WP3D: Using WordPress to power 3D environments

As browser compatibility with WebGL grows in support, rich 3d interfaces are more in demand with each successive year.

Moreover, even if a browser has no support for WebGL, we can degrade gracefully, and show the user an alternate site view with no more hassle than enqueueing modernizr.

This talk will initially showcase a few examples of using 3D environments in WordPress.

I’ll then go over helpful tips about WebGL and the relevance to WordPress, and discuss frequently-used JavaScript libraries that make our lives easier, followed by how to use them properly within WordPress.

I’ll then provide an example – along with links to more thorough guides – on how to pull in data from WordPress into JavaScript as globals, and make it available for use in your 3D application.

This will be followed by briskly picking apart a basic WebGL ‘Hello World’, looking at each component:

  • The _s theme
  • A custom page template
  • The 3.js library
  • Custom js for the page template
  • WP ajax functionality

If all goes well, attendees will conclude the talk having a good understanding of the features and caveats of 3d application development in WordPress.

Speaker