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.

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

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

3. What are we talking about?
Realtime vs Pre Rendered
Friday, May 22, 2009

4. 3D on the web
A little history
Friday, May 22, 2009

5. 1994 VRML
Friday, May 22, 2009

6. 1999 Java3D Web Start (1, 2)
Friday, May 22, 2009

7. 1999 Java3D Web Start (1, 2)
Friday, May 22, 2009

8. 1999 Java3D Web Start (1, 2)
Friday, May 22, 2009

9. 2001 Shockwave 3D
Friday, May 22, 2009

10. 2005 Unity 3D
Friday, May 22, 2009

11. 2005 3D in Flash
Friday, May 22, 2009

12. Last week Google O3D
Friday, May 22, 2009

13. No success on the web
Why?
Friday, May 22, 2009

14. The problems
Friday, May 22, 2009

15. The problems
1. Poor distribution
Friday, May 22, 2009

16. The problems
1. Poor distribution
2. Difficult installation
Friday, May 22, 2009

17. The problems
1. Poor distribution
2. Difficult installation
3. Difficult authoring
Friday, May 22, 2009

18. The problems
1. Poor distribution
2. Difficult installation
3. Difficult authoring
4. Poor use
Friday, May 22, 2009

19. Flash can solve this!
But it can’t make it a success by itself
Friday, May 22, 2009

20. 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

21. What is “Good Use”?
Good Use is subjective
Friday, May 22, 2009

22. Rule #1
Never use 3D “because it’s 3D”
Friday, May 22, 2009

23. 3D because it’s 3D
Komodomedia - http://www.komodomedia.co.uk/2008/
Friday, May 22, 2009

24. 3D because it’s 3D
EcodaZoo - http://ecodazoo.com
Friday, May 22, 2009

25. Rule #2
Build better experiences with 3D, not worse
Friday, May 22, 2009

26. Build better experiences
ExitReality - http://www.exitreality.com
Friday, May 22, 2009

27. Build better experiences
Cooliris - http://www.cooliris.com
Friday, May 22, 2009

28. Build better experiences
Cooliris - http://www.cooliris.com
Friday, May 22, 2009

29. Rule #3
Don’t mimic 2D, use the third dimension
Friday, May 22, 2009

30. Easier to explain in 3D Education
Friday, May 22, 2009

31. Make 2D more exciting Information graphics
Friday, May 22, 2009

32. Better illustration Sales tool
Friday, May 22, 2009

33. Exploring the real world Panorama viewer
Friday, May 22, 2009

34. Realtime modeling Ramp Generator
Friday, May 22, 2009

35. 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

36. 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

37. 3D in the Flash Player
Friday, May 22, 2009

38. Flash can only do 2D
We must extend it to go to the third dimension
Friday, May 22, 2009

39. 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

40. Sandy 3D
Sandy3D - http://www.flashsandy.org
Friday, May 22, 2009

41. Papervision3D
Papervision3D - http://blog.papervision3d.org
Friday, May 22, 2009

42. Away3D
Away3D - http://www.away3d.com
Friday, May 22, 2009

43. Alternativa Platform
Alternativa3D - http://alternativaplatform.com/en/
Friday, May 22, 2009

44. Other engines
• WireEngine3D • Wick3D
• ND3D • FreeSpin 3D
• Five 3D (vector-based) • Project3D
• Sophie 3D • Silverback3D
• DirectFlex • Ambiera CopperCube
• Sharikura 3D • Electric 3D
• Haxe3D
Friday, May 22, 2009

45. Personal projects
• Mr. Doob (Voxel engine) • NewX3D
• Minority • Flash3D
• Yağız Gürgül • ... and many more
Friday, May 22, 2009

46. Flash 3D is past the “Toy” stage
But there are some snags...
Friday, May 22, 2009

47. 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

48. Is Flash lighting the way for future media?
quot;Right now Flash is rendering in high-end 2D, equivalent to games like Diablo
(from 1997),quot; says Mr Koster.
quot;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.quot;
Raph Koster, creator of Ultima Online
From http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2009/02/flash.html
Friday, May 22, 2009

49. It’s not about the technology
It’s what you do with it
Friday, May 22, 2009

50. 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

51. Pushing the limits
Away3D Feature demos
Friday, May 22, 2009

52. Getting started
with Flash 3D
Friday, May 22, 2009

53. Away3D resources
Away3D documentation
http://away3d.com/livedocs/
Developers group
http://groups.google.com/group/away3d-dev
Away3D
http://away3d.com/
Flashmagazine tutorials
http://www.flashmagazine.com/Tutorials/category/away3d/
Tartiflop tutorials
http://blog.tartiflop.com/first-steps-in-away3d/
Advanced modeling tutorials
http://blog.closier.nl/
Advanced text
http://www.lidev.com.ar/?cat=3
Friday, May 22, 2009

54. Questions
twitter.com/jenschr Jens Christian Brynildsen
flashgamer.com jensa@flashgamer.com
Friday, May 22, 2009