@lume/three-meshline

Provides a Mesh-based replacement for THREE.Line from Three.js, allowing line thicknesses of any size (THREE.Line is limited to 1 pixel width), and other features.

Note This is forked from three.meshline, as that project has been dormant. The version of this starts at 2.0 because it modernizes the code base in ways that make it a breaking change, and removes deprecated features.

Instead of using GL_LINE, it uses a strip of triangles billboarded. Some examples:

Demos

How to use

• Include script
• Create an array of 3D coordinates
• Create a MeshLineGeometry and assign the points
• Create a MeshLineMaterial to style the line points
• Create a MeshLine rendering object given the MeshLineGeometry and MeshLineMaterial

Install

With self-hosted dependencies installed locally:

First install @lume/three-meshline:

npm i @lume/three-meshline

Add the importmap to your HTML if you are using native JavaScript modules (if you have a build step handling your modules, you'd skip this):

<script src="/node_modules/@lume/three-meshline/importmap.js"></script>

If your browser doesn't support importmaps natively yet, you can load an importmap polyfill then embed the importmap manually in your HTML like so:

<script defer src="https://ga.jspm.io/npm:[email protected]/dist/es-module-shims.js"></script>
<script src="/node_modules/@lume/three-meshline/importmap.js"></script>

Finally import APIs into your JavaScript code:

import {MeshLine, MeshLineGeometry, MeshLineMaterial} from '@lume/three-meshline'

Create an array of 3D coordinates

First, create the list of numbers that will define the 3D points for the line.

const points = []
for (let j = 0; j < Math.PI; j += (2 * Math.PI) / 100) {
	points.push(Math.cos(j), Math.sin(j), 0)
}

Create a MeshLineGeometry and assign the points

Once you have that, you can create a new MeshLineGeometry, and call .setPoints() passing the list of points.

const geometry = new MeshLineGeometry()
geometry.setPoints(points)

Note: .setPoints accepts a second parameter, which is a function to define the width in each point along the line. By default that value is 1, making the line width 1 * lineWidth in the material.

// p is a decimal percentage of the number of points
// ie. point 200 of 250 points, p = 0.8
geometry.setPoints(points, p => 2) // makes width 2 * lineWidth
geometry.setPoints(points, p => 1 - p) // makes width taper from the beginning
geometry.setPoints(points, p => 1 - (1 - p)) // makes width taper from the end
geometry.setPoints(points, p => 2 + Math.sin(50 * p)) // makes width sinusoidal

Create a MeshLineMaterial

A MeshLine needs a MeshLineMaterial:

const material = new MeshLineMaterial(options)

By default it's a white material with line width 1 unit.

MeshLineMaterial accepts options to control the appereance of the MeshLine:

• resolution - THREE.Vector2 specifying the canvas size (REQUIRED) (default: new Vector2(1, 1))
• map - a THREE.Texture to paint along the line (requires useMap set to true) (default: null)
• useMap - tells the material to use map (false - solid color, true use texture) (default false)
• alphaMap - a THREE.Texture to use as alpha along the line (requires useAlphaMap set to true) (default: 'null')
• useAlphaMap - tells the material to use alphaMap (false - no alpha, true alpha from texture) (default: false)
• repeat - THREE.Vector2 to define the texture tiling (applies to map and alphaMap) (default: new Vector2(1, 1))
• color - THREE.Color to paint the line width, or tint the texture with (default: new Color('white'))
• opacity - alpha value from 0 to 1 (requires transparent set to true) (default: 1)
• alphaTest - cutoff value from 0 to 1 (default: 0)
• dashArray - the length and space between dashes. (0 - no dash) (default: 0)
• dashOffset - defines the location where the dash will begin. Ideal to animate the line. (default: 0)
• dashRatio - defines the ratio between that is visible or not (0 - more visible, 1 - more invisible) (default: 0.5)
• useDash - whether to use dashes or not. Setting dashArray to a non-zero value automatically sets this to true. (false - no dashes, true
  • dashes) (default: true)
• sizeAttenuation - makes the line width constant regardless distance (1 unit is 1px on screen) (false - attenuate, true - don't attenuate) (default: true)
• lineWidth - width of the line (if sizeAttenuation is true, the value is in world units; othwerwise it is in screen pixels) (default: 1)
• visibility - A number from 0 to 1 denoting the portion of the line that is visible, starting from the end (0.5 means half of the line is visible, 0 means the whole line is invisible) (default: 1)

If you're rendering transparent lines or using a texture with alpha map, you may consider setting depthTest to false, transparent to true and blending to an appropriate blending mode, or use alphaTest.

Use MeshLineGeometry and MeshLineMaterial to create a MeshLine

Finally, we create a mesh and add it to the scene:

const line = new MeshLine(geometry, material)
scene.add(line)

Note that MeshLine extends from THREE.Mesh and adds raycast support:

const raycaster = new THREE.Raycaster()
// Use raycaster as usual:
raycaster.intersectObject(line)

Declarative use

react-three-fiber

MeshLine can be used declaritively. This is how it would look like in react-three-fiber. You can try it live here.

import {extend, Canvas} from 'react-three-fiber'
import {MeshLine, MeshLineMaterial, MeshLineRaycast} from '@lume/three-meshline'

extend({MeshLine, MeshLineGeometry, MeshLineMaterial})

function Line({points, width, color}) {
	return (
		<Canvas>
			<meshLine>
				<meshLineGeometry attach="geometry" points={points} />
				<meshLineMaterial
					attach="material"
					transparent
					depthTest={false}
					lineWidth={width}
					color={color}
					dashArray={0.05}
					dashRatio={0.95}
				/>
			</meshLine>
		</Canvas>
	)
}

Dynamic line widths can be set along each point using the widthCallback prop.

<meshLineGeometry attach="geometry" points={points} widthCallback={pointWidth => pointWidth * Math.random()} />

TODO

• Better miters
• Faster setPoints() method
• Size attenuation when using OrthographicCamera
• Support for vertex colors (geometry.vertexColors)
• global script for people still using global script tags for a global THREE variable

Support

Tested successfully on

• Chrome OSX, Windows, Android
• Firefox OSX, Windows, Anroid
• Safari OSX, iOS

References

• Drawing lines is hard
• WebGL rendering of solid trails
• Drawing Antialiased Lines with OpenGL

License

MIT licensed