OrbitUnlimitedControls

A camera controller for THREE.js that addresses some limitations of some other, widely used controllers:

• https://threejs.org/docs/#examples/en/controls/OrbitControls
• https://threejs.org/docs/#examples/en/controls/TrackballControls

For looking around a scene, OrbitControls is a common choice. But it has a limit on the rotation that can be achieved by moving the mouse vertically: the camera cannot go "over the north pole" or "under the south pole."

TrackballControls does not have this limitation. Yet it suffers from "twist" around the viewing axis, which gradually accumulates over the course of interaction and makes it difficult to return to an original orientation. It also does not emit a change event on each camera movement, so updating the rendering to reflect the camera movement requires the use of Window.requestAnimationFrame().

OrbitUnlimitedControls is free of these limitations. It is meant to implement the API of OrbitControls (or at least the most important parts of that API), so it can be used as a simple replacement for that controller.

Constructor

OrbitUnlimitedControls(object : Camera, domElement : HTMLDOMElement)

object: The camera to be controlled.
domElement: The HTML element used for event listeners.

API Matching OrbitControls

.keyPanSpeed : Float

.keys : Object

.maxDistance : Float

.minDistance : Float

.rotateSpeed : Float

.target : Vector3

.zoomSpeed : Float

New API

.clicked : Boolean

The standard click event is sent by this.domElement for any mousedown followed by mouseup. But a more useful definition of a click is whent he cursor moves less than a couple of pixels between the mousedown and the mouseup. In that case, this.clicked will be true.

.usePanModAlt : Boolean

.usePanModShift : Boolean

.usePanModCtrl : Boolean

.usePanModMeta : Boolean

These booleans enable modifier keys to make a left-button mouse drag perform camera panning. The default is usePanModAlt being true and the others false. Note that on Apple keyboards, "alt" is "option", "ctrl" is "control", and "meta" is "command".

Installation

The simplest approach is to use the npm module:

npm install --save @janelia/three-orbit-unlimited-controls

For development, clone the repository and build it:

npm install
npm run build
npm link

Then use that build in an application:

npm link @janelia/three-orbit-unlimited-controls