chessboard3.js is a standalone JavaScript chess board based on WebGL that mirrors the API of the widely used chessboard.js 2D board library by Chris Oakman. It is designed to be a drop-in replacement for chessboard.js and should run with any existing client code that currently uses chessboard.js to display a 2D board.
Like its 2D analogue, chessboard3.js is a "dumb board" with no AI or move validation. The flexible API that has made chessboard.js useful in a variety of applications is fully available, and if necessary chessboard.js can be used as a fallback for hessboard3.js in case WebGL is not available.
Since it uses WebGL and three.js to render the board (as opposed to DOM manipulation with JQuery), chessboard3.js is naturally going to be more resource-intensive. You can do the same things you can with Chris Oakman's chessboard.js (given the caveats that come with using WebGL).
Neither chessboard3.js nor chessboard.js actually knows how to play chess! You need separate components for the following:
- PGN parsing
- Move validation
- A chess engine (you can use a Javascript chess engine like cinnamon)
The set of extra libraries used by chessboard3.js differs from those used by chessboard.js:
- three.js : Tested against revision 80.
- OrbitControls.js) : Optional, this is a three.js extension that allows the user to grab the board and either spin it around or zoom into it.
The font and piece geometry files from assets directory; these are accessed via JSON
I have code that uses chessboard.js for a 2D board. What code changes are needed for a 3D board?
You would replace this:
var board = new ChessBoard('divElementID', configObject);
with this:
var board = new ChessBoard3('divElementID', configObject);
You will also want to place it in a wider DIV, since a 3D board generally needs more real estate. While chessboard.js sets the widget height to be equal to the width to make a square widget, chessboard3.js sets the height to 75% of the width for a 4:3 aspect ratio.
An overview, documentation, and a playable demo can be found at http://chessboard3js.com.
Since chessboard3.js exposes a slight superset of the chessboard.js API, another good reference is http://chessboardjs.com/docs.
chessboard3.js is released under the MIT License.