rapier-node

A NodeJS compatibility package for https://rapier.rs JS bindings

Rapier doesn't ship a package currently that works in NodeJS out of the box. The goal of this repo is to publish packages for Rapier which you can just require and use on the latest version of Node.

Installing the packages

For 3D, npm i -s @thorium-sim/rapier3d-node.

For 2D, npm i -s @thorium-sim/rapier2d-node.

Usage:

import RAPIER from '@thorium-sim/rapier2d-node'

const world = new RAPIER.World({ x: 0, y: 9.81 })

No async import or await RAPIER.init() is required.

Building the packages

1. Install Rust
2. cargo install wasm-pack
3. npm install
4. npm run build

What this project does

1. Builds with wasm-pack --target nodejs instead of --target web to produce Node-compatible WASM modules
2. Injects missing globals into Node's global scope (no extra libs, just using Node core stuff): a. self b. atob c. performance.now
3. Removes binding definitions for the opposite dimensionality (removes 3d APIs for the 2d library and vice versa)
4. Copies the TS bindings files from rapier.js alongside the WASM module output
5. Compiles the TS to create the fully bound library with the same interface as the web versions

Testing

I copied a simple test scene from https://github.com/AutomatonSystems/rapier-node to test/test.js. You can run npm test to execute the script; if you see positions logged and it completes successfully, the library has at least loaded and ran!

Attributions

This is a clone of https://github.com/a-type/rapier-node. The project seems unmaintained, but credit to a-type for his initial work on this. I will do my best to keep this project in sync with Rapier.js. If I'm behind a version, feel free to open an issue and I will get it updated.

The differences between rapier-node and @a-type/rapier-node are as follows:

1. Update to the latest Rapier.js source 0.7.6.
2. Refactored the build chain to be more streamlined.
3. Fixed typescript definition generation weirdness.
4. Added README.md to published packages.
5. Swapped out yarn for npm.