54
Realtime 3D on the web a toy or a useful tool? Jens Christian Brynildsen jensa@flashgamer.com twitter.com/jenschr flashgamer.com Friday, May 22, 2009

Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Slides from my presentation at the FlashForum Konference 2009 in Cologne. 3D on the web has nnever become a success and in my session, I highlighted some possible reasons as well as why Flash changes this. I also tried to draw up some rules for what constitutes "good use of 3D on the web". The slides don't give away all I said, but you'll get the idea.

Citation preview

Page 1: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Realtime 3D on the web

a toy or a useful tool?

Jens Christian [email protected]

twitter.com/jenschrflashgamer.com

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 2: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Realtime 3D on the web

a toy or a useful tool?

Jens Christian [email protected]

twitter.com/jenschrflashgamer.com

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 3: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

What are we talking about?

Realtime vs Pre Rendered

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 4: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

3D on the web

A little history

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 9: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

2001 Shockwave 3D

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 10: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

2005 Unity 3D

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 11: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

2005 3D in Flash

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 12: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Last week Google O3D

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 13: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

No success on the web

Why?

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 14: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

The problems

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 15: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

The problems

1. Poor distribution

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 16: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

The problems

1. Poor distribution

2. Difficult installation

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 17: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

The problems

1. Poor distribution

2. Difficult installation

3. Difficult authoring

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 18: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

The problems

1. Poor distribution

2. Difficult installation

3. Difficult authoring

4. Poor use

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 19: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Flash can solve this!

But it can’t make it a success by itself

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 20: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Flash solves 3 out of 4

1. 98% distribution

2. Simple, standardized installation procedure

3. AS3 is a mature, but relatively simple language

4. We still need to solve the “good use” issue!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 21: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

What is “Good Use”?

Good Use is subjective

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 22: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Rule #1

Never use 3D “because it’s 3D”

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 23: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Komodomedia - http://www.komodomedia.co.uk/2008/

3D because it’s 3D

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 24: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

EcodaZoo - http://ecodazoo.com

3D because it’s 3D

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 25: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Rule #2

Build better experiences with 3D, not worse

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 26: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

ExitReality - http://www.exitreality.com

Build better experiences

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 29: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Rule #3

Don’t mimic 2D, use the third dimension

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 30: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Easier to explain in 3D Education

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 31: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Make 2D more exciting Information graphics

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 32: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Better illustration Sales tool

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 34: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Realtime modeling Ramp Generator

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 35: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

What 3D offers over 2D

• A way to freely explore

• A way to hide and reveal something

• New ways to tell a story

• The experience of a room, not just a flat stage

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 36: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Three rules for 3D on the web

#1 Never use 3D “because it’s 3D”!

#2 Build better experiences, not worse

#3 Don’t mimic 2D, use the third dimension

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 37: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

3D in the Flash Player

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 38: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Flash can only do 2D

We must extend it to go to the third dimension

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 39: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

What is a 3D engine?

• A set of Actionscript classes that extend the Flash Players capabilities

• Can be used for more than one thing

• Reusable

• Extendable

• Rich on features

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 41: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Papervision3D

Papervision3D - http://blog.papervision3d.org

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 46: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Flash 3D is past the “Toy” stage

But there are some snags...

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 47: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Disadvantages of Flash 3D

• No hardware support

• No shadows

• Simple models with few polygons

• No dedicated IDE / Software for authoring

... but this is only the second generation of Flash 3D!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 48: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Is Flash lighting the way for future media?

"Right now Flash is rendering in high-end 2D, equivalent to games like Diablo (from 1997)," says Mr Koster.

"There are a few 3D engines out there - Papervision, Alternativa and Away3D - and they are developing rapidly. They are surprisingly good and are all built on top of Flash."

Raph Koster, creator of Ultima OnlineFrom http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2009/02/flash.html

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 49: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

It’s not about the technology

It’s what you do with it

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 50: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Looking ahead

• 3D in Flash is already usable for many purposes

• We’ve come a long way in a very short time. From Toy to Tool in just 3 years is good!

• The Flash Player will get hardware accelerated 3D and we will have the tools to use it

• Flash will validate 3D on the web, just as it has done for Video and Rich Internet Applications

• People are not fascinated by technology, but rather the possibilities it offers

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 51: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Pushing the limits

Away3D Feature demos

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 52: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Getting started

with Flash 3D

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 53: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Away3D resources

Away3D documentationhttp://away3d.com/livedocs/

Developers grouphttp://groups.google.com/group/away3d-dev

Away3Dhttp://away3d.com/

Flashmagazine tutorialshttp://www.flashmagazine.com/Tutorials/category/away3d/

Tartiflop tutorialshttp://blog.tartiflop.com/first-steps-in-away3d/

Advanced modeling tutorialshttp://blog.closier.nl/

Advanced texthttp://www.lidev.com.ar/?cat=3

Friday, May 22, 2009

Page 54: Realtime 3D on the web - a toy or a useful tool?

Questions

Jens Christian [email protected]

twitter.com/jenschrflashgamer.com

Friday, May 22, 2009