Five Minute Guide

Getting Started

Niltree can run any kind of WebGL website, twice as fast as Chrome. You can get this up and running in under five minutes.

This guide will show you how to install Niltree and open a WebGL site.

Installing Niltree

• Ensure you have Node >= 9.9:

$ node --version
v9.9.0

If you don't have Node >= 9.9, you can use nvm or nvm-windows to install it.

• If you're on Windows, install windows-build-tools from a Powershell Admin prompt:

npm install --global --production windows-build-tools

Right-click on PowerShell and run "as Administrator", then paste the above command.

• Install niltree:

npm i -g niltree

Viewing websites

Let's open a ThreeJS website in Niltree.

Go to the ThreeJS examples page using your web browser of choice (Chrome, Firefox, etc):

https://threejs.org/examples

Most of these ThreeJS examples should run fine in Niltree. Let's try the first one, animation/cloth. Observe that this is a WebGL site, and that it renders fine in Chrome:

A simple ThreeJS webpage: https://threejs.org/examples/#webgl_animation_cloth

Now we're going to open this same site using Niltree.

• Open your terminal (we like hyper):

• If you're on Windows, type niltree-win and press enter.

• Other platforms, type niltree.

Niltree's default prompt

If you get an error about node module version, ensure node --version is >= 9.9:

nvm install 9.9

nvm use 9.9

and then try again. If you still get an error, re-run

npm i -g niltree

• Paste the ThreeJS URL (https://threejs.org/examples/#webgl_animation_cloth) and press enter.

Niltree will open and run the site:

ThreeJS cloth simulation in Niltree (https://threejs.org/examples/#webgl_animation_cloth)

Let's navigate to a different site.

• Pick out a different ThreeJS example that you like:

The ThreeJS geometry/minecraft demo

• Switch back to Niltree's command prompt and paste the URL (e.g. https://threejs.org/examples/#webgl_geometry_minecraft):

Niltree's command prompt

The niltree command prompt is a NodeJS REPL. If you're a node developer, the interface should be quite familiar. Open niltree and run .help:

Niltree's .help command

Pressing up and down will scroll through your REPL history.

Under the hood, pasting a URL is shorthand for typing .go <url>.

Similar to Chrome's devtools, you can evaluate any expression you want in the context of the current website. Navigate somewhere and type window.location:

window.location

This covers the basics of using Niltree.