Features & Improvements

As well as what seems like an endless list of bugfixes, the release has seen a string of new features added. Most notable are spritesheets animators and a constrained mode option for shaders, the former being a feature that can sync with your spritesheets created via Flash CS6 etc, the latter an option for those wanting to maximise their hardware acceleration reach while sacrificing a little on visuals. Improvements to the shadow options, scene partitioning and shading are also present, offering more options and an optimised render pipeline for those processor-hungry scenes.

Tutorials

There are some new tutorials to feast your eyes on in our tutorials wiki, as well as several that have popped up recently on the Adobe Developer Connection. For those interested in having a crack at the new spritesheet APIs, have a look at Using spritesheets in your projects, a fantastically detailed look at everything that can be done with this new Away3D feature. We also have a look at how writing custom materials can help optimise you shader (especially when using constrained mode) in Writing Custom Materials part 1 & part 2.

Over at ADC, we now have An introduction to mouse picking in Away3D and Simulating the globe with Away3D, both excellent intermediate tutorials for those wanting to get a bit more out of the API

Away Builder 0.9.0 Alpha

Now we get to a very exciting area of development - our brand new workflow tool Away Builder. You can download the latest stable binary from our Away Builder downloads page, or get a bleeding-edge build by grabbing the source and compiling for yourself. Everything for Away Builder is developed free and open source, so you can even create your own extensions directly in the tool interface should your project demand it.

Away Builder has been created from the ground up to provide a better link between 3D design and development. Essentially, Away Builder is a designer interface for accessing the visual stack in Away3D. Anything you can do in Away3D you can do in Away Builder, although right now (due to our Alpha status) this is restricted to covering materials, textures, lights, meshes and geometry.

As well as the development of the tool, we have spent considerable time on enhancing the AWD format to be able to store and retrieve the scene data required for the new asset setups you create. AWD 2.1 is still in draft spec, but you can follow this and other AWD developments from inside a new github organisation at http://github.com/awaytools. For the latest specifications doc on AWD, goto AWD_format_specification2_1_Alpha.pdf

Code Examples

Some new examples have been added to the examples zip to support the additional features of 4.1.1 Beta - Intermediate_MonsterHeadShading is an update on our old head model from Mr Perry Lee-Smith, replacing him with something altogether more... monstrous. With a poly-count through the roof and some added shading and shadow effects, it really shows how the engine has improved these past few months.

We also have a new demo showing off the potential of spritesheets, simulating a old-fashioned bedside clock, Intermediate_SpriteSheetAnimation. At first glance nothing is amiss... but wait, is that the time where you are? And is it updating with every second? Yes it is, and whats more, no GPU upload calls were hurt in its making.

This update being a bit of a two-parter, its hard to know what to end on. The Away3D 4.1.1 Beta is now available on the dev branch of github, or the usual downloads page for Away3D. This is primarily a stability update so we're looking forward to your feedback - any issues experienced then please alert us on the forums or our github issues page. Away Builder 0.9.0 is currently an alpha build - due to technical restrictions we were forced to roll back the release of a full beta candidate until the end of May. However, this gives us the advantage of responding to your feedback early in the development process. Any feature wishlists, bug reports or missing functionality you'd like to see addressed, please let us know via the github issues page or the brand new forum section for Away Builder discussion.

Also, for those wanting to hear a little more about what Away Builder and Away3D 4.1.1 Beta offer, Rob Bateman will be giving a presentation on Wed 8th May as part of the Game Frameworks Panel at this year's Adobe Max conference, so hop on the live stream (9.30am local time) or come along and introduce yourselves if you're lucky enough to be there in person.

Enjoy the new release(s)!

Digitas France (Publicis Groupe) is an integrated brand agency – with a real-time digital core building powerful brands, creating valuable content and utility in the here-and-now of every touch point. We feel honoured to be able to make this official connection with a company that has already provided so much high quality Away3D content to the web,  showing that 3D in the browser can be an amazing experience when done right.

Their latest release to use Away3D is the highly polished Nissan Juke Personalisation experience. On announcing the partnership, Digtas France said:

Digitas is proud to announce its partnership with the Away Foundation, reflecting our will and excitement to deliver the best 3D content for brands showing that 3D is not only for gaming anymore!

Judging by their extensive backcatalog of showcase entries on our site, we couldn't agree more.

Away Studios will be taking over Enterprise Partner duties from Away Media, dedicating developer resources and funds to The Away Foundation for the continued development of Away3D, as well as managing the official pro-support services for Away3D and associated libraries.

As well as company support, Away Studios have increased both their capacity and service remit, adding project concepting, design and management into the mix of services they offer. Find out more by taking a stroll around their new site at http://www.awaystudios.com

We want to thank all companies and individuals who submitted Away3D content for GDC. Its been an amazing year for Away3D and the Away Foundation so far, and we look forward to more incredible looking 3D releases in the coming months.

The Away3D Team

Alternative youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNAFFhAkGC8

• Game limit set to 8 (up from 5)
• Player limit set to 60,000 (up from 40K)
• Unlimited API calls
• Early access to new features, start with our new cloud storage
• X1 for push notifications (coming soon)

Developers who take advantage of the offer while it is running are not subject to any time limit on the extensions Away3D allows. The current offer is set to run until the end of September 2013. In order to receive your Away3D extensions:

• Signup to Scoreoid at http://www.scoreoid.net/get-started/ (if you’re an existing user skip this step)
• Add Scoreoid to your game
• Send a support ticket – http://www.scoreoid.net/support-ticket/ to your game URL, and the email used to sign up to Scoreoid

As Adobe Gaming annouce their own roadmap for the year, there are some exciting times ahead for Away Foundation projects. The key areas of development we have planned so far are outlined below.

Away Builder workflow tool

The recent inclusion of Away3D in the Adobe Gaming SDK has provided us with a strong platform on which to further develop our resource libraries. As part of this ongoing relationship, we are preparing a brand new development stream for the creation of an open source AIR tool for the preview and preparation of Away3D content. The work will combine several of our existing strands of development in this area, including our work carried out so far on the highly optimised AWD format, with the intention of establishing a new project called Away Builder that will smooth the 3D production workflow between design and development. Some of the features of the first Away Builder release will include:

• An import mechanism that accepts a variety of industry-standard formats and provides preview and export functionality

• A WYSIWYG scene editor that will simplify material and light setups for Away3D, exposing core engine settings & functionality at the design stage

• An updated format specification for AWD allowing the Away3D engine to recreate many more Away3D scene elements and settings from exported data.

• An asset manager to easily tweak and optimise all aspects of the content contained inside individual AWD files, not just those visible on the stage.

The focus for development will be on easy of use and optimising output, and should make Away3D asset preparation a much easier prospect for 3D designers & developers in future. The Away Builder tool interface will be built on Adobe AIR and Apache Flex, and will be subject to the same Apache 2.0 licensing as the Away3D engine, making community contributions and / or bespoke company alterations and additions as easy as downloading the source and getting stuck in.

Away3D 4.1 Beta & Gold

Building on the 4.1 Alpha release towards the end of last year, the Away3D 4.1 engine will receive two further updates this year. A beta release will finalise the featureset and consolidate some of the feedback and fixes proposed by our community, while the production-ready gold release will perform a final sweep on stability and optimisations, accompanied by further updates and improvements to documentation, tutorials and reference material.

In terms of features, we are looking to prioritise the following for Away3D 4.1 Beta

• Completion of Constrained Mode Stage3D support

• Expanded animation engine to enable more complex animation trees

• Additional animation types for GPU accelerated modifiers

• Expanded texture options to provide more choice for texture types

• Expanded post-processing options for advanced realtime effects

As the number of different platforms enabled for Stage3D publishing increases, we become ever more aware of the importance of flexible optimisation options for Away3D projects. The primary goal of our work on the gold release will be to increase our options in this area, in order to provide a truly multi-platform engine that delivers the optimal performance for 3D, whatever the underlying hardware.

Away Physics

A significant announcement in the Adobe roadmap blog post is the removal of licensing requirements from the XC APIs (formally Alchemy). This is great news for the Flash community, and will hold special significance for the Away Physics project which will no longer require an Adobe premium features license in order to be used in the Flash Player. We will be taking an in-depth look at what we can do in the near future to get Away Physics to production release status and hopefully have more information on our roadmap in this area very soon.

Timescales for release

As before, we are setting release dates for the above Away Foundation work so that our partners can plan ahead for when such releases will be available. We intend to release Away Builder 1.0 Beta alongside the Away3D 4.1 Beta at the beginning of May 2013. The following Away3D 4.1 gold release will occur at the end of July. Exact dates will be revealed closer to time.

As always, our outlines for work contain the general direction for us over the next few months, but this doesn't mean that we are no longer looking at user patches and pull requests. If you have an improvement that you feel should be included in the official release, or some area that is currently causing trouble in your Away3D project, please get in contact via the Away3D forums or github issues list and we can include you in the discussion.

The SDK package includes a number of open source frameworks that are officially supported by Adobe. Currently the list includes Starling for 2D graphics, Away3D for 3D and Feathers for UI components. We are very proud to be included in the existing supported frameworks of the SDK, and intend to be fully supportive of this new resource. At this stage, Adobe appear to have a good attitude when it comes to open source support for libraries that assist the Flash gaming workflow, and we welcome this continuing and expanding as more developers look towards Flash and AIR for crossplatform gaming development.

The bundle can be downloaded for free by logging into the Adobe Creative Cloud - don't worry if you don't have an account yet, as registration for this service is also free. Along with the open source libraries, several source examples are included. For Away3D, a new game demo called Invawayders is bundled which demonstrates how you can build a fun little 3D take on an arcade classic using the SDK. For a cross-platform preview of the game, check out the live web version, as well as published mobile versions on both Android and iOS. This content will also be updated over time, so watch this space for more info on SDK examples and updates.

For more info on the SDK, visit http://gaming.adobe.com/technologies/gamingsdk/