Swift3D promotional pricing

I remember the old days of Swift3D 1.0 and the first 3ds max plugin renderer. Swift 3D V5 is a pretty impressive package given the price, features, and the relatively new export to Papervision. If you’re doing 3D Flash on a budget (rendered or with Papervision), this is something to consider. There is a 15% sale going through July 1 – enter promotional code 070108. Check it out here.

PV3D.org Relaunch

If you’re getting started in Papervision, pv3d.org might be a good bookmark. Recently relaunched, this site contains tutorials, examples, download links for the latest PV3D release and a forum. Enjoy!

Flex and Five3D

Still trying to post good Flex/3D app. tutorials whenever I find them. I have yet to use Five3D, however, it seems that many of these packages have more information on how to use them with Flash than Flex. When I started with PV3D, there was no readily available information on how to use PV3D with Flex.

This tutorial shows how to get started with Five3D and Flex. Seems that Five3D employs methods from the fl.motion package that is only available for FCS3. One day, I’ll have to look at that package in more detail and consider adding a complete set of equivalent methods to Singularity for Flex users.

Enjoy the tutorial!

Sharikura Engine Going Public?

Came across this post from a Google search and this is the second time I’ve heard that the Sharikura engine (supposedly the engine – or some variant threreof – behind Eco Zoo) will eventually be released to the public. If so, that’s really great news – anyone have more detailed information?

3D Product Viewer in Flex and PV3D

I’m constantly asked about ‘getting started’ tutorials in Flex and PV3D. Don’t have time to write any, so I try to point out good sources when they become available. This article on Creating a 3D Product Viewer in Flex 3 covers everything from installing PV3D to model creation to setting up a project to creating a basic product configurator. Enjoy.

Geocoding with Papervision

Pretty interesting article on Geocoding with PV3D on Adobe Edge by Mark Walters. Check it out here.

Nadal’s Numbers on Clay

Well, I was hoping for at least four sets. I got up late, sat down and watched two games in the second. After seeing Federer broken, I told my wife this might be over before I could finish breakfast and morning tea. Federer was clearly off the entire tournament, while Nadal looked unbeatable all the way. His numbers on clay (specifically at the French) are beyond impressive; it now looks like someone could eclipse Borg’s record at the French.

Federer vs. Nadal (again)

I’ve seen a few polls online asking if Federer will win the French Open. Choices are ‘yes,’ ‘no,’ and ‘only if Nadal does not play.’ Kind of reminds me of the old days of Borg vs. anyone at either the French or Wimbledon. Going to be an interesting match for sure

Cubic Bezier Y at X

The Cubic Bezier y-at-x method is now available in Singularity. I decided to do something a little bit different in the implementation, but only in the root finding. The problem is still treated the same way as it was when I solved it back in college, programming in Fortran

The method is described in the online demo as well as the documentation. There are several areas in the implementation that are open to experimentation. In the future, I may include an implementation of Bezier clipping. The online demo page contains a link to download the latest Singularity update. Enjoy!

Quadratic Bezier Y at X

I’ve decided to add y-at-x methods for the quad. and cubic Beziers with the quadratic implemented first. Both cases will have online demos. For the current Singularity update, I also sneaked in a port of Jack Crenshaw’s TWBRF (more to come when the cubic method is published).

A preview of the quadratic y-at-x method is shown below.

Barring nearly or exactly vertical Beziers, there will be in general no, one, or two y-coordinates for a specified x-coordinate. In general, it is better to allow the caller to decide which of more than one competing value is ‘preferred’ over another. The Singularity implementation returns an Array of Objects containing the t-parameter and y-coordinate for all solutions.

You can check out the online demo here, which includes the usual link to download the latest update to the Singularity package. Cubic case coming soon to a code library near you