Hi, Away3D team !

How to animate a group of Object3D along a path ?

I don’t want to use ObjectContainer3D to wrap a group of Object3D, then animate the ObjectContainer3D along a path . it’s not the effect i want.

i mean, every object animate along the path separately .

currently , i initialize a group of PathAnimators, then updatePosition for each PathAnimator Instance…

I’m afraid , it’s not a right and effective way .

Could you please give me some advice or sample ? 

Animating multiple objects along a path is not there as out of box functionality. But is very easy to be achieved.

You simply need to make a PathAnimator once. instead of using it as the drive of a unique entity, simply ask it to return you the positions.

For instance, public function getPositionOnPath( t:Number, out:Vector3D):Vector3D

so say you have 2 spheres, one would say “myprogress += myincrease”, sphere1.position = getPositionOnPath(myprogress); while this other would have its own increase as well.

Note the second parameter. to prevent a return of a new instance Vector3D, simply declare a class _holderPosition:Vector3D = new Vector3D

then reuse for every call & every object,  getPositionOnPath(myprogress, _holderPosition);

If you think in terms of duration, use then public function getPositionOnPathMS( ms:Number, duration:Number, out:Vector3D):Vector3D

if you use a complex path, composed of many segments, you might want to check on which segment you are, use then a methods such as getTimeSegment. Ideal to trigger sound or location specific events.

All these methods are accessible with no need of having multiple PathAnimator instances.

Fabrice, thank you very much for your soon reply !

It really helps me a lot !

Hi,Fabrice, How to get the Object3D’s rotation informaiton (rotationX,rotationY,rotationZ) from the PathAnimator when pathAnimator.updateProgress(progressincreasement) ?

I mean , I want to update a group of Object3D’s position and the rotation both in the ENTER_FRME Loop.

PathAnimator is really a robust engine ! even if initialize 50 PathAnimators, it really runs very smoothly !

I’m not sure to understand your question regarding rotations, can you develop a bit? you mean alignment to path?

PathAnimator is really a robust engine !
I have rewrited a bit bunch of it for 4.0, glad to hear this!

You had rewrited a bit bunch of it? happy to hear that!

Thanks again for you great works, But, Fabrice, I still have some other adivce for PathAnimator when you rewrite for that:

(1): GroupPathAnimator, GroupPathAnimator(trackPath,[Obj3D1,Obj3D2….],...) some features like that ?

(2): PathAnimator & Tween Engine, How to tween one Object3D or a group of Object3D in the PathAnimator using a Tween Engine?

(3):How to input Cubic Bézier curves information for Path constructor to describe the path, how to accept Maya or 3dsMax’s path information for Away3d use ? also , the Flash Player 11 can draw Cubic Curve ,if you can support Cubic Bézier curves , that will be magic !