Cables is an incredibly powerful tool with a fairly low learning curve. I couldn't have done what I did with my personal website[1] (sorry, mobile optimized!) if I was working with WebGL directly, especially not in the 3 days it took me to build and deploy with no prior experience.
If you're a interested in experimenting with creative stuff without the traditionally high barrier of entry, I highly recommend cables and the Decode.gl tutorial series[2].
Cables is an exceptionally versatile and user-friendly tool, especially for those new to creative coding. It allowed me to create my personal website[1] (sorry doesn't work on mobile) in just three days, despite having no prior experience. Achieving the same results using WebGL directly would have been significantly more challenging and time-consuming.
For anyone interested in exploring creative digital projects without facing the typically steep learning curve, I strongly suggest giving Cables a try.
Additionally, the Decode.gl[2] tutorial series is extremely high quality
My original comment was a bit rambly and so I had an LLM rephrase it. However I was editing on mobile so I had limited visibility due to the text input sharing space with my keyboard, so I clearly missed this duplicate paragraph. What I'd give for an edit button :P
Really cool project, love to see things that touch web tech, VPLs, and creative programming. Could not find repo from the website on mobile, would love to see it in the footer or in the CTA.
Cables is absolutely fantastic. I used it personally for an art project, as well as was involved with a commerical AR experience which used cables to run elaborate, fully interactive 3d scenes in a normal browser, on mobile. As with other node based languages (e.g. vvvv, max/msp), you edit your code while it's running, so you directly see what you're doing without constantly switching interfaces. And in the end it generates a js file you can just embed in an iframe. Honestly, no idea why this is not more widely used, huge fan!
This looks really cool, but I came away with some questions.
- How does this differ from say blender's geometry/shader nodes? Aside from operating environment.
- How much of webgl does this encompass? Do you control the full render graph? Or is it just one pass, or what?
I've been interested in learning modern graphics programming, but playing around with low level gl/vk code seemed like it'd be too slow to figure out the high level concepts. I was hoping I'd find a visual editor somewhere.
yes why did visual programming never fully took off, its somehow like vr ;)
it is like QC or touchdesigner, but you can distribute your projects on your own, without cables itself. basically like you can distribute a game you made with unity.
Not everything can be made into a one way graph with limited data types. Node graphs work in specific domains because they only have a few data types and don't need to worry much about side effects, ordering, branching, state and IO.
On top of that you also need a good GUI which itself is rare. Houdini has a great interface that is well designed. Touch designer is much more wonky, loose and awkward.
Most designers on the game industry, sound composition, or electronics would be to differ, but maybe only having three industries that embraced visual programming is too niche. :)
Readit News
If you're a interested in experimenting with creative stuff without the traditionally high barrier of entry, I highly recommend cables and the Decode.gl tutorial series[2].
Cables is an exceptionally versatile and user-friendly tool, especially for those new to creative coding. It allowed me to create my personal website[1] (sorry doesn't work on mobile) in just three days, despite having no prior experience. Achieving the same results using WebGL directly would have been significantly more challenging and time-consuming.
For anyone interested in exploring creative digital projects without facing the typically steep learning curve, I strongly suggest giving Cables a try.
Additionally, the Decode.gl[2] tutorial series is extremely high quality
[1] https://zetaphor.com [2] https://decode.gl/
> my personal website[1] (sorry, mobile optimized!)
> my personal website[1] (sorry doesn't work on mobile)
The home page uses 18% of my beefy cpu.
Really cool project, love to see things that touch web tech, VPLs, and creative programming. Could not find repo from the website on mobile, would love to see it in the footer or in the CTA.
- How does this differ from say blender's geometry/shader nodes? Aside from operating environment.
- How much of webgl does this encompass? Do you control the full render graph? Or is it just one pass, or what?
I've been interested in learning modern graphics programming, but playing around with low level gl/vk code seemed like it'd be too slow to figure out the high level concepts. I was hoping I'd find a visual editor somewhere.
Blender can be used to create assets consumed by cables.
I was always amazed at how sophisticated QC was, and also saddened when it was abandoned by Apple...
it is like QC or touchdesigner, but you can distribute your projects on your own, without cables itself. basically like you can distribute a game you made with unity.
On top of that you also need a good GUI which itself is rare. Houdini has a great interface that is well designed. Touch designer is much more wonky, loose and awkward.