3D - The Tech Labs

Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 7 – Sprite3D

29. April 2009

A common concept amongst 3D engines is the billboard. A billboard is usually a rectangle that is always orientated to face the camera, presenting the viewer with a face that that is always "front on" regardless of the cameras orientation. More often than not appropriately textured billboards are used in great numbers to represent effects like smoke, rain, snow or fire. This is because billboards require very little processing power: a rectangle is just two triangles, and most modern systems measure triangle throughput in the millions per second. But sometimes you just want to show a 2D object in a 3D world - maybe an icon that hovers over an object or perhaps some text that would be awkward or unpractical to render as a 3D object.

Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 6 – Dragging 3D Objects in Flex 3 using Alternativa3D and Actionscript 3

20. April 2009

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Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 6 – Dragging 3D Objects in Flex 3 using Alternativa3D and Actionscript 3

In the last Flex/Alternativa3D tutorial you saw how to respond to mouse events that involve Alternativa 3D objects. Once the view was set to be interactive handling mouse events was actually pretty straight forward: you simply attach an event listener to the Alternativa object, just as you would any normal GUI element like a button or checkbox. In this tutorial we will take this interactivity one step further and allow 3D objects to be dragged around on the screen.

Create a 3D Sliding Puzzle Game in Flex with ActionScript 3.0 and Away3D

15. April 2009

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Create a 3D Sliding Puzzle Game in Flex with ActionScript 3.0 and Away3D

Flash Platform is a great tool to create games, either for internet or mobile content. With the introduction of Flash 3D Engines, the ability and success of creating flash games is even bigger. In this tutorial we are going to build up a simple sliding puzzle. Puzzle images are dynamically loaded and sliced so you can easily use your own images if you like. Learn, try and leave a comment showing your results.

Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 5 – Creating Interactivity

7. April 2009

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Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 5 – Creating Interactivity

If you have ever created a traditional forms based application you’ve probably taken it for granted that you can attach functions to mouse events. After all, what good is a button if your program can’t respond to a mouse click? In Flash and Flex applications you listen and respond to mouse events [...]

Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 4 – Working with Camera Controllers

24. March 2009

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Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 4 – Working with Camera Controllers

The vast majority of 3D flash applications you see on the net today are quite simple. For the most part they will be advertisements flipping a bunch of pictures around, a 3D photo album or something similar. However the Flash runtime is improving all the time, allowing more detailed and interactive applications. In fact I don’t think it will be long before Flash is the platform of choice for the sort of 3D games that were all the rage maybe 10 years ago. In order to take advantage of these new possibilities provided by Flash it is necessary not to just display a 3D world, but also to interact with and move around inside of it. Thankfully Alternativa already offers the developer a very easy way to move inside a 3D world with WalkController and FlyController (both of which extend the ObjectController class). With just a few lines of code you can move the camera, or any 3D object, around inside a 3D level with full collision detection.

Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 3 – Loading Model

10. March 2009

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Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 3 – Loading Model

A basic function of any 3D engine is to load 3D models. Alternativa has the ability to load 3D models stored in both the 3DS and OBJ formats. In this tutorial we will learn how to load a 3DS model.

Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 2 – Adding Material

4. March 2009

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Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 2 – Adding Material

In part one of this tutorial series you saw how to create a simple Alternativa 3D Flash application. The end result was a spinning cube, drawn with a wireframe material that displayed the edges of the polygons that made up the cube. In this tutorial I will show you how to add a material to the cube to give it a more appealing look.

Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 1 – Getting Started

22. February 2009

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Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 1 – Getting Started

This is the first of Alternativa tutorial series, which will step you in the world of this awesome 3D engine for flash platform. From the outset the focus of this tutorial will be to create a solid framework that can be easily extended in future articles.

Simulating PicLens with Flex and Away3D – Part 3

23. October 2008

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Simulating PicLens with Flex and Away3D – Part 3

Step by step guide for creating a PicLens type 3D photo viewer with Flex and Away3d. This is step 3, of a 3 part tutorial that will sweep many useful techniques used in web application design, Flex, and Flash 3D design.

Simulating PicLens with Flex and Away3D – Part 2

23. September 2008

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Simulating PicLens with Flex and Away3D – Part 2

Step by step guide for creating a PicLens type 3D photo viewer with Flex and Away3d. This is step 2, of a 3 part flex tutorial that will sweep many useful techniques used in web application design, Flex, and Flash 3D design.

Flash Platform and ActionScript Tutorials

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Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 7 – Sprite3D

Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 6 – Dragging 3D Objects in Flex 3 using Alternativa3D and Actionscript 3

Create a 3D Sliding Puzzle Game in Flex with ActionScript 3.0 and Away3D

Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 5 – Creating Interactivity

Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 4 – Working with Camera Controllers

Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 3 – Loading Model

Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 2 – Adding Material

Alternativa 3D Series – Tutorial 1 – Getting Started

Simulating PicLens with Flex and Away3D – Part 3

Simulating PicLens with Flex and Away3D – Part 2

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