version: "1.0.0" name: apply-conventions description: Use when writing PlayCanvas Engine code touching transforms, cameras, lights, materials, meshes, bounds, or imports, to apply Engine conventions and avoid legacy APIs.

Engine conventions

Check version-sensitive APIs against installed playcanvas declarations.

Coordinates

• Right-handed, +Y up, metres. entity.forward, cameras, and lookAt use -Z.
• Directional and spot lights shine along local -Y, straight down by default. Aim them with

setEulerAngles, not lookAt.

• glTF models usually face +Z; record per-model yaw with calibrate-model.
• Angle APIs take degrees in XYZ order. Keep pitch, yaw, and roll as app state; never feed

getEulerAngles() back into setEulerAngles(). Interpolate with math.lerpAngle or Quat.slerp.

• Use world setters on semantic roots and setLocal* below a parent. Never scale rigid-body roots

or skinned bones.

Current APIs

• render and anim components, not model and animation.
• ESM class X extends Script with static scriptName, not createScript.
• Mesh.fromGeometry(device, new BoxGeometry()), not createBox and the other create* helpers.
• Named imports from playcanvas; shipped scripts only from playcanvas/scripts/esm/**.

Cameras

• FOV is vertical, 45° by default. Check shipped camera scripts before writing controls

(reuse-scripts).

Materials and bounds

• StandardMaterial.useMetalness defaults to false; enable it before using metalness.
• Call material.update() after property edits. Per-mesh values use meshInstance.setParameter()

with no update or clone.

• Clone shared materials, including imported ones, before editing them for some meshes.
• setParameter uploads raw values; convert sRGB colours with Color#linear().
• Back faces cull by default; counter-clockwise winding is the front face.
• Entities have no aabb; union descendant meshInstance.aabb. If mesh.update() skips bounds,

set mesh.aabb yourself, and expand it by any vertex-shader displacement.

Verify in the running app

Offline values cannot prove facing, poses, or placement. Read values from the running app with inspect-runtime, and judge visuals only from screenshots you have inspected. A saved file path is not evidence.