What is Pixi.js?

Pixi.js is a powerful 2D rendering engine for creating interactive web-based games and rich multimedia applications. It allows developers to harness the power of modern web technologies, such as WebGL and HTML5, to create visually stunning and high-performance games that can run smoothly on various platforms and devices.

Why Pixi.js?

There are several reasons why Pixi.js is a popular choice among game developers:

Speed and Performance: Pixi.js is optimized for rendering graphics and animations, making it incredibly fast. It leverages WebGL when available, ensuring smooth and efficient rendering even for complex scenes.

Cross-Platform Compatibility: You can use Pixi.js to develop games that work seamlessly on web browsers, both desktop and mobile, as well as on various operating systems and devices.

Ease of Use: Pixi.js offers a straightforward and intuitive API, making it accessible to both beginners and experienced developers. It abstracts many of the complexities of WebGL, making game development more approachable.

Active Community: Pixi.js has a thriving community of developers, artists, and designers who share knowledge and contribute to the ecosystem. This means you can find plenty of tutorials, plugins, and resources to help you along the way.

Open Source: Pixi.js is open-source software, which means it’s free to use, and you can contribute to its development or customize it to suit your needs.

Extensibility: You can extend Pixi.js with plugins and custom shaders to add new features or enhance performance, giving you a high degree of flexibility in your game development.

Setting up Your Development Environment

Before diving into Pixi.js game development, you need to set up your development environment. Here are the basic steps to get started:

1. Text Editor or Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
Choose a text editor or IDE that you’re comfortable with for writing your code. Popular options include Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text, or WebStorm.

2. Node.js and npm
Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager) are essential for managing dependencies and running development scripts. Install them by visiting the official Node.js website (https://nodejs.org/) and following the installation instructions.

3. Pixi.js
You can include Pixi.js in your project by either downloading it from the official website (https://pixijs.com/) or installing it via npm:

npm install pixi.js

4. Web Server
To run your Pixi.js applications locally, it’s recommended to set up a local web server. You can use simple HTTP servers like http-server or more advanced options like Express.js for Node.js.

5. Browser
Choose a modern web browser for testing your Pixi.js games. Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge are popular choices. These browsers have built-in developer tools that are invaluable for debugging and optimizing your games.

Creating Your First Pixi.js Application

Now that your development environment is set up, let’s create a simple “Hello World” Pixi.js application to get a feel for how it works. In this example, we’ll create a web page that displays a Pixi.js logo.

HTML Structure
Start by creating an HTML file for your project. Here’s a basic structure:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>My First Pixi.js Game</title>
</head>
<body>
    <script src="main.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

This HTML file includes a reference to a JavaScript file called main.js, which is where we’ll write our Pixi.js code.

Setting up Pixi.js

In your main.js file, you can begin by importing Pixi.js and setting up a Pixi.js application:

// Import the Pixi.js library
import * as PIXI from 'pixi.js';

// Create a Pixi.js application
const app = new PIXI.Application({
width: 800, // Width of the application
height: 600, // Height of the application
backgroundColor: 0x1099bb, // Background color (in hexadecimal)
});

// Add the application to the HTML document
document.body.appendChild(app.view);

In this code:

We import Pixi.js using the ES6 import statement.
We create a new Pixi.js application with a specified width, height, and background color.
Finally, we append the Pixi.js application’s view (the canvas) to the HTML document’s body.
Displaying the Pixi.js Logo
Let’s add the Pixi.js logo to our application. Pixi.js provides a Sprite class for displaying images and textures. We’ll use this class to display the Pixi.js logo.

// Load the Pixi.js logo image
PIXI.Loader.shared.add('logo', 'pixi.png').load((loader, resources) => {
// Create a sprite from the loaded image
const logo = new PIXI.Sprite(resources.logo.texture);

// Position the sprite
logo.x = app.screen.width / 2;
logo.y = app.screen.height / 2;

// Center the anchor point
logo.anchor.set(0.5);

// Add the sprite to the stage
app.stage.addChild(logo);
});

In this code:

We use Pixi.js’s loader to load the Pixi.js logo image.
Once the image is loaded, we create a Sprite instance from the loaded texture.
We position the sprite at the center of the application’s stage.
We set the anchor point to the center to ensure it scales and rotates from its center.
Finally, we add the sprite to the stage.
Running the Application
With your Pixi.js application code in place, you can now open your HTML file in a web browser. You should see the Pixi.js logo displayed at the center of the canvas.

Congratulations! You’ve created your first Pixi.js application. You’ve set up your development environment, created a basic HTML structure, and used Pixi.js to display an image on the canvas. This is just the beginning of your journey into the exciting world of Pixi.js game development.

In the upcoming chapters, we’ll dive deeper into Pixi.js features and explore how to create more complex games and interactive applications.

Go to next chapter: Chapter 2: Understanding the Pixi.js Renderer