“3D with Flash 10” and other links…
Allen Rabinovich: “For the first 9 versions, the native rendering in Flash was limited to the Cartesian coordinates. During that time, many ways to ‘fake’ 3-dimensionality were invented and publicized, from the simple “skewing” methods to entire bitmap-based 3D rendering libraries, like Papervision and Alternativa. Now, in the 10th version of Flash, a fair amount of 3D rendering capabilities have finally become native.” I’m impressed.
“3D with Flash 10 (part 2)”
Michael Hoch: “Flash 10 adds a set of utility functions to do 3D Effects that were previously difficult or costly. I wanted to explore the possibility to export 3D Models from 3D animation packages to Flash 10 directly. …There are a set of ASCII formats that can easily be converted to ActionScript arrays (e.g. VRML or obj).”
“Detect hardware acceleration at runtime in Flash Player 10 standalone”
Thibault Imbert: “A friend of mine was reviewing a new chapter I have been writing for the Flash Player 10 and asked me if it was possible to detect at runtime if GPU acceleration was set in a current SWF. In fact, there is no native API in the Flash Player 10 which allows you to know that.”
“Introducing Adobe Flash Player 10”
Justin Everett-Church: “You can create your own portable filters, blend modes, and fills using Adobe Pixel Bender, the same technology used to power filters and effects in Adobe After Effects CS3 software. Custom filters and effects can be combined with existing native Flash Player filters and applied to all display objects, including vectors, bitmaps, and video, while retaining full interactivity. Custom effects can be parameterized to animate and change the effect at runtime. Even for big effects, the code will be small; most filters are smaller than 1K, meaning you can use them with even the most stingy file budgets without bloating your application.”