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Node Tree — Introduction

The WebAR Node Tree is a visual editor for wiring animations and interaction events without writing JavaScript. It works similarly to Blender's shader or compositor nodes.

Opening the Node Tree

  1. In the WebAR sidebar panel, find the Node Tree property and click New to create a node tree, or select an existing one.
  2. Switch any editor to the Node Editor and set the node tree type to WebAR Node Tree (the dropdown at the top left of the Node Editor).
  3. Add nodes with Shift+A → WebAR menu.

Auto Regenerate

Enable Auto Regenerate in the WebAR panel to get a "Changes detected!" warning whenever you modify the node tree, reminding you to re-export.

How it works

The node tree is compiled at export time. The exporter reads all connected nodes and converts them into the components and events arrays in scene.json. These are then executed by the runtime JavaScript in the browser.

Nodes that are not connected to a valid chain are ignored.

Node types

Category Nodes
Scene Scene Output
Objects AR Object
Animations JS Animation, Pulse, Spin
Events Tap, Update, Timer
Experimental AR Light (WIP), AR Animation (WIP)

Basic workflow

A typical node setup connects:

AR Object → Animation node (Pulse / Spin / JS Animation)
AR Object → Event node (Tap / Timer)

The Scene Output node acts as the export root. Any node tree without a Scene Output node is ignored during export.

Compiled output

The node tree produces two arrays in scene.json:

  • components[] — continuous per-frame behaviors (Pulse, Spin, JS Animation)
  • events[] — triggered behaviors (Tap, Update, Timer)

See the scene.json Schema for the full structure.

Deprecated nodes

Node Status Use instead
AR Interaction Deprecated Tap node

The AR Interaction node is still available in the node menu but does not export any data.