Sphere Drop

Sphere Drop is a preliminary interactive 3D study created with Three.js and Rapier physics engine, and is inspired by the work of Maxim Zhestkov (circa early 2000s).

This is my first experience working with Rapier having previously used Cannon-es for physics in my Three.js projects, and I mostly just wanted to see it in action. I decided to try Rapier because I had encountered a few issues with buggy collisions using Cannon-es and I was keen to try using a more recent and actively maintained physics library.

Compared to Cannon-es I have found Rapier to be a bit less intuitive to work with but so far I am happy with the general results. I’m looking forward to seeing how Rapier works in a game development context, and I’ve recently started experimenting with Rapier’s Character Controller component. You can see some of my latest progress with this in my Inner Space and Player Controller demos.

I’ve also included some generative audio in this demo created with Tone.js, where a basic event in the audio (in this case the bass drum) triggers an effect in the physical environment. This is fairly rough and limited for now, however I’m very much looking forward to developing my generative audio skills and taking this kind of thing much further in future projects. Otherwise please activate the audio to see / hear this in action. 😎