aframe-orbit-controls

Orbit controls for A-Frame.

Automatically toggles look-controls on and off when entering and exiting VR.

Great for using as a viewer, better and easier than using WASD + mouse-drag, or being stuck in the same position on mobile.

The other A-Frame orbit controls components were weird since they fully ported the THREE.OrbitControls logic into a component. This component just straight up uses THREE.OrbitControls in a clean and performant way.

API

Same API as THREE.OrbitControls, supports all the properties.

Property	Description	Default Value
autoRotate	Set to true to automatically rotate around the target.	false
autoRotateSpeed	How fast to rotate around the target.	2 (30 seconds per rotation at 60fps)
cursor	The focus point of the `minTargetRadius` and `maxTargetRadius` limits. It can be updated manually at any point to change the center of interest for the `target`.	0 0 0
dampingFactor	Damping inertia if `enableDamping`.	0.1
enabled	Whether enabled. You can also call `.pause()` on the entity.	true
enableDamping	Set to true to enable damping (inertia), which can be used to give a sense of weight to the controls.	true
enablePan	Enable panning (i.e., right click drag or three finger drag).	true
enableRotate	Enable rotation (i.e., left click drag or single finger drag). Use Azimuth angles to constrain to single axis.	true
enableZoom	Enable zoom (i.e., scroll or pinch).	true
initialPosition	Initial position of the camera. Set this rather than `position`.	0 0 0
keyPanSpeed	How fast to pan the camera when the keyboard is used. Default is 7.0 pixels per keypress.	7 (pixels per keypress)
minAzimuthAngle	How far you can orbit horizontally, lower limit. From -180 to 180 degrees.	Infinity (no limit)
maxAzimuthAngle	How far you can orbit horizontally, upper limit. From -180 to 180 degrees.	Infinity (no limit)
maxDistance	How far you can dolly out.	Infinity
maxPolarAngle	How far you can orbit vertically, upper limit. Range is 0 to 180 degrees.	90
minDistance	How far you can dolly in.	0
minPolarAngle	How far you can orbit vertically, lower limit. Range is 0 to 180 degrees.	0
minTargetRadius	How close you can get the target to the 3D `cursor`.	0
maxTargetRadius	How far you can move the target from the 3D `cursor`.	Infinity (no limit)
minZoom	How far you can zoom in (OrthographicCamera only).	0
maxZoom	How far you can zoom out (OrthographicCamera only).	Infinity (no limit)
panSpeed	Speed of panning.	1
rotateSpeed	Speed of rotation.	1
screenSpacePanning	Defines how the camera's position is translated when panning. If true, the camera pans in screen space. Otherwise, the camera pans in the plane orthogonal to the camera's up direction.	false
target	Focus point of controls. look-at vector.	0 0 0
zoomSpeed	Speed of zooming / dollying.	1
zoomToCursor	Setting this property to true allows to zoom to the cursor's position.	false

Installation

Browser

Install and use by directly including the browser files:

<head>
  <title>My A-Frame Scene</title>
  <script src="https://aframe.io/releases/1.5.0/aframe.min.js"></script>
  <script src="https://unpkg.com/aframe-environment-component@1.3.3/dist/aframe-environment-component.min.js"></script>
  <script src="https://unpkg.com/aframe-orbit-controls@1.3.2/dist/aframe-orbit-controls.min.js"></script>
</head>

<body>
  <a-scene environment="preset: forest">
    <a-torus-knot position="0 2 0"></a-torus-knot>
    <a-entity camera look-controls="enabled: false" orbit-controls="target: 0 2 0; minDistance: 2; maxDistance: 180; initialPosition: 0 3 5; rotateSpeed: 0.5"></a-entity>
    </a-scene>
  </a-scene>
</body>

npm

Install via npm:

npm install aframe-orbit-controls

Then require and use.

require('aframe');
require('aframe-orbit-controls');

aframe-orbit-controls