For the first time since I started checking out the FWA reguraly (like every other webdesigner) the award has been given to a website NOT made with Flash! Is this a good thing you might ask, and why do I write about this? – well the answer is simple: use the right technology for the right project and everyone’s happy!
The site awarded was a 3d Robin Hood game made with the “new kid on the block” Unity3D. The performance, graphics and everything is so much better than what Flash is able to do currently. Maybe someday soon Flash will be able to do this, but for now Unity3D is a serious competitor and hopefully something we will see a lot more in the future. I don’t plan on learning Unity, because Flash is still my web tool #1, but for game developers this should be something to check out.
Also check out this post from Bartek, if you’re not convinced.
There has been a lot of 3D in Flash lately, but not many developers have used the “new” Flash Player 10 (CS4) 3D features. I have tried to use it for several projects, and I understand why many still prefer Papervision3D, Away and similar libraries. I also still use and recommend Papervision for most of my 3D projects, but for simple stuff, the new 3D features actually holds some cool possibilities, such as faster compiling time, lower file size, better control of garbage collection and my favourite: scalable content – that’s extremely complicated in Papervision (for instance scaling a 3D plane up/down).
There’s a lot of bugs especially with mouse events in the new CS4 3D, but if all you need is a simple plane or cube, you can easily use this and benefit from the low file size etc.
I have made a small example with a 3D cube. This doesn’t resize or hold animated content, but you get the idea when you see the code! It’s actually really simple. The z sorting class is made by Drew Cummins and works great. The cube loads 4 images when created – click the cube to load next image and rotate.
You can see the demo here ( – click the cube to load next image and rotate)
Source code here ( – remember to add images in the “pics” folder, they are not included in the source)