Flash on the beach is just around the corner, and this year I’ll be heading down to Brighton as a speaker, something I’m fairly chuffed about. To me, FOTB is the jewel in the crown of European creative conferences and an event i feel truly honoured to be a part of.
As an added bonus, I get the chance to stretch the legs of a brand new talk entitled Flash 11: get ready for gametime. The subject on discussion should be fairly obvious, but I’m hoping the content will hold a few surprises, in particular towards people who’s main games background has so far been exclusively in Flash, such as myself. Although I’m pretty sure i won’t be surprised by it, unless i get someone else to write it for me…
I’m told there is only a week of standard ticket sales left, so if you’re still considering going along but don’t want to pay full walk-up price, time is running out! The main presentation I’ll be giving will be pretty much for everyone, although I will also be preparing a little something extra in an Influxis kickback lounge short session, for those who want to get a bit more techy. You know who you are, you geeky freaks
At the beginning of March I will be heading over to Amsterdam to attend the FITC conference, the annual excuse for designers & developers to get together in one of the coolest cities in Europe for two days of inspiration the dutch way… and I’m very happy to be presenting a brand new talk surrounding the programmatic approaches and practical implications of computer simulations entitled Simulating the Real. The talk is aimed at a broad audience so don’t be afraid to come along if you’re a non-programmer; a degree in particle physics is not required! As a point of relevance, I will also be looking at how the GPU accelerated Molehill APIs announced at last year’s Adobe Max conference will affect the capabilities of the Flash Player in the area of simulation, with the help of the latest Away3D codebase.
The FITC organisers have kindly created a special discount code for any members of the Away3D community – simply type “Away3D” into the discount code box on the registration page to receive a massive 10% discount on any conference pass! Hope to see you there.
The Max conference in LA was a memorable high point this year – not only was Adobe’s hardware-accelerated intentions for the next Flash Player made clear, but the Away3D Team got their first chance to air some demos of the forthcoming Away3D 4.0 release that will be supporting these new capabilities.
If you haven’t heard the news, the next major Flash Player upgrade from Adobe will include an extensive 3D API that will support direct paths to OpenGL and DirectX-based 3D rendering on the GPU, as well as a new software 3D renderer fallback that will aim to provide the vast majority of computers with fast, reliable, 3D rendering in Flash. Armed with “Molehill” (the codename for these new 3D APIs) performance is set to increase to around 1000 times what can be squeezed out of the current Flash Player. Flash game makers, designers, and developers will finally have the option to use console-quality 3D graphics in their 3D Flash creations.
A large number of the Away3D Team have been working closely with Adobe to create an easy upgrade path for the Away3D engine, providing the same easy to use Away3D framework at a high level, but plugging directly into the exposed hardware APIs at a low level. A recording of our Max session New 3D features for Flash (which was jointly shared by myself & Richard Olsson, alongside fellow 3D coder Anton Volkov from Alternativa) can be found at http://tv.adobe.com/watch/max-2010-develop/new-3d-features-for-flash/ or by clicking the link below.
The presentation shows some amazing demos running realtime accelerated 3D from inside the Flash Player, with the help of our 4.0 prerelease build. The public beta of the new Flash Player is planned for release in the first half of 2011, and will be complemented by a public release of the Away3D 4.0 engine, enabling the Away3D community to start developing faster, smoother and less processor-hungry 3D Flash content as soon as the capabilities are available.
I’m also pleased to announce that we have been offered an opportunity to present content from our Away3D Max session at the upcoming AUG XL conference in Amsterdam on November 17th. This time I will be joined on stage by another key Away3D developer in the new engine upgrade – the extremely hardworking & talented David Lenaerts.
If you can’t wait for the pres (or the public beta) to get a glimpse of the 3D possibilities unfolding, be sure to check out the high-quality videos below of two current Away3D 4.0 demos.
Myself and the Away3D team are currently beavering away on the final preparations for our presentation at Max – this will be without a doubt one of the biggest events of the year and we feel extremely privileged to be a part of it. If you are interested in what the future holds for Away3D and are lucky enough to be attending the Adobe Max conference yourself, then be sure to sign up for our session: New 3D features for Flash. The talk will not exclusively pertain to the Away3D engine – we will be sharing our slot with 3D Flash veterans and general all round smashing chaps from Alternativa, so there will certainly be a lot to pack in! Seats for the session sold out early last week, but I’m told that room capacity has since been increased so more seats are now available. My advice would be to get them while you still can – you will not want to miss this show…
A little too vague? Maybe. But seriously, you won’t want to miss it. trust me.
**********Update**********
I’ve also been told that i will have an opportunity to show some of the more esoteric uses of Away3D at this year’s FITC Unconference. This is a collection of exclusive sessions from the FITC crowd, bundled into a special room at Adobe Max. Each slot is a 30 minute mini-session that can be a little more relaxed and participatory than the usual Max circus, aided by free beer supplied by the generous peeps at Litl.com. My session is titled The evolving Away3D platform – hope you can make it!
I’m extremely honored to be speaking at the FITC conference in San Francisco this August, along with a bunch of big names with whom I am not worthy to share a stage… am i imagining things or has it been two years since any international Flash event in SF? What the…?!
My presentation will cover some of the latest developments in Away3D, sprinkled with some new demos from the demomeister that is Fabrice and finishing off with a glimpse of the future… or at least a potentially possible one. I’ll also be giving out a few copies of my book The Essential Guide to 3D in Flash, as long as i remember this time. Someone! Remind me!
Later in the conference, I’ll be at the Influxis Voodoo Lounge presenting a special 30 minute in depth look at some experimental 3D goodness in collaboration with those awesome dudes (i think thats how they’d put it) at Influxis, who have also been kind enough to sponsor my exceedingly long trip out. Drinks rider notwithstanding, a thousand beers to you!
Because the Away3D community is an international entity, it seems only right that training events should become more international, which is part of the reason why i’ll be embarking on an Away3D tour (ie. more than two locations ) towards the end of April.
First stop will be Sao Paulo, Brazil on Tuesday 27th April for a single day – there is no training planned for this particular stop but there will be an evening event arranged for any Away3D community members who would like to meet up. The more the merrier!
Next location will be Buenos Aries, Argentina where i will be arriving on Wednesday 28th April to give a full two day training course over the 28th and 29th. The course is being arranged by the ARFUG group, and full details of the event plus venue and prices can be found here. Huge thanx to Max and the ARFUG team for helping to arrange this, should be a lot of fun!
After Argentina, i will be enduring a grueling 17hr flight to Sydney, Australia, arriving in time to give a special one-day condensed training course at the WebDU conference on Wednesday 5th May, details of which can be found here. I’ll then be hanging around for the conference itself and presenting my new session: the many faces of Away3D on the Thursday afternoon. Its currently looking quite sunny here in London, so i’ll be looking forward to some of that Sydney autumn fog…
Finally, after many more hours of dvt inducing hardship I will be back in London, UK to give the headline event of the Away3D training calendar – a two day intensive course over the 20th and 21st May at the LFPUG. This will be limited to a maximum of 14 people, so please book early if you are planning on going! Full details can be found here, and thanx go to Tink for arranging the venue and free pub lunches.
I can’t believe its been nearly 3 months since my last post, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) there have been fairly pressing reasons behind the silence, more on which will follow…
Anyway, I wanted to take a much needed time out to let you all know about next week’s LFPUG meeting, which will be a bit like a two sided 3D coin of debate. On one side there will be Bartek Drozdz all the way from Stockholm, who will be revealing the wonderful console-shiny world of Unity, and on the other there will be me, showing how Away3D still has its place in the 3D web world, honest guv! Hope you can make it, and if not you can always catch up with any presentation by watching the videos at http://www.lfpug.com/category/presentations/
As the new release of Away3d approaches, it’s time to clear out the old and bring in the new! This year’s presentation starter has run it’s useful course, so it seems only fair to make it available after having a good run at FITC Amsterdam, Multi-Mania, FlashBrighton, FlashCamp Birmingham and the LFPUG.
Over the first half of this year, we’ve had some exciting additions to engine that made it into the presentation (some of which never got seen as I would inevitably run out of time!). Needless to say a new presentation will be forthcoming later this year, although exactly when remains to be seen.
The full presentation complete with all links can be accessed online here, or you can view the source of the slides and download a zip (warning! 73 megs) of all demos from here. Use your cursor keys to navigate between slides.
Thanx goes out to everyone on the Away3D Team for assisting with the demos, and of course, continuing to produce some of the most fascinating Flash 3d content on the planet! You guys rock
I’m pleased to announce that Away3d will be hosting a session at this year’s Multi-Mania conference in Kortrijk, Belgium. Multi-Mania is an annual two-day event that focuses on the multimedia community in Europe and the great work being done on all sorts of platforms for Mobile, Video, 3D, Web and more. But the best thing about it is the price, which is free for all that attend!
The Away3d session will concentrate on the best features to become available in recent releases, look at some of the 3d production techniques used by our company Away Media in recent projects, and have the obligitary sneak preview of some of the features currently being developed by the Away3d Team
Hope to see you there!
*** UPDATE ***
You can now now register your seat for your session selections on the Multi-Mania site here.
I am extremely honoured to be doing a presentation slot at this year’s FITC Amsterdam. This is one of the coolest conferences on the calendar – I’m kinda worried I’ll be out-cooled by the other presenters. Luckily the event is about friendly cool people rather than the far more annoying pretentious cool people, so I should be ok!
My presentation is called Away3d and the Future of 3d in Flash. Bit long-winded but has a kind of Harry Potter inflexion to it… or maybe i just imagined that? Anyway, in it I’ll be talking about a whole range of new potential Flash 10 has to offer – from native 3d tests to HaXe implemented opcodes… it’s going to be a very exciting exploration, and one that i’m slightly panicky about as a lot of the content is still in a state of flux, making it hard to determine exactly what will be ready in time! Although with 42 days to go, I think we’ll be ok. If you plan to attend but haven’t booked your ticket yet then I’m told they’re selling out fast (last years was completely sold out a few weeks before) so I would urge you to register ASAP. Unless you’re simply too cool for the coolness…
