Hi!

I’m wondering what’s the state of graphics quality that Stage3D can pull off today.

Since this is a rather generic question let’s take an example: Journey.

1/ Can Away3D enable creating that kind of quality level with Flash ? I doubt it, so if the answer is no, which effects should be disabled in Journey to make it accessible to Stage3D engines ?

2/ I would hope that there would remain a line of sight large enough and a number of effects high enough that the overall feeling of the game is preserved. Is that credible ?

3/ The PS3 doesn’t have very impressive hardware but it does use Shader model 3.0 while Stage3D is stuck with 2.0.
What kind of hardware do you estimate could run the tuned down Journey described in reply to above questions ?

4/ BASELINE_CONSTRAINED is totally out of the question, I suppose ?

5/ If Away3D can’t succeed because it’s more of an all purpose 3D engine, could an in-house engine specialized in the tasks required to run Journey perform good enough ? Or is Stage3D just not powerful enough to run it on reasonable hardware requirements ?

Thanks for the reply, they are precious

Anyone ? ^^

You don’t need to reply all questions, just the ones you know would be better than none

Or maybe point me to somewhere else where I could find answers, be it another forum or some articles or whatever.

Thanks for any help

Away can certainly render such sceneries. But the engine isn’t going to program it for you. Not even considering animations and assets design here, Just the way data is handled and managed. Sure we have stage3D limitations, but before you hit them you can place the bar really really high with A4 and Stage3D in general. If you try to target older pre 2006 hardware, then yes you will be limited.

So short answer is yes you can. Simply keep in mind that most games of this level are made with huge teams of specialists and take often months or even years to be release ready.

Yes I know this. Everything’s always way way harder than it seems, even when you think you know how hard it is :p

I would not be the CTO but I want to see what can be done with Away3D 4+. Going full 3D would change completely the kind of persons I’d have to hire, compared to what I intended to do thus far.

I was under the impression that to create quality content and have it run on top of Stage3D would require a lot tougher hardware than what is “really” necessary with more native languages.

So my concern here is whether making a game with an array of effects such as Journey’s (and more importantly, with a long line of sight while still having room for non-graphics calculations on CPU side)... whether it would run properly on low-average hardware such as an Intel Core2Duo 2.26Ghz CPU and some Geforce 8600 GT, for instance, but also integrated GPUs from 2009 or 2010.

PS3’s CPU seems tough but its GPU not so much.
So when you say “yes you can”, do you mean you can on low-average hardware ?

Thanks a lot. Unfortunately Away3D showcase doesn’t reply to my question properly yet. Many examples even seem to be saying “no you can’t” with regards to texture quality, effects and line of sight. But they might have been made with Away3D 3.6 so I can’t discard Away 4 without digging further.

Sounds to me that you should move on to stage 2: build a test case with the stuff you really need for your project and try the solutions (engines) that you’ve selected.

Hehe, you’re right. 3D was the next solution on the line. I have a good grasp on the advantages and limitations of the others already.

Well I’ll try Away3D when I get some time then. My concern was that I will surely waste a LOT of time trying to solve simple problems because my experience with 3D is low and it’s too soon for me to hire people. Hence my poking around ^_^

Thanks for the replies