Professional Papervision3D

Chapter 16. Flash & Math: Exploring Flash 10 and Beyond

When Flash 10 was released, the Away3D team immediately embraced it and updated their application to take advantage of some of its features. But just enhancing your 3D application so that it uses the Flash 10 features isn't enough to make anyone excited. The present 3D work flow for software like Away3D and PV3D is too time consuming and complex. The next successful 3D Flash engine won't just concern greater speed but will also be about enhanced work flow.

Adobe has got it right . . . programs like Flash Catalyst are models of what the next generation of 3D software must do: create sites and games using techniques that accelerate work flow by generating code through graphical techniques. Like Flash Catalyst, which generates code by graphical techniques, there needs to be something like a "Papervision Catalyst" that generates 3D websites just as easily.

In this chapter, you start with taking the pool shooting game developed in Chapter 10 and recreate it using Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder. You discuss optimizing the PV3D engine to run more efficiently in the Flash 10, take a look at faster options, and develop other possible 3D rendering schemes using drawTriangle class. Finally, you take a look at Flash Builder's new layout functionality.

Importantly, no chapter like this is ever complete. Technology is moving so fast that as soon as a topic is published about the newest thing – it's not! To help address this problem the book's ...