The animation system in Away3D has had a fair amount of refactoring in recent times, and as yet, less examples actually demonstrating performance and features. The demo above is intended as a first step to rectify this, in this case for the vertex animation system.

Animation data in this demo is imported via the MD2 format using one of the more well known examples from Quake days, the Perelith Knight. One of the great things about MD2 is its small size – the entire swf comes in at a smidge over 700k – an impressive feat considering the variety of animation and textures included.

Another advantage of vertex animation over other forms such as bones is its playback efficiency. Here we have 400 independently animating avatars with normal maps, specular maps and dynamic shadows, all running at a smooth 30fps on an average machine.

Full source is available for the demo – just select “View Source” from the right-click menu or use the direct link here to view and download. The demo uses the bleeding-edge build in the dev branch of Away3D’s github, so be sure you have updated your source if you are interested in compiling the code.

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