
# Getting Started - Basic House

## A Basic House
Adding a roof would make our box more house-like. We need a prism-like shape. Luckily, we can do that using *CreateCylinder*. The name might imply a cylinder rather than a prism; however, when using it, you need to state how many points there are around the circumference of the cylinder, and for a prism we can use three points.

```javascript
const roof = BABYLON.MeshBuilder.CreateCylinder("roof", {diameter: 1.3, height: 1.2, tessellation: 3});
roof.scaling.x = 0.75;
roof.rotation.z = Math.PI / 2;
roof.position.y = 1.22;
```

Since the cylinder is created vertically, we need to rotate it to a horizontal position and scale it down in one direction so that the height of the roof is less than its width.

<Playground id="#KBS9I5#70" title="Adding a Prism Roof Using 'CreateCylinder'" description="A playground demonstrating how to add a 'prism' roof to your house." image="/img/playgroundsAndNMEs/gettingStartedPrism.webp"/>

![house 1](/img/getstarted/house1.webp)

The world will be improved with a little color and texture.


# Getting Started - Texture

## Add Texture
In order to add color and texture to our meshes, we apply a material to them. The basic material is the standard material, created like this:

```javascript
const material = new BABYLON.StandardMaterial("name", scene);
```
Let's make the ground green to represent grass.

```javascript
const groundMat = new BABYLON.StandardMaterial("groundMat");
groundMat.diffuseColor = new BABYLON.Color3(0, 1, 0);
ground.material = groundMat; //Place the material property of the ground
```
Since there is only one scene we can drop that parameter and let it default to the current scene.

Setting a color requires three parameters: red, green, and blue (r, g, b), each from 0 to 1 inclusive. (0, 0, 0) is black, and (1, 1, 1) is white.  
For these colors you can use
```javascript
BABYLON.Color3.Red();
BABYLON.Color3.Green();
BABYLON.Color3.Blue();
BABYLON.Color3.Black();
BABYLON.Color3.White();
BABYLON.Color3.Purple();
BABYLON.Color3.Magenta();
BABYLON.Color3.Yellow();
BABYLON.Color3.Gray();
BABYLON.Color3.Teal();
```
Now add some texture to the box and roof:
```javascript
const roofMat = new BABYLON.StandardMaterial("roofMat");
roofMat.diffuseTexture = new BABYLON.Texture("https://assets.babylonjs.com/environments/roof.jpg", scene);
const boxMat = new BABYLON.StandardMaterial("boxMat");
boxMat.diffuseTexture = new BABYLON.Texture("https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/textures/floor.png");
```
The first parameter for a texture is a relative or absolute URL for the image to use. As usual, the scene parameter is optional and defaults to the current scene.

Finally, of course, set their material properties:
```
roof.material = roofMat;
box.material = boxMat;
```

<Playground id="#KBS9I5#71" title="Adding Materials To Your Objects'" description="A playground demonstrating how to add materials to the objects in your scene." image="/img/playgroundsAndNMEs/gettingStartedMaterials.webp"/>

![house 2](/img/getstarted/house2.webp)

Having stone walls with no doors or windows is not a very interesting look for a house. Also, when you look closely, you can see that each side uses the same image, and on some sides it is rotated. 



# Getting Started - Mesh Placement

## Place and Scale a Mesh

### Size
Some meshes, such as a box, have properties that you can set during creation to change their size.

```javascript
const box = BABYLON.MeshBuilder.CreateBox("box", {width: 2, height: 1.5, depth: 3})
```

After creation, and for meshes that do not have sizing options, changes in size are achieved by scaling the mesh.

```javascript
const box = BABYLON.MeshBuilder.CreateBox("box", {}); //unit cube
box.scaling.x = 2;
box.scaling.y = 1.5;
box.scaling.z = 3;
```

```javascript
const box = BABYLON.MeshBuilder.CreateBox("box", {}); //unit cube
box.scaling = new BABYLON.Vector3(2, 1.5, 3);
```

As you can see from the code above, scaling is a vector object with properties x, y, and z.

All three code examples above produce boxes of the same size.

## Position
For the majority of meshes, the [position](/features/featuresDeepDive/mesh/transforms/center_origin/position) property places the center of the mesh at that position. Position is also a vector object with properties x, y, and z, so the following two code examples position the box in the same place.

```javascript
box.position.x = -2;
box.position.y = 4.2;
box.position.z = 0.1;
```

```javascript
box.position = new BABYLON.Vector3(-2, 4.2, 0.1);
```

We can now use positions to place boxes sized in three different ways in one playground. In each case, the height of a box is 1.5, so for each box, position.y = 0.75 places it on the ground.

<Playground id="#KBS9I5#68" title="Positioning Meshes" description="A playground demonstrating different ways to position a mesh in your scene." image="/img/playgroundsAndNMEs/gettingStartedMeshPlacement.webp"/>

### Orientation
Like scaling and position, the [rotation](/features/featuresDeepDive/mesh/transforms/center_origin/rotation) property of a mesh is a vector object with properties x, y, and z. However, when building our first world, we will consider rotation about only one axis, since setting rotation about all three axes can be surprisingly confusing.

Rotations are given in radians. If you prefer working in degrees, Babylon.js provides a conversion tool. Both of these lines of code produce the same rotation.

```javascript
box.rotation.y = Math.PI / 4;
box.rotation.y = BABYLON.Tools.ToRadians(45);
```

<Playground id="#KBS9I5#69" title="Rotating Meshes" description="A playground demonstrating how to rotate a mesh in your scene." image="/img/playgroundsAndNMEs/gettingStartedRotatingMeshes.webp"/>

We can now change the size, position, and orientation of a mesh, adding a little more variation to the box as a building. Before we place more boxes in the scene, let us see if we can make them look a little more like buildings.


Getting Started - Chapter 2 - Basic House

A Basic House

Further reading

Creating Set Shapes

Learn how to create standard set shapes in Babylon.js.