UnitZeroOne

With the addition of the 2.5d API in Flash 10, lot's of developers now have even easier access to basic 2.5D environments. But with those new capabilities and API's new challenges for developers arise. Famously, Flash 10 doesn't do the Z-Sorting natively. When Lee Brimelow asked me if I could send him an easy solution for that, I sent him the SimpleZSorter. Which he in turn used to paste my profile picture on as much as possible planes, but more significantly, use for this tutorial.

Althought the name Simple would imply something a bit away from a PerfectZSorter (which, technically, has some challenges considering the 2.5D API and the player performance, don't ask), the thing which astounded me was the amount of feedback. Sure, more people had asked me for such a solution and this simple little tool did it for them most of the time.

But considering the simplicity of the SimpleZSorter and the amount of feedback I got on it (even if I didn't publish on it myself) made clear that although the 2.5D API of Flash 10 opened up loads of opportunities for developers and designers a like, some of the simpler issues aren't addressed by it, whist there is clearly a need for it. That need can be addressed and with this post I'm hoping to do a another small part.

The ArcBall

One of the questions which people have been asking me about for in relation to using the 2.5D API, is (loosely combined) "How do I rotate things in 3D correctly with the mouse".As this question came more and more, I've also realized how fundamental this is to our community. With Flash 10 we have native realtime (2.5D) 3D, but with realtime comes interactivity. And what use is it for users to have a 3D interface, while the controls are not intuitive ? At that point 3D becomes a worse experience, rather then a better. While this solution won't address every issue with that, it most certainly addresses one, 3D rotation dragging.

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I normally don't delve into book reviews or endorsements; and I won't go there just yet with this post. But I do want to get your attention for the first released Papervision3D book; Papervision3D Essentials.

Written by Jeff Winder and Paul Tondeur, this elaborate, 13 chapter book looks great for anyone wanting to learn or deepen their knowledge of the Papervision3D API and Engine. Congratulations to both authors for getting it released! Great job!

Although I haven't recieved my ([total disclosure] free, thank you guys), copy for review yet, the book looks promising, if you can judge it by these two free online chapters, about Lines3D and VectorVision.

As one of the core members of Papervision3D and having architectured and written rather large portions of the Papervision 2 Engine, for me personally it's amazing to see a project like this. It's documenting code that the team has been writing over the years and getting it on paper, along with an explanation and examples is something huge to me, as well as being huge for people wanting to start or already experienced with the engine! Having recieved multiple mails full of questions and additional bug fixes (as have other members of the team) from Paul and Jeff, I can assure they have been thorough in reviewing & examplifying the Papervision code base.

In a way, that's a very odd feeling; an obscure function which might have been thought up and written at 2pm at night (which during the initial dev of Papervision3D 1.7, 1.9 and 2.0 was rule, rather then exception), might now have gotten an explanation in the book.

One thing the project has been lacking the most though, was a paper resource to look things up; and that has now arrived!

I will blog a more thorough review after having recieved and read the book. Can't wait to see this book as a piece of tangible material and actually hold it!

[UPDATE]

Another free chapter has emerged as PDF. Chapter 8; modelling and importing to Papervision3D.

Microsoft released Silverlight 3. So it's time for Silverlight on my Flash blog ? Heresy ?  No, not really.

I'm not going to do an intro to Silverlight here, I guess you all know what it is, or what it is proposed to be. As a developer, I'm naturally interested in platforms available to me or in a similar area to what I work in. Therefore, Silverlight has my attention. Not because I believe it's a Flash killer, not because I think a bag of Microsofts cash will come my way, not because I want to destroy Silverlight, but because it's a technology which plays in the same realm as my professional environment. Surely being Flash Platform developer, I'm biased. The platform that has allowed me to earn my professional living and have so much fun is clearly my favorite any day. But let's have a look anyway.

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