@bendyline/molen-figures

Stylized people and animals for Molen: presets and descriptors, canonical rigs, deterministic gaits and sockets in the kernel; procedurally generated skinned bodies in the client.

Part of Molen, an AI-legible 3D experience engine: a deterministic headless kernel, a three.js client, and a dev loop an agent can drive end to end.

Install

npm i @bendyline/molen-figures

Node >= 22.13, ESM only. There is deliberately no . export: import @bendyline/molen-figures/kernel or @bendyline/molen-figures/client. The client half needs the optional peers three (>=0.184.0 <0.187.0) and @bendyline/molen-client; the kernel half needs neither, and runs in a Worker and in Node.

Use

The kernel half decides what a figure is and how it moves — hashed state, no three.js. The client half generates and poses the body. Neither is a mover: figures sit on top of whatever moves the entity (kinematicBody, character + moveIntent, a rapier velocity, or transform deltas).

// Worker or Node: the kernel half
import { installHierarchy, World } from '@bendyline/molen-kernel';
import { FigureState, installFigures } from '@bendyline/molen-figures/kernel';

const world = new World({ tickRate: 60, seed: 'npc' });
installHierarchy(world);
const figures = installFigures(world);

world.spawnRaw(
  {
    transform: { pos: [0, 0, 0], rot: [0, 0, 0, 1] },
    figure: { preset: 'human.adult', height: 1.7, palette: { top: '#3b6ea5' } },
    kinematicBody: { vel: [1.4, 0, 0], slide: true },
  },
  'npc',
);
world.stepN(30);

world.get('npc', FigureState); // { mode: 'walk', speed: 1.4, strideRate: 1.137, phaseAt: 0, ... }
figures.socket('npc', 'hand.r'); // the right hand's world transform under this tick's pose

// Page: the client half
import { mountExperience } from '@bendyline/molen-client';
import { figureKind } from '@bendyline/molen-figures/client';

await mountExperience({ link: worker, scene, canvas, kinds: [figureKind()] });

In a scene, an entity carries figure plus renderable: { kind: 'figure', ref: 'procedural' }; the molen CLI installs these systems on every world, so molen validate, molen sim run --hash and molen shot work on it with no extra wiring.

What's in it

| Entry point | For | | --- | --- | | ./kernel | Descriptors and the nine presets (human.adult, dog, horse, …), canonical biped and quadruped rigs, the pure pose function evaluatePose, Froude-number gait selection, the figure / figureIntent / figureState / figureAttachment components, sockets, riders, and molen.figures.* for scripts. | | ./client | The figure renderable kind (figureKind()), the three-tier body geometry cache, figureGeometry / figureBodyToSkinnedMesh, and applyPose. |

Rigs, meshes and poses are derived; only figureState and attachment transforms enter the state hash, and speed is quantized so a steadily walking figure sends no deltas.

Status

0.x, versioned independently of the other @bendyline/molen-* packages. The molen/figure@1 format is versioned and beta. Known limits: hands are mittens (a thumb on the near tier), there are no faces beyond eyes and brows, foot planting on uneven ground and quadruped IK are not evaluated yet, and imported skinned glTF figures plus skinned-GLB export are later phases.

Docs

• Figures: humans, bipeds and quadrupeds
• 3D art guidelines
• Examples gallery

MIT © Bendyline LLC