engine

When you say that PlayCanvas is commercial, that's a little misleading. The PlayCanvas Engine (analogous to Three.js and Babylon.js) is free and open source (MIT). The PlayCanvas Engine is where you'll find all the cool 3DGS tech. There are two further frameworks that wrap the Engine (for those that prefer to use a declarative interface): PlayCanvas Web Components and PlayCanvas React. Again, both of these are free and open source (MIT). Only the PlayCanvas Editor (analogous to a browser-based Unity) has optional payment plans (for those that want to create private projects). PlayCanvas Engine: https://github.com/playcanvas/engine PlayCanvas Web Components: https://github.com/playcanvas/web-components PlayCanvas React: https://github.com/playcanvas/react

Support for Javascript modules looks like it is in-progress: https://github.com/playcanvas/engine/issues/4767 Developing offline with the engine-only (https://github.com/playcanvas/engine) is obviously an option, but I wouldn't hold your breath for an offline editor.

Only the engine is open source, the editor used to create the apps/games is not. https://github.com/playcanvas/engine#playcanvas-editor

PlayCanvas is MIT-licensed. https://github.com/playcanvas/engine

Plus the engine codebase is open source (MIT): https://github.com/playcanvas/engine :)

PlayCanvas might be an easier jumping on point for WebGL for you. See https://github.com/playcanvas/engine and https://playcanvas.com

There's always the open source PlayCanvas Game Engine. Why re-invent the wheel? https://github.com/playcanvas/engine

The engine itself is open source (MIT license): https://github.com/playcanvas/engine If you want a fancy editor to build more quickly, it's free to work in public. And for 'garage-outfits' that want to work in private, it's $15/month. I wouldn't call that serious dough. My gym membership is $70/month!

I would recommend PlayCanvas [http://playcanvas.com]. :-) We have an editor tool (like Unity/Unreal), good documentation, a great community of other developers. And the engine is open source if you're not interested using the Editor tools [http://github.com/playcanvas/engine]

It depends on the functionality you need. Unity does a lot more than lightweight WebGL engines do. Of course, if a lightweight WebGL engine is enough - and it might well be the case for this NASA app, which doesn't need sophisticated AI, physics, scripting, effects, etc. - then that is the better route. There are also middle grounds between a native WebGL engine and a full native engine like Unity. There are lightweight native engines, like Cube 2, https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/demos/detail/bananabread and there are even lighter than that. There isn't a dichotomy between native and compiled game engines. In fact, some native WebGL game engines use compiled portions, like PlayCanvas which uses ammo.js, a compiled native physics engine, https://github.com/playcanvas/engine

Interesting. I notice you're using X3DOM. If you're looking for more realistic rendering capabilities, it's definitely worth checking out the open source PlayCanvas engine. Codebase: https://github.com/playcanvas/engine Toolset: https://playcanvas.com/ The engine has physically based rendering integrated into it. Here's an example: http://playcanv.as/p/SA7hVBLt Ping the info 'at' playcanvas 'dot' com address to find out more.

Looks cool. How was your experience with three.js? Did you check out the PlayCanvas engine: https://github.com/playcanvas/engine - it's a bit more geared towards games.