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First-person three.js groundwork

Survey of open-source (MIT/Apache unless noted) three.js work relevant to a first-person walk-and-edit mode, verified 2026-08-24. Hard constraint throughout: the Pascal host renders with WebGPURenderer, so anything we adopt must keep movement/collision on the CPU (BVH, octree, WASM physics, camera math) and never touch WebGL-only calls.

Shortlist — fastest path to a great-feeling walk mode

  1. three-mesh-bvh (gkjohnson/three-mesh-bvh, MIT, ~3.5k★) — the example/characterMovement.js pattern: build a BVH over the house meshes we're already rendering, slide a capsule against it with shapecast. No physics engine, no WASM, ~200 lines to own. Primary candidate for collisions — the editor's walls/floors are already meshes. (Avoid its GPU shader extensions — WebGL-only.)
  2. @react-three/viverse (pmndrs/viverse, ~130★) — <SimpleCharacter/>
    • BVH physics body, official first-person tutorial. Quickest R3F drop-in to prototype with, ejectable to (1).
  3. three-player-controller (hh-hang/three-player-controller, MIT, ~254★, very active) — most feature-complete standalone controller: first/third person, BVH in a worker, ground detection, moving platforms, mobile joystick. Mine its step/ground logic.
  4. three.js games_fps example (MIT) — examples/jsm/math/Octree.js + Capsule.js and a ~300-line player loop: gravity, jump, air control, throwing ballistics. Leanest vendorable core, zero deps.
  5. react-three-rapier + ecctrl (+ isaac-mason/sketches rapier/pointer-controls) — the branch to take only when we need real dynamic objects: grab/carry via a joint or a kinematic "hold anchor" ~1.5 m in front of the camera, release with an impulse to throw. Rapier ships a built-in KinematicCharacterController (auto-step, snap-to-ground).

Feel references (read, don't copy)

  • Mugen87/dive (MIT) — cleanest complete vanilla three.js FPS architecture (weapons, nav-mesh AI, spatial audio), by a three.js core maintainer.
  • mrdoob/three-quake (GPL-2.0 — read only) — the gold standard for movement feel: acceleration, friction, air control in cl_input.js.
  • simondevyoutube/ThreeJS_Tutorial_FirstPersonCamera (MIT) — head-bob phase and lerped pitch/yaw worth layering on any collider.
  • swift502/Sketchbook (MIT, archived) — character state-machine design (idle/walk/sprint/jump transitions).
  • pmndrs/drei — PointerLockControls + KeyboardControls, the standard R3F WASD input pattern; renderer-agnostic.
  • verekia/manapotion (MIT) — pointer-lock/input state outside React re-renders; nice glue for a game mode inside a React app.

Host groundwork already in place

The Pascal editor already ships a first-person mode (setFirstPersonMode + FirstPersonControls: pointer lock, spawn point, capsule controller at eye height) — but it is view-only: entering it sets the host's noEditing gate. Boots v0 rides that mode as-is; the plugin's whole reason to exist is to progressively bring editing into it (tool belt, work-the-cone, grab & carry), using the shortlist above for collisions and interactions.

License watch-list

three-quake (GPL-2.0), enable3d (LGPL-3.0), and the small unlicensed sample repos (doppl3r/*, icurtis1/*) are reference-only — nothing from them lands in this codebase.