camera-controls

A camera control for three.js, similar to THREE.OrbitControls yet supports smooth transitions and more features.

documentation

Examples

camera move	default user input (Configurable)
Orbit rotation	left mouse drag / touch: one-finger move
Dolly	middle mouse drag, or mousewheel / touch: two-finger pinch-in or out
Truck (Pan)	right mouse drag / touch: two-finger move or three-finger move

• basic
• fit-and-padding
• fit-to-rect
• fit-to-bounding-sphere
• infinity dolly
• boundary
• focal offset
• click to set orbit point
• look in the point direction
• viewport within the canvas
• multiple camera-controls and viewport
• z-up camera
• orthographic
• event attach / detach
• user input config
• mouse drag with modifier keys
• combined gestures
• keyboard events
• rest and sleep events
• changing the cursor
• collision
• collision (custom)
• first-person
• third-person (with meshwalk)
• pointer lock
• auto rotate
• view offset translate
• camera shake effect
• rotate with time duration and easing (with gsap)
• path animation (with gsap)
• complex transitions with await
• set view padding
• WebWorker (OffscreenCanvas)
• outside of iframe dragging
• in react-three-fiber (simplest)
• in react-three-fiber (drei official) (see doc)

Usage

(The below code is for three.js users. If you use react-three-fiber (aka R3F), r3f-ready camera-controls is available on @react-three/drei

import * as THREE from 'three';
import CameraControls from 'camera-controls';

CameraControls.install( { THREE: THREE } );

// snip ( init three scene... )
const clock = new THREE.Clock();
const camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera( 60, width / height, 0.01, 1000 );
const cameraControls = new CameraControls( camera, renderer.domElement );

( function anim () {

    // snip
    const delta = clock.getDelta();
    const hasControlsUpdated = cameraControls.update( delta );

    requestAnimationFrame( anim );

    // you can skip this condition to render though
    if ( hasControlsUpdated ) {

        renderer.render( scene, camera );

    }

} )();
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Important!

You must install three.js before using camera-controls. Not doing so will lead to runtime errors (undefined references to THREE).

Before creating a new CameraControls instance, call:

CameraControls.install( { THREE: THREE } );
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You can then proceed to use CameraControls.

Note: If you do not wish to use the entire three.js to reduce file size(tree-shaking for example), make a subset to install.

import {
    Vector2,
    Vector3,
    Vector4,
    Quaternion,
    Matrix4,
    Spherical,
    Box3,
    Sphere,
    Raycaster,
} from 'three';

const subsetOfTHREE = {
    Vector2   : Vector2,
    Vector3   : Vector3,
    Vector4   : Vector4,
    Quaternion: Quaternion,
    Matrix4   : Matrix4,
    Spherical : Spherical,
    Box3      : Box3,
    Sphere    : Sphere,
    Raycaster : Raycaster,
};

CameraControls.install( { THREE: subsetOfTHREE } );
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Constructor

CameraControls( camera, domElement )

• camera is a THREE.PerspectiveCamera or THREE.OrthographicCamera to be controlled.
• domElement is a HTMLElement for draggable area. (optional. if domElement is omitted here, can be connect later with .connect())

Terms

Orbit rotations

CameraControls uses Spherical Coordinates for orbit rotations.

If your camera is Y-up, the Azimuthal angle will be the angle for y-axis rotation and the Polar angle will be the angle for vertical position.

Dolly vs Zoom

• A Zoom involves changing the lens focal length. In three.js, zooming is actually changing the camera FOV, and the camera is stationary (doesn't move).
• A Dolly involves physically moving the camera to change the composition of the image in the frame.

See the demo

Properties

Name	Type	Default	Description
.camera	THREE.Perspective | THREE.Orthographic	N/A	The camera to be controlled
.enabled	boolean	true	Whether or not the controls are enabled.
.active	boolean	false	Returns true if the controls are active updating.
.currentAction	ACTION	N/A	Getter for the current ACTION.
.distance	number	N/A	Current distance.
.minDistance	number	Number.EPSILON	Minimum distance for dolly. The value must be higher than 0
.maxDistance	number	Infinity	Maximum distance for dolly.
.minZoom	number	0.01	Minimum camera zoom.
.maxZoom	number	Infinity	Maximum camera zoom.
.polarAngle	number	N/A	Current polarAngle in radians.
.minPolarAngle	number	0	In radians.
.maxPolarAngle	number	Math.PI	In radians.
.azimuthAngle	number	N/A	current azimuthAngle in radians ¹.
.minAzimuthAngle	number	-Infinity	In radians.
.maxAzimuthAngle	number	Infinity	In radians.
.boundaryFriction	number	0.0	Friction ratio of the boundary.
.boundaryEnclosesCamera	boolean	false	Whether camera position should be enclosed in the boundary or not.
.smoothTime	number	0.25	Approximate time in seconds to reach the target. A smaller value will reach the target faster.
.draggingSmoothTime	number	0.125	The smoothTime while dragging.
.azimuthRotateSpeed	number	1.0	Speed of azimuth rotation.
.polarRotateSpeed	number	1.0	Speed of polar rotation.
.dollySpeed	number	1.0	Speed of mouse-wheel dollying.
.truckSpeed	number	2.0	Speed of drag for truck and pedestal.
.verticalDragToForward	boolean	false	The same as .screenSpacePanning in three.js's OrbitControls.
.dollyToCursor	boolean	false	true to enable Dolly-in to the mouse cursor coords.
.dollyDragInverted	boolean	false	true to invert direction when dollying or zooming via drag.
.interactiveArea	DOMRect	N/A	Set drag-start, touches and wheel enable area in the domElement. each values are between 0 and 1 inclusive, where 0 is left/top and 1 is right/bottom of the screen.
.colliderMeshes	array	[]	An array of Meshes to collide with camera ².
.infinityDolly	boolean	false	true to enable Infinity Dolly for wheel and pinch. Use this with minDistance and maxDistance ³.
.restThreshold	number	0.0025	Controls how soon the rest event fires as the camera slows

1. Every 360 degrees turn is added to .azimuthAngle value, which is accumulative.
   360º = 360 * THREE.MathUtils.DEG2RAD = Math.PI * 2, 720º = Math.PI * 4.
   Tip: How to normalize accumulated azimuthAngle?
2. Be aware colliderMeshes may decrease performance. The collision test uses 4 raycasters from the camera since the near plane has 4 corners.
3. If the Dolly distance is less (or over) than the minDistance (or maxDistance), infinityDolly will keep the distance and pushes the target position instead.

Events

CameraControls instance emits the following events.
To subscribe, use cameraControl.addEventListener( 'eventname', function ).
To unsubscribe, use cameraControl.removeEventListener( 'eventname', function ).

Event name	Timing
'controlstart'	When the user starts to control the camera via mouse / touches. ¹
'control'	When the user controls the camera (dragging).
'controlend'	When the user ends to control the camera. ¹
'transitionstart'	When any kind of transition starts, either user control or using a method with enableTransition = true
'update'	When the camera position is updated.
'wake'	When the camera starts moving.
'rest'	When the camera movement is below .restThreshold ².
'sleep'	When the camera end moving.

1. mouseButtons.wheel (Mouse wheel control) does not emit 'controlstart' and 'controlend'. mouseButtons.wheel uses scroll-event internally, and scroll-event happens intermittently. That means "start" and "end" cannot be detected.
2. Due to damping, sleep will usually fire a few seconds after the camera appears to have stopped moving. If you want to do something (e.g. enable UI, perform another transition) at the point when the camera has stopped, you probably want the rest event. This can be fine tuned using the .restThreshold parameter. See the Rest and Sleep Example.

User input config

Working example: user input config

button to assign	behavior
mouseButtons.left	CameraControls.ACTION.ROTATE* | CameraControls.ACTION.TRUCK | CameraControls.ACTION.OFFSET | CameraControls.ACTION.DOLLY | CameraControls.ACTION.ZOOM | CameraControls.ACTION.NONE
mouseButtons.right	CameraControls.ACTION.ROTATE | CameraControls.ACTION.TRUCK* | CameraControls.ACTION.OFFSET | CameraControls.ACTION.DOLLY | CameraControls.ACTION.ZOOM | CameraControls.ACTION.NONE
mouseButtons.wheel ¹	CameraControls.ACTION.ROTATE | CameraControls.ACTION.TRUCK | CameraControls.ACTION.OFFSET | CameraControls.ACTION.DOLLY | CameraControls.ACTION.ZOOM | CameraControls.ACTION.NONE
mouseButtons.middle ²	CameraControls.ACTION.ROTATE | CameraControls.ACTION.TRUCK | CameraControls.ACTION.OFFSET | CameraControls.ACTION.DOLLY* | CameraControls.ACTION.ZOOM | CameraControls.ACTION.NONE

1. Mouse wheel event for scroll "up/down" on mac "up/down/left/right"
2. Mouse click on wheel event "button"

• * is the default.
• The default of mouseButtons.wheel is:
  • DOLLY for Perspective camera.
  • ZOOM for Orthographic camera, and can't set DOLLY.

fingers to assign	behavior
touches.one	CameraControls.ACTION.TOUCH_ROTATE* | CameraControls.ACTION.TOUCH_TRUCK | CameraControls.ACTION.TOUCH_OFFSET | CameraControls.ACTION.DOLLY
touches.two	ACTION.TOUCH_DOLLY_TRUCK | ACTION.TOUCH_DOLLY_OFFSET | ACTION.TOUCH_DOLLY_ROTATE | ACTION.TOUCH_ZOOM_TRUCK | ACTION.TOUCH_ZOOM_OFFSET | ACTION.TOUCH_ZOOM_ROTATE | ACTION.TOUCH_DOLLY | ACTION.TOUCH_ZOOM | CameraControls.ACTION.TOUCH_ROTATE | CameraControls.ACTION.TOUCH_TRUCK | CameraControls.ACTION.TOUCH_OFFSET | CameraControls.ACTION.NONE
touches.three	ACTION.TOUCH_DOLLY_TRUCK | ACTION.TOUCH_DOLLY_OFFSET | ACTION.TOUCH_DOLLY_ROTATE | ACTION.TOUCH_ZOOM_TRUCK | ACTION.TOUCH_ZOOM_OFFSET | ACTION.TOUCH_ZOOM_ROTATE | CameraControls.ACTION.TOUCH_ROTATE | CameraControls.ACTION.TOUCH_TRUCK | CameraControls.ACTION.TOUCH_OFFSET | CameraControls.ACTION.NONE

• * is the default.
• The default of touches.two and touches.three is:
  • TOUCH_DOLLY_TRUCK for Perspective camera.
  • TOUCH_ZOOM_TRUCK for Orthographic camera, and can't set TOUCH_DOLLY_TRUCK and TOUCH_DOLLY.

Methods

rotate( azimuthAngle, polarAngle, enableTransition )

Rotate azimuthal angle(horizontal) and polar angle(vertical).
Every value is added to the current value.

Name	Type	Description
azimuthAngle	number	Azimuth rotate angle. In radian.
polarAngle	number	Polar rotate angle. In radian.
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

If you want to rotate only one axis, put a angle for the axis to rotate, and 0 for another.

rotate( 20 * THREE.MathUtils.DEG2RAD, 0, true );
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---

rotateAzimuthTo( azimuthAngle, enableTransition )

Rotate azimuthal angle(horizontal) to the given angle and keep the same polar angle(vertical) target.

Name	Type	Description
azimuthAngle	number	Azimuth rotate angle. In radian.
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

rotatePolarTo( polarAngle, enableTransition )

Rotate polar angle(vertical) to the given angle and keep the same azimuthal angle(horizontal) target.

Name	Type	Description
polarAngle	number	Polar rotate angle. In radian.
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

rotateTo( azimuthAngle, polarAngle, enableTransition )

Rotate azimuthal angle(horizontal) and polar angle(vertical) to the given angle.
Camera view will rotate over the orbit pivot absolutely:

Azimuth angle

       0º
         \
 90º -----+----- -90º
           \
           180º
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0º front, 90º (Math.PI / 2) left, -90º (- Math.PI / 2) right, 180º (Math.PI) back

---

Polar angle

     180º
      |
      90º
      |
      0º
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180º (Math.PI) top/sky, 90º (Math.PI / 2) horizontal from view, 0º bottom/floor

Name	Type	Description
azimuthAngle	number	Azimuth rotate angle to. In radian.
polarAngle	number	Polar rotate angle to. In radian.
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

dolly( distance, enableTransition )

Dolly in/out camera position.

Name	Type	Description
distance	number	Distance of dollyIn
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

dollyTo( distance, enableTransition )

Dolly in/out camera position to given distance.

Name	Type	Description
distance	number	Distance of dollyIn
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

dollyInFixed( distance, enableTransition )

Dolly in, but does not change the distance between the target and the camera, and moves the target position instead.
Specify a negative value for dolly out.

Name	Type	Description
distance	number	Distance of dollyIn
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

zoom( zoomStep, enableTransition )

Zoom in/out camera. The value is added to camera zoom.
Limits set with .minZoom and .maxZoom

Name	Type	Description
zoomStep	number	zoom scale
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

You can also make zoomIn function using camera.zoom property.
e.g.

const zoomIn  = () => cameraControls.zoom(   camera.zoom / 2, true );
const zoomOut = () => cameraControls.zoom( - camera.zoom / 2, true );
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---

zoomTo( zoom, enableTransition )

Zoom in/out camera to given scale. The value overwrites camera zoom.
Limits set with .minZoom and .maxZoom

Name	Type	Description
zoom	number	zoom scale
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

truck( x, y, enableTransition )

Truck and pedestal camera using current azimuthal angle.

Name	Type	Description
x	number	Horizontal translate amount
y	number	Vertical translate amount
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

lookInDirectionOf( x, y, z, enableTransition )

Look in the given point direction.

Name	Type	Description
x	number	point x
y	number	point y
z	number	point z
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

setFocalOffset( x, y, z, enableTransition )

Set focal offset using the screen parallel coordinates.
z doesn't affect in Orthographic as with Dolly.

Name	Type	Description
x	number	Horizontal offset amount
y	number	Vertical offset amount
z	number	Depth offset amount. The result is the same as Dolly but unaffected by minDistance and maxDistance
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

setOrbitPoint( targetX, targetY, targetZ )

Set orbit point without moving the camera.

Name	Type	Description
targetX	number	Orbit center position x
targetY	number	Orbit center position y
targetZ	number	Orbit center position z

---

forward( distance, enableTransition )

Move forward / backward.

Name	Type	Description
distance	number	Amount to move forward / backward. Negative value to move backward
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

moveTo( x, y, z, enableTransition )

Move target position to given point.

Name	Type	Description
x	number	x coord to move center position
y	number	y coord to move center position
z	number	z coord to move center position
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

elevate( height, enableTransition )

Move up / down.

Name	Type	Description
height	number	Amount to move up / down. Negative value to move down
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

fitToBox( box3OrMesh, enableTransition, { paddingTop, paddingLeft, paddingBottom, paddingRight } )

Fit the viewport to the box or the bounding box of the object, using the nearest axis. paddings are in unit.
set cover: true to fill enter screen.

Name	Type	Description
box3OrMesh	THREE.Box3 | THREE.Mesh	Axis aligned bounding box to fit the view.
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately
options	object	Options
options.cover	boolean	Whether fill enter screen or not. Default is false
options.paddingTop	number	Padding top. Default is 0
options.paddingRight	number	Padding right. Default is 0
options.paddingBottom	number	Padding bottom. Default is 0
options.paddingLeft	number	Padding left. Default is 0

---

fitToSphere( sphereOrMesh, enableTransition )

Fit the viewport to the sphere or the bounding sphere of the object.

Name	Type	Description
sphereOrMesh	THREE.Sphere | THREE.Mesh	bounding sphere to fit the view.
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

setLookAt( positionX, positionY, positionZ, targetX, targetY, targetZ, enableTransition )

Look at the target from the position.

Name	Type	Description
positionX	number	Camera position x.
positionY	number	Camera position y.
positionZ	number	Camera position z.
targetX	number	Orbit center position x.
targetY	number	Orbit center position y.
targetZ	number	Orbit center position z.
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

lerpLookAt( positionAX, positionAY, positionAZ, targetAX, targetAY, targetAZ, positionBX, positionBY, positionBZ, targetBX, targetBY, targetBZ, t, enableTransition )

Similar to setLookAt, but it interpolates between two states.

Name	Type	Description
positionAX	number	The starting position x of look at from.
positionAY	number	The starting position y of look at from.
positionAZ	number	The starting position z of look at from.
targetAX	number	The starting position x of look at.
targetAY	number	The starting position y of look at.
targetAZ	number	The starting position z of look at.
positionBX	number	Look at from position x to interpolate towards.
positionBY	number	Look at from position y to interpolate towards.
positionBZ	number	Look at from position z to interpolate towards.
targetBX	number	look at position x to interpolate towards.
targetBY	number	look at position y to interpolate towards.
targetBZ	number	look at position z to interpolate towards.
t	number	Interpolation factor in the closed interval. The value must be a number between 0 to 1 inclusive, where 1 is 100%
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

setPosition( positionX, positionY, positionZ, enableTransition )

Set angle and distance by given position.
An alias of setLookAt(), without target change. Thus keep gazing at the current target

Name	Type	Description
positionX	number	Position x of look at from.
positionY	number	Position y of look at from.
positionZ	number	Position z of look at from.
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

setTarget( targetX, targetY, targetZ, enableTransition )

Set the target position where gaze at.
An alias of setLookAt(), without position change. Thus keep the same position.

Name	Type	Description
targetX	number	Position x of look at.
targetY	number	Position y of look at.
targetZ	number	Position z of look at.
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

setBoundary( box3? )

Set the boundary box that encloses the target of the camera. box3 is in THREE.Box3

Name	Type	Description
box3	THREE.Box3?	Boundary area. No argument to remove the boundary.

---

setViewport( vector4? )

Set (or unset) the current viewport.
Set this when you want to use renderer viewport and .dollyToCursor feature at the same time.

See: THREE.WebGLRenderer.setViewport()

Name	Type	Description
vector4	THREE.Vector4?	Vector4 that represents the viewport, or undefined for unsetting this.

setViewport( x, y, width, height )

Same as setViewport( vector4 ), but you can give it four numbers that represents a viewport instead:

Name	Type	Description
x	number	Leftmost of the viewport.
y	number	Bottommost of the viewport.
width	number	Width of the viewport.
height	number	Height of the viewport.

---

getTarget( out, receiveEndValue )

Returns the orbit center position, where the camera looking at.

Name	Type	Description
out	THREE.Vector3	The receiving Vector3 instance to copy the result
receiveEndValue	boolean	Whether receive the transition end coords or current. default is true

---

getPosition( out, receiveEndValue )

Returns the camera position.

Name	Type	Description
out	THREE.Vector3	The receiving Vector3 instance to copy the result
receiveEndValue	boolean	Whether receive the transition end coords or current. default is true

---

getSpherical( out, receiveEndValue )

Returns the spherical coordinates of the orbit.

Name	Type	Description
out	THREE.Vector3	The receiving Spherical instance to copy the result
receiveEndValue	boolean	Whether receive the transition end coords or current. default is true

---

getFocalOffset( out, receiveEndValue )

Returns the focal offset, which is how much the camera appears to be translated in screen parallel coordinates.

Name	Type	Description
out	THREE.Vector3	The receiving Vector3 instance to copy the result
receiveEndValue	boolean	Whether receive the transition end coords or current. default is true

---

saveState()

Set current camera position as the default position

---

normalizeRotations()

Normalize camera azimuth angle rotation between 0 and 360 degrees.

---

reset( enableTransition )

Reset all rotation and position to default.

Name	Type	Description
enableTransition	boolean	Whether to move smoothly or immediately

---

update( delta ): boolean

Update camera position and directions. This should be called in your tick loop and returns true if re-rendering is needed.

Name	Type	Description
delta	number	Delta time between previous update call

---

updateCameraUp()

When you change camera-up vector, run .updateCameraUp() to sync.

---

applyCameraUp()

Apply current camera-up direction to the camera.
The orbit system will be re-initialized with the current position.

---

connect()

Attach all internal event handlers to enable drag control.

---

disconnect()

Detach all internal event handlers to disable drag control.

---

dispose()

Dispose the cameraControls instance itself, remove all eventListeners.

---

addEventListener( type: string, listener: function )

Adds the specified event listener.

---

removeEventListener( type: string, listener: function )

Removes the specified event listener.

---

removeAllEventListeners( type: string )

Removes all listeners for the specified type.

---

toJSON()

Get all state in JSON string

---

fromJSON( json, enableTransition )

Reproduce the control state with JSON. enableTransition is where anim or not in a boolean.

---

Tips

Normalize accumulated azimuth angle:

If you need a normalized accumulated azimuth angle (between 0 and 360 deg), compute with THREE.MathUtils.euclideanModulo
e.g.:

const TAU = Math.PI * 2;

function normalizeAngle( angle ) {

    return THREE.MathUtils.euclideanModulo( angle, TAU );

}

const normalizedAzimuthAngle = normalizeAngle( cameraControls.azimuthAngle );
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---

Find the absolute angle to shortest azimuth rotatation:

You may rotate 380deg but actually, you expect to rotate -20deg.
To get the absolute angle, use the below:

const TAU = Math.PI * 2;

function absoluteAngle( targetAngle, sourceAngle ){

  const angle = targetAngle - sourceAngle
  return THREE.MathUtils.euclideanModulo( angle + Math.PI, TAU ) - Math.PI;

}

console.log( absoluteAngle( 380 * THREE.MathUtils.DEG2RAD, 0 ) * THREE.MathUtils.RAD2DEG ); // -20deg
console.log( absoluteAngle( -1000 * THREE.MathUtils.DEG2RAD, 0 ) * THREE.MathUtils.RAD2DEG ); // 80deg
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---

Creating Complex Transitions

All methods that take the enableTransition parameter return a Promise can be used to create complex animations, for example:

async function complexTransition() {
    await cameraControls.rotateTo( Math.PI / 2, Math.PI / 4, true );
    await cameraControls.dollyTo( 3, true );
    await cameraControls.fitToSphere( mesh, true );
}
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This will rotate the camera, then dolly, and finally fit to the bounding sphere of the mesh.

The speed and timing of transitions can be tuned using .restThreshold and .smoothTime.

If enableTransition is false, the promise will resolve immediately:

// will resolve immediately
await cameraControls.dollyTo( 3, false );
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---

V2 Migration Guide

camera-controls used to use simple damping for its smooth transition. camera-controls v2 now uses SmoothDamp.
one of the benefits of using SmoothDamp is, SmoothDamp transition can be controlled with smoothTime which is approximately the time it will take to reach the end position.
Also, the Maximum speed of the transition can be set with max speed.

Due to the change, the following are needed.
(if you haven't changed dampingFactor and draggingDampingFactor in v1.x, nothing is needed)

deprecated

• dampingFactor (use smoothTime instead)
• draggingDampingFactor (use draggingSmoothTime instead)

added

• smoothTime
• draggingSmoothTime
• maxSpeed

...That's it!

Contributors

This project exists thanks to all the people who contribute.

Release

Pre-requisites:

1. a npm registry up and running with a NPM_TOKEN

    $ export NPM_TOKEN=npm_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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2. a Github PAT

     $ export GITHUB_TOKEN=github_pat_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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$ npm run release -- --dry-run
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