Hello there again. Last time I promised you 3.0.3 release in August, but that did not happen. Unfortunately, Thomas was not able to work on the project, hence the delay. Meanwhile, the world was not standing still there; papervision now finally has clipping, and away3d now has triangle caching, for example.

So, what are we going to do about that? Well, the plan is still to get that 3.0.3 done, step by step, as soon as possible, and see where do we go from there (most of you already know that there are two ongoing efforts that take Sandy in different directions, haXe and AS2 ports).

Back to the purpose of this post, our devoted users, I would like to hear your thoughts on subject. If you use Sandy, let us know what future would you want for it.

Thanks.

Bartek Drozdz released today an early version of his AS3DMod library.

This library will allow Sandy3D user to apply some modifiers to 3D objects geometry.

What are Modifiers?

let’s quote Bartek

Modifiers are basically functions that can be applied to a 3d object to transform it in a certain way. They can be used separately, but when combined they become a very powerful tool. In this, they are much like filters in Photoshop.

Right now that library, which should be fully documented in the coming weeks, offers:

• a framework for creating static and animated modifier stacks

• 3 basic modifiers: Noise, Bend and Perlin

Check this project at google code and play with it until some other cool Sandy3D news be available

Hey, it’s time to spam the blog again! People ask when 3.0.3 will be out, so I thought I’d write a bit on subject as well as what’s going on in general.

So, when 3.0.3 will be out? Well, you might know that Thomas is currently on vacation and will not work on release for next two weeks, at least. Then, you also might know about some breaking changes he introduced for better performance, but currently performance seems to be even worse, and so this situation needs some investigation. People who want latest version compatible with 3.0.2 can use revision 663, but be aware that some bugs were fixed after that (not to mention pending bugs).

Still, things aren’t bad for 3.0.3, in my opinion. I make noise and contribute some new stuff (you might have noticed StarField or MD2, I guess). Other people in team keep quiet, but SVN commits notifications give them away If you suddenly notice some clever code or documentation improvements, you know they did it.

So, when 3.0.3 will be out, again? I think you can expect it in August as final version for v9 (unless someone suddenly finds lots of bugs a day after release).

To conclude this post, I’d like to take my chance and congratulate folks at Ginga who released online jets comparison application for Embraer company last week. A part of this great application - flight range flash widget - was designed using two open source libraries, APE and - you guessed it - Sandy.

Using globes for spatial data visualization is something we now see more and more; to address this trend, I just added new tutorial for Sandy users who would like to do something similar themselves. For other people, I plan to release some basic globe component for free, so keep an eye on this secret link.

We are pleased to accounce that Dan Allen, one member of the Sandy team, decided to release his excellent script FlashHelpBook to generate flash help book for your libraries.

Basically it adds an help book, syntax highlighting, and code hints to the Flash IDE for any existing library ( successfully tested libraries: Sandy, Away3D, Papervision, and Box2D)

This is an excellent tool that Dan release for Sandy for months now, and which helped quite a lot of developers to get the Sandy documentation directly in Flash, as the normal flash help (shortcut to go in correct documentation part is working too).

See this announcement of Sandy Forum to have full information and give feedbacks.

Go now, and use FlashHelpBook script to improve your workflow in Flash IDE developments !

Thanks Dan

Yes they did it, the engine which seems to be the best 3D engine for flash platform is now available to users, and freely for non commercial use.

So no open source in there, but it might be interessting to check that new library and test its wonderful exclusive features such as:

- BSP tree, which allows to resolve depth sorting keeping a vector approach, so good resolution and performance.

- Embeded collision system

- Frustum clipping (or viewport one?) which is a feature that Sandy has too and which is extremly important while doing correct 3D immersion.

From the small examples I’ve seen so far, the API is good, similar in some points to Sandy3D one.

Now, up to you to test it more, and make some extra demos to  check its performance capabilites.

We recently have seen some really good use of Sandy3D engine, which is a good illustration of what’s actually possible to do.

Alien Slayer 3D :: Full 3D FPS Game

One of the first complete real 3D FPS game, realized by QiGames studio. The result is fairly good, and shows a good future for flash 3D games.

Telenor Body Language

Cool 3D model with IK manipulation. Nicely done!

The LownDown, government new zealand website

Interactive 3D navigation for that complex website.

City of Light

Beautiful use of Sprite2D Sandy feature.

More demos in our Forum

This time with lots of new features for you to play with, Mathieu Badimon released new version of Five3D package. Brand new Five3D 2.1 now have:

• Back Face Culling
• Flat Shading
• Z-Sorting
• Space Drawing Functions (moveToSpace, lineToSpace, curveToSpace)
• Bitmap3D Class
• Video3D Class
• Sprite2D Class
• Letter Spacing for DynamicText3D
• Text Width for DynamicText3D

This is serious, I was finally able to make my cube test work:

What can I say, thanks a lot! I can only wish myself could do some coding too