2.5.0 and 3.5.0 represent the latest full engine releases of Away3D for Flash Player 9 and 10. You can grab the code either from the svn repository or the downloads page, where you will also find a bunch of updated examples.

Accompanying the Away3D update is the latest version of Prefab3D a 3D preparation tool created by Fabrice Closier using Adobe AIR. You can download the runtime from the official Prefab3D installation page, or from the AIR Marketplace where you can also submit feedback (and we encourage you to do so!). Prefab3D is still very much a work in progress, but its newest feature allows the export of specially formatted .awd files optimised for FPS rendering (otherwise known as BSP files).

As an example of what is possible with this new feature, the following Hacienda demo was created using the latest Prefab3D runtime and Away3D sources:

A number of rooms can be navigated using the mouse and keyboard, with collision detection enabled by processing the BSP format in Away3D. The beautifully shaded textures were created using Prefab3D’s texture baking feature.

Be careful where you tread, as this is still an experimental demo! Further optimizing work is being carried out on collision and rendering loops in Away3D, but even at this stage, the speed benefits are evident.

Alongside the new FPS features, the Away3D codebase has undergone a fairly major rehaul and anyone wishing to upgrade their project to use 2.5 / 3.5 needs to be prepared for a little re-formatting here and there. We apologies in advance, but most of the updates have been in preparation of the long awaited Away3D 4.0 release which will be the next major version release for Flash Player 10 only. A full set of changes will be published later today on our mailing list.

For your own Hacienda demo, we have prepared a simpler setup creating the interior of a bunker, for which source code is available. Click the image below for the demo, or go straight to the source. The version shown here uses Flash Player 10, but code for both 9 and 10 can be found in the respective 2.5.0 and 3.5.0 examples downloads.

Using Prefab 1.3, the following video takes you through the creation process for the Bunker demo, step by step. The only starting requirement is a simple textured model, ready for processing. The final output is the demo you see above!

Livedocs will be updated to the new codebase within the next few days. As usual, please direct any bug reports to our googlecode issues list, and any questions about functionality to our mailing list.

Enjoy the new release!

The Away3D Team

Chances are, you might have seen some of these projects, as bigger names and bigger audiences are introduced to 3D in Flash. Now, without further delay, we present the latest showcase of top-class Away3D content to be released online.

23 Million people a month (and growing) are playing “Café World” on Facebook, which utilizes Away3D for its speed and flexibility. This must be one of the most visible Away3D games on the web! Café World is still in beta, but still very playable. If you have a Facebook account, you can check it out. Thanks to Timon for notifying us of this great use of Away3D!

Bandit3 is possibly the most awe-inspiringly slick use of Away3D we have seen yet! Fly around a 3D virtual city and enter buildings to discover more about this cutting edge kiteboarding company.

Syerit is an agency that went all out with this project. What other company has a site where you feel like you are playing Quake, solving puzzles, listening to Heavy metal, and fighting a Boss? We give this site an A++ for Away3D Awesomeness!

The zen-like Sony Vaio X series site uses Away3D page flip to switch between the sections of the website. The idea behind this is that the Vaio X is as light as a regular paper notebook. Also, keep an eye on the nice ripple effect when the leaves fall in the water!

Metroid.com uses Away3D for navigation in different sections to mimic a games console user interface. It’s a simple but effective use of 3D, that compliments Nintendo’s famous 3D Metroid games.

Freedent renders a realtime juicy-looking Freedent package for a retro feel at the same time. Congratulations for winning the FWA award!

Adidas uses a 3d skybox in Away3D to create an immersive navigation system. Click around, and see the near perfect transition from Away3D to video! A truly  amazing effect

Terminator Skynet Research DCP is an AIR application that uses Away3d to render assorted Flash 3D visualizations. Will our application interfaces really look like this in the future? Resist or be Terminated!

Doritos’ ID3 has a few minigames that use Away3D to complement the cinematic feel of this interactive role-playing adventure. The east-end gangster style is entertaining, and almost as cheesy as Nacho flavored chips!

Tetrapak uses a realtime Away3D animated rabbit to be your website host. How can you get a 3D rabbit to move in flash without pre-rendered movie clips and splitting hares?  It is possible thanks to the many tools Away3D has for making complex 3D animations and models a stroll in the park.

Whaboo – “what about you?” is a social, cultural and emotional entertainment place. It uses Away3D to create a multi-dimensional browser enabled place where people can play games to find others and discover new things. Whaboo uses Away3D, what about you?

If you can’t wait for that jolly time of year, check out this neat 3D Flash Holiday Calendar that a emulates a cardboard toy calendar. Simple and lighthearted, it is a great use of 3D to reproduce real world interactivity in Flash.

Congratulations to all the creators of these web sites and games! We are happy to see Away3D being used in so many original ways. If you haven’t yet tried the 3rd dimension, download the library and join the Away3D group to get yourself started and open up a whole new world of possibilities.

The Away3D Team

Now that Away3D supports the creation of 3d vector text fields, aligning and animating text fields along 3D curves has been one of the big todos on our list. You can now experiment with our first attempts on a solution for achieving this, using latest sources from the 3.4.1 FP10 version of Away3D. Two demos have been created to showcase this new feature and you can see them in action by clicking on the images. sources are available in the right click menu of the demos, or directly here and here.

A core element like Segment or Face can be used to define a 3D bezier path, and this information is used by a new class AlignToPath (from the geom package), to perform the transformation on any mesh object. The class works by transforming an axis on the mesh’s local coordinate system to the space defined by the path, resulting in a pretty cool ‘warping’ effect. This is convenient especially for text, since the deformation is done globally to the transformed mesh, and hence info like kerning, leading, etc. is preserved.

Take a look and feel free to provide us feedback on this experimental feature!

The Away3d Team

many new features have been added to this release, including:

• Vector graphics and fonts support.
• Typed-checked loader support.
• Geometry modifiers for exploding, welding, mirroring…
• Depth material for creating depth masks.
• Normalmap and Bumpmap generators from geometry.
• Light pre-baking on textures.

plus the usual stability improvements and a ton of bugfixes. Documentation will soon be updated at away3d.com/livedocs

Special thanx must go to Guojian Wu of wu-media.com for his excellent new as3 library swfvector, which allows you to convert any shape outline or textfield in a swf into as3 data. This is used to great effect in the new release, easily enabling the drawing of textfields and shapes in 3d.

The examples interspersing this post can be accessed by clicking on their images – each comes with it’s own source which can be downloaded by selecting “View Source” in the right-click menu. Or you can download these and a ton of other examples (both .as files and .fla files) by going to away3d.com/downloads. The Basic_Swf example also uses the excellent as3dmod library (which you can download from here) for producing the bend effect. Now you can twist and deform vector graphics in 3d, thanx to as3dmod, swfvector and Away3d 2.4 / 3.4 :D

Enjoy the new release!

The Away3d Team

Project dragonfly is an experimental Autodesk tool for designing room interiors. The name on the site pretty much say it all in terms of quality, but don’t take our word for it – take a look for yourself:

For those that don’t know, Autodesk are the creators of world renowned 3D Sofware such as Maya, 3D Studio Max, and Soft Image. The high quality of the room interiors in dragonfly is possible thanks to a custom built server-rendering system that allows extremely detailed models to be rendered direct into the 3D scene. More information on the process behind this and other dragonfly features can be found by visiting a ‘making of’ youtube video playlist here. We are honored to have Autodesk pick Away3D as their online 3D visualization tool.

The BBC celebrated their regain of F1’s sports coverage this year with a plethora of new and innovative content, including their very own Away3D application in the form of the F1 Circuit Guides. This is an in-depth tour of all tracks on the 2009 calendar, combining 3D flythroughs, driver lap videos, race comments, images and more.

The application was a BBC commission from Monterosa Productions, with Away Media providing Flash 3d production and consultancy services. The extensive extrusion and custom shape creation packages in Away3D gave a huge hand to the track creation process, and more tracks are being created over the course of the season so stay tuned! Read more about the project here and here.

Brazilian agency Gringo have released a surreal 3D playland in the form of Happy Me, a kids site commisioned for Coca Cola. The game plays exactly to the strength Away3D offers, with a cartoon world to explore and customisations you can perform on your slightly ogrish character.

To launch the new iQ car from Toyota, digital agency North Kingdom (with 3D assistance from Play With Motion) have created a beautiful minisite that can be seen here. Combining static video with 3D interaction in a captivating and seamless journey, you can put the iQ through various ‘test drives’ of it’s features.

Disney recently launched the American Idol Experience website as a precursor to their new attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park. The site uses a combination of pre-rendered 3D video sequences with interactive Away3D panels to create a virtual tour of the ride. The idea of a website that houses a virtual re-creation of a theme park attraction that allows participants the chance to pretend to be on a show intended for public participation is a little surreal, but the site’s subtle use of interactive 3D is executed flawlessly.

Finally, Norway’s largest online marketplace Finn.no have just launched a new Street-viewer service powered by Away3D. The application allows you to walk along the streets of the Norwegian cities Oslo and Trondheim, and consists of  more than 120.000 panorama locations. From the map interface, clicking on any one of the blue dots will open the viewer at that location.

We are grateful to everyone who sent in their links for inclusion in our showcase section! If you have a site that you would like us to showcase, please tell us more by getting in contact via our mailing list.

The Flash10 branch has recently received the first of it’s optimising updates that deals with some of the problems shading presented to us in the past. Flash 9 is restricted by blendmodes and layers that mean a huge overhead on extra drawing operations and filters to create shading effects. With Flash 10 however,  Pixel Bender allows us to solve the problem very neatly and with a significant speed boost!

The above demo shows some of what is possible with the update: normalmapping with ambient, diffuse and correctly normalised specular shading, without the need for layers. As if that’s not enough, a further Pixel Bender shader is applied to the view to create a HDR (High Dynamic Range) effect on the highlights, something usually seen in much more 3d-rich console games. Special thanx go to Eddie Carbin for donating an excellent normalmapped mustang model, and David Lenaerts for writing the HDR filter.

The demo is available for download (along with the latest flash10 version of Away3d) in the zip files on the downloads page, or direct from the flash10 branch of the svn.  You can also access the demo source via the right-click menu in the flash movie, or go straight to the code here. Enjoy the new release!

One of the key core features added in this release is full support for frustum and nearfield culling, as well as object culling for standard clipping which can help with rendering speed for large outdoor scenes. The above demo illustrates how this can also be beneficial for interior scenes where regular rectangle culling causes artifacts – use the mouse and cursor keys to navigate the room and the keyboard shortcuts listed in the demo to compare between old and new clipping techniques. The source for this can be found bundled with the demos download from the downloads page as can the source for the 2.3 version, or directly from the svn.

Normalmaps have been available in Away3D for a while now, but version 2.3 adds a new set of tools that can help you with their generation and/or manipulation. This will become even more useful in upcoming enhancements to the Flash 10 version of Away3D. The above demo shows what can be done with the new system, full details of how this was accomplished and more examples can be seen by going here and here.

BezierPatch is a new geometry generation tool that allows you to create bezier surfaces programatically. The above demo shows an example of where this can lead – with possibly the most famous bezier surface ever produced ;)

Full documentation for using this system will be released soon, along with a visual tool for aiding the generation of bezier surfaces by hand.

Awaybuilder is a productivity tool that allows you to set up scenes created in the 3D modelling software as realtime 3D scenes for the web. You can set up your project with objects, materials, cameras and their properties, then play it back online without the need for extensive programming or recompilation.

Awaybuilder comes with a custom parser for Maya scenes saved as Collada files. For Maya users, this can dramatically speed up your 3D workflow, as it allows you control geometry, materials, and even camera viewports and interaction directly from the 3D application. The above scene was created in Awaybuilder using the Maya plugin, and is available for download as a demo in the 2.3 release. You can click on the cards to navigate in or out of the scene. More plugins for other software packages will follow in future releases.

Some other feature highlights in this release include:

• Interchangeable camera lenses to allow for different types of projection
• All values allowed for stage properties “align” and “scaleMode”
• Improved memory management
• Improved extrusion tools
• ROLL_OVER/ROLL_OUT events added to MouseEvent3D
• Billboard mesh objects for fast 2d sprites

Of course, we will be working to provide some assistance in learning these new features in our tutorials section over the coming weeks. Plus there will be a lot more demo source coming soon in the demos download. keep an eye on our mailing list for updates, including where to find the flash 10 upgrade, which should be released in the next few days. In the meantime, enjoy the new release!

The Away3d Team

Last year, 3D in Flash took off, with the main 3D engines working hard to make commercially viable libraries, and even Flash itself taking a step into 3D land with the new native capabilities of Flash 10. Here are some recent publications of Away3D content that really stood out:

Fisherman’s Day has got to be one of the most polished Flash demos for a 3D game seen yet. You won’t see anything comparable made with any other Flash 3D Engine.

If you’ve played or seen Animal Crossing for the Nintendo DS or Wii, you may recognize the way the scenery and terrain scroll. It’s purely ingenious, and this demo has higher resolution than a DS screen, making the effect even more impressive.

Using your mouse to walk around, you’ll notice the precise collision detection, smooth movement, and highly detailed graphics in this Flash 3D mini-world. Congratulations to dangerous-rabbits.com on a superb use of Flash and Away3D!

Intel IT MANAGER is an isometric Sims-style game with up to 100,000 triangles, interactive and animated elements per screen in certain rooms! Do you have what it takes to manage the IT department in your own virtual company?

How does a Flash 3D game handle 100,000 triangles at once? It uses Away3D’s caching system, which makes these large scenes a piece of cake. The game also takes advantage of the Away3D scene exporter, which allows you to save hundreds of objects as one compressed ActionScript file. This saves download times and costly pre-processing, ensuring the loading of 3d assets does not slow down the gameplay.

Munchiegames.com has launched three new Flash games made with the Away3D engine.

How quickly can you make a BLT sandwich, serve up spicy fries, or stuff a box of Valentine’s Day treats? The games all have some kind of food theme, with a healthy injection of flavorful graphics and oddball humour. Munchiegames.com is serving up fresh 3D Flash games just for you!

Conflict is a RTS (Real Time Strategy) Tower Defense-type game that uses Away3D and the WOW 3D Physics Engine. As an added bonus, level maps can be created by users!

Registered users of Conflict can build maps, save their score, rate other peoples creations and so on. If you don’t want to register use the following word as the login/password : shirotokoro. Now go get ‘em soldier!

The CBBC’s Escape from Scorpion Island is an immersive game where you interact with a wild 3D world around you. With video clues to find and puzzles to solve, you’ll feel like you are the star of the show! Play it now – but don’t forget to put on your insect repellent! Shortcut links to the minigames will be available soon where you’ll find more games made with Away3D, such as Escape from the Ship.

Hotels and Events.com is a website that plots upcoming arts & theatre, music, and sport events onto a 3D globe. With their innovative 3D Interface fueled by Away3D they are giving users a new navigation experience for search-based apps.

Real Aquarium is a Facebook app where you can tend to your own 3D fish in a virtual aquarium. The first 3D virtual pet on Facebook is a big step for 3D Flash apps, it shows how people can develop and create simple applications with more graphical ‘depth’ ;).

Christmas Tree is a 3D (or should that be Tree-D?) Facebook app that lets you customize your own christmas tree and then adorn it with decorations. Pick different shapes, backgrounds and coloured ornaments to make your tree as jolly as you like!

Fukhaos.com is a showcase site that takes a peek into the future of 3D Flash websites. The simple, clean graphical style and navigation give you a feeling of space, while being immersed in a 3D environment. Why would you want your Flash site to be a crowded 2D mess, when you can aim for something like this?

Last but certainly not least is the awe-inspiring AUDI VDT website by ArtificialDuck that uses Away3D to plot 3D representations of various machined parts in Flash.

This has to be the one of the best Away3D websites we’ve seen so far. It’s informative and technical with slick, clean visuals. As an addition some really great interactive mouse effects add to the 3D look and feel. Experience it for yourself here.

If you’ve not yet tried it, we hope you get your 3D Flash groove on this year! The Away3D Flash Engine is becoming bigger and better with more capabilities, features and possibilities than any other 3D Flash engine available. We are looking forward to 2009 being another great year with yet more excellent Flash 3D creations!

The Away3D Team

Inspired by the fantastic new Audi VDT site produced by ArtificialDuck using Away3d, I decided to go on a little exploratory tour of the current Away3d codebase to see what could be done about fast(er) rendered 3d particles.

My results use a new set of classes soon to be uploaded to the trunk in the 2.2.6 dot release of Away3d – basically with this update it will be possible to create single 3d objects containing many particles, greatly reducing the number of matrix calculations required for rendering a collection of particle objects (or billboards as they’re more commonly known).

The above test is a bit of an extreme case so may run slow on older machines – 4096 stars are being rendered independently per frame, with a bit of mouse-influenced movement nicked from the Audi site ;) The classes have yet to be properly optimised, but I hope to be able to provide full source soon along with an update to the Away3d trunk once things are complete. In the meantime the demo had a bit of a festive look to it so seemed fitting to release over the winter break. Hope you like and merry christmas!

*****Update*****

Source is now available for the demo above via the usual right-click menu or this direct link. You will require the latest trunk version of Away3d from the svn, version 2.2.6. On a side note, the default demo now renders 1024 stars to get a smoother framerate. With this number of billboards, things fly!