I'm starting to build a game with React and Vite, and I'm wondering whether using the HTML canvas element is a normal approach. I haven't found many tutorials that combine React, Vite, and canvas, so I'd appreciate advice on the recommended setup and what kind of tutorials or examples I should look for.
2 Answers
Yes, it’s common to use React for the surrounding interface while using a canvas for the game itself. React can render the page and provide the canvas element, but the drawing and game loop are usually handled with regular JavaScript through the canvas API. You can access the element with a ref and draw on its 2D context.
React doesn’t manage individual shapes or pixels inside a canvas, and trying to make it do that can hurt performance. Treat the canvas as its own drawing surface: render the canvas element with React, grab a ref to it, then use the standard Canvas 2D API for drawing, input handling, animation, and the game loop. Vite doesn’t change this pattern—it mainly handles the project setup and development tools.
So the usual approach is React for the UI and vanilla JavaScript with the HTML5 canvas API for the game rendering?