Hey all, I came across an interesting link (via three separate channels no less :P) showing some simple 3D bump mapping demos done in Flash and thought I’d share:
Flash 9 PV 3D Example : 3d bumpmapped objects demo
While it’s all still in the early tech demo stages it’s worth noting just to keep tabs on the potential competition somewhere down the line… Take it for what it’s worth.
I would say that is certainly real nice and will be interesting to see where they take it and at what pace it takes them to get there.
Regards,
– Clint
Cool!
But this whole thing (PaperVision) is still a software-only renderer (i.e. it runs on the CPU). So this puts it in the same league as Pixomatic or SwiftShader (both are pure software renderers, though not Flash related) - interesting, but the actual use is pretty constrained in my opinion.
When/if Flash gets real hardware accelerated 3D (or we arrive at hundred-core CPUs and Flash would somehow be able to utilize them all), then things would be getting interesting!
…but doing a software renderer is an interesting task of course! Ah, the olden days… 
Let me get this straight, this is a software renderer written in ActionScript? :shock:
It’s shiny and therefore I like it.
-Jon
Im a big Flash evangelist (ive setup a virtual pc on my mac JUST to use flashdevelop). My collegue showed me this and Im glad the flash plugin is being shown how powerful it is.
Im still wondering if it will be of any practical use.
That’s really cool, I doubt I’ll use it, but still, for being Flash that’s really cool.
Yeah, I really only brought it up here as this demo is the current “state of the art” for 3D in Flash, and really, what’s there compared to a tool like ours? It’s nice and offers a pretty spinning bauble or two to look at, but it’s far from being a proper 3D option let alone something appropriate for games development.