {
    const steps = 7 * (ringIndex + 1);
    const A = ringIndex / Math.max(1, rings - 1);
    const radius = ringRadius;
    ringRadius += ringSpacing;
    for (let i = 0; i < steps; i++) {
      const B = i / Math.max(1, steps - 1);
      const angle = (i / steps) * Math.PI * 2;
      const x = Math.cos(angle) * radius;
      const z = Math.sin(angle) * radius;

      const thickness = ringSpacing * 0.15;
      const height = 0.5 * A * B * randomFloat(0.25, 3);
      const length = A * B * randomFloat(0.25, 0.5);

      // in this case we will build a geometry made of many smaller
      // parts, using geometry.merge()
      const chunk = new THREE.BoxGeometry(length, height, thickness);
      chunk.translate(0, height / 2, 0);
      chunk.rotateX(Math.PI / 2 + -angle * 0.15);
      const object = new THREE.Object3D();
      object.position.set(x, 0, z);
      object.rotation.y = -angle;
      object.updateMatrix();

      // merge in the geometry with the desired matrix
      geometry.merge(chunk, object.matrix);

      // clean it up after
      chunk.dispose();
    }
  }

  // re-center the whole geometry along XZ axis
  geometry.computeBoundingBox();
  var offset = geometry.boundingBox.getCenter().negate();
  geometry.translate(offset.x, 0, offset.z);

  return geometry;
}

function exportGeometry (geometry) {
  if (isBrowser) return;
  const file = argv[0];
  const object = new THREE.Mesh(geometry, new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial());
  const scene = new THREE.Scene();
  scene.add(object);
  object.updateMatrixWorld(true);
  const exporter = new THREE.OBJExporter();
  const result = exporter.parse(object);
  if (file) {
    // write to file
    try {
      console.error('Writing to file', file);
      fs.writeFileSync(file, result);
    } catch (err) {
      console.error('Error:', err.message);
    }
  } else {
    // write to stdout
    console.log(result);
  }
  scene.remove(object);
}