dispatchEvent()™

This posting is part 3 of a series. If you find that you’d rather start from the beginning, check out Part 1 and Part 2 first. In this post, I’ll cover Papervision animation, the ASCollada project, render statistics, performance optimization.

Animation
Animation in Papervision3D can be performed the exact same way animation would be performed in 2D. Simply apply any tween or algorithm to an object property (like x, y, rotationX, scaleY, etc) and re-render the scene. But, for imported animations its not quite that simple. Lately Moses’s GoASAP package is being adopted in testing for the Papervision engine. It could soon become adopted by the system.

The Collada DAE Parser
Imported animations come in plenty of flavors but must conform to the same system. That’s the reason the animations package exists. Papervision has long supported externally created 3D assets. You’ll find those file parsers in pv3d.objects.parsers. Although, these importers are nice to have, a big part of Great White was the introduction of the open source project ASCollada. ASCollada is an amazing parser for the standard 3D asset interchange format known as Collada. Collada files are basically very dense XML files that use a .dae file extension. Collada files can be exported from Maya, 3D Studio Max, Blender, Google Sketchup, and XSI. However, level of support for those programs probably follows this order: 3D Studio Max, Maya, Blender, Google Sketchup, XSI. Also, if you’re importing MD2 models, the MD2 file parser will import most animations as well.

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This is part 2 of a 4 part series outlining 3D in Flash by dissecting the open source Papervision3D library. Before getting deep into features let me first make a few points about using Papervision3D.

The Papervision3d source SVN location includes the standard AS3 version of Papervision3D (version 1.7 as of this writing). If you look at the branches folder inside trunk you will find version 2.0 which is code-named “Great White”. This series is focused on that branch, and NOT version 1.7. Also, its important to know that Great White is probably the fastest and most frequently changing part of the Papervision source and thus details in this article will likely change over time.

Also, as a convention in these posts, I’ll be putting direct references to actual Google Code hosted repository files inside this page. If you don’t wish to open that repository each time you want to know the path of a class, then simply mouse over the link and look at the link address or the tool tip that shows up for the link. All references to Papervision3D classes assume that all uses of the term “pv3d” refer to the root Papervision3D package.

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I have many friends asking me for more information on Papervision 3D. Usually, they’re just genuinely interested in learning about it and also how they can use it. These friends are bright people, but generally unfamiliar with the topic of computer graphics. I’ve consistently directed them to Wikipedia articles that I think will make everything clear to them (in this order):

1. Computer Rendering
2. Rasterisation
3. 3D Projection
4. Matrix Multiplication

Unfortunately, I think people are reluctant to read those articles because they’re half written in math formulas. Those formulas are critical for getting a real understanding of what’s going on “under the hood” but I admit they’re annoying to read if you don’t really want to learn the math. And also, those articles won’t mention a single Papervision class file anywhere (naturally). I’m sure this is a little less exciting for someone who’s into 3D in Flash. Therefore, I’m reviewing and dissecting Papervision3D 2.0 (Great White) in a multi-part series for those who are curious about 3D in Flash.

Part 1 will review those Wikipedia articles and relate them to Papervision along the way. If you’re already familiar with computer graphics as a topic of CS, you may wish to skip this post. Parts 2 & 3 will review the details of many features of Papervision3D. Part 4 will be a set of useful notes and tips for anyone who’s not already experienced with Papervision3D.

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