So, big pause since my last post… unfortunately sometimes real-world work gets the better of us and consumes most of our time! Not good… so time to get back into the swing of more interesting things!
I’m going to take a little break from Papervision3D for a while and check out another library - Away3D. Its not that I’m turning my back on pv3d but since its not the only 3D motor out there for flash I thought I’d see what its like to work with… I’m simply curious!
Finding recent comparisons between different 3D motors is not so obvious. Here’s one from Mr.Doob dating from July 2007 for example but since both Away3D and Papervision3D have advanced enormously over the last 12 months its difficult to know if its still valid.
However, I did come across this blog by Vincent Helwig which is work in progress but aims to compare Alterniva3D, Papervision3D, Away3D and Sandy3D. Each one is briefly presented and simple examples for all four are given. The impression I get from this is that Sandy3D is lagging behind the others in terms of being actively developed (no easy task of course), Alternativa3D is not open source which leaves (speaking personally) Papervision3D and Away3D as the two main players.
What’s interesting to note as well is that Flash Player 10 includes some 3D capabilities (z-sorting for example is not included) which for some circumstances greatly improves performance (see this comparison between Away3D and FP10 for example). These new embedded capabilities will surely be integrated by both pv3d and Away3D over the coming months - interesting times ahead for sure!
