Comments on: Source : Better Flash 10 3D interaction : ArcBall

By: Nikos

Nikos — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:43:33 +0000

Cool, I’ve found it a bit hard to make solid objects in flash so far, thanks.

By: Source : Better Flash 10 3D interaction : ArcBall - inspiration

Source : Better Flash 10 3D interaction : ArcBall - inspiration — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:40:16 +0000

[...] by UnitZeroOne [...]

By: Weekly Digest for October 29th — Hello. My name is Václav Vančura.

Weekly Digest for October 29th — Hello. My name is Václav Vančura. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:41:51 +0000

[...] Source : Better Flash 10 3D interaction : ArcBall | UnitZeroOne [...]

By: Andy Li

Andy Li — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:28:14 +0000

I’ve done something similar to @boblemarin ’s version in the past. For me, the problem is the cube will get rotated when you press and drag it in circular motion… For example, dragging it clockwise will make the cube move anti-clockwise…

By: JB

JB — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:47:28 +0000

Wish that was added in PV. Would be sooo much simpler. Hint hint.

By: flash components

flash components — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:45:22 +0000

nice pv3d tutorial Ralph.

By: gordee

gordee — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:52:12 +0000

Really good and generous of you. I am not man enough for Quaternions. My head hurts thinking of much simpler Math

By: esedeerre

esedeerre — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:47:59 +0000

Thanks Ralph!!!

I fought in a war against quaternions a few months ago….

By: boblemarin

boblemarin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:54:13 +0000

You’re absolutely right.

Real men are Quaternions’ friends.
Thanks.

By: UnitZeroOne

UnitZeroOne — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:43:16 +0000

@boblemarin Although the solutions look the same, because of the use of Euler angles in your example, there is a subtle but UI wise notable difference. With the Quaternions you get true 6 dof, with the use of eulers in your example you don’t. Although both are an implementation of an arcball which works, there is a subtle difference, which doesn’t make it the same.

Here’s a good way to see that difference. With one of the faces of the cube facing directly to the viewer, try and rotate the plane around it’s Z axis (the axis coming directly towards you. For clarity sake, let’s called it the effect of an old .rotation property). Now, if you try and rotate around that axis 180 degrees with the quaternion approach, although it does take a couple of steps going back and forth of pulling one of the corners down, and then the opposite corner up, you can do a full rotation with that, without actually getting an unexpected rotation, or having to do a full flip.

Try that with your example of using euler angles. You’ll see it’s not truly direct 6DOF, and it’s harder to get the same result. It will feel somewhat like one of the angles is “locked”, or you have got less control over it. It’s subtle, but to me a big difference.

By: Rackdoll

Rackdoll — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:57:10 +0000

Nice work Ralph! Will definately be using this!

By: boblemarin

boblemarin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:10:39 +0000

I was wondering about the benefits of your approach when the same effect can be achieved very simply with the built-in Matrix3D.appendRotation() method.

See my example here : http://www.minimal.be/lab/ArcBall/
(ViewSource is enabled and you can also control the Cube rotation with the arrow keys).

(and thanks for all your contributions)

By: derek knox

derek knox — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:08:23 +0000

Nice work, thanks again. I went to your PV3D workshop and session at Flashbelt and I really appreciate (as do many) your contributions and accomplishments. Keep it up.

ps the w in wedding sounds spot on.

By: Lee Brimelow

Lee Brimelow — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:58:10 +0000

@MSFX here is a direct link to SimpleZSorter: http://code.google.com/p/leebrimelow/source/browse/#svn/trunk/as3/com/theflashblog/3d

By: Remon Tijssen

Remon Tijssen — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:17:05 +0000

Thanks Ralph, it’s amazing to keep seeing how you create solutions for complex stuff like this and making it usefull to a much broader audiance. Now I can keep ignoring what the hell Quaternions are and move on.