Papervision3D link fest.
This is a list with brief explanations to many papervision3d related sites I have collected. It covers the full gamut from getting the actual Papervision3d (PV3D) files to useful tutorials and source code to extraordinary inspirational sites built using PV3D. It is broken up into categories, some sites may appear more than once if for example they have amazing experiments but also downloadable source code.
For those who attended my presentation, and the 2 most important links to get started.
Hi a few comments for people who were at my presentation fro FlashMN. As usual afterwards I thought of some things that I could have made clearer. I will say that I really am not a programmer. I am doing my first project in AS3 at the moment and it is giving me a headache. So do not be scared off.
Everything you need to know to install the Papervision files is clearly explained in the video tutorial listed under "Getting the Papervision files"
Everything I showed you and more can be learned from the first link under tutorials. You will find a clear step by step progression, with all the source files. You will even recognize the movie material I used!
Download my files here
Here are the files I showed that differ from the first tutorial link. Check the publish settings and make sure the AS3 file settings point to where you have the PV3D files.
The banner of this page
The 1 video and a movie material on mouse interactive cube
The 4 different videos on a cube
CS3 version - CS4 versionHere are the very short (5-10 second videos used in the files) FLV for CS3 - F4V for CS4
Some things I think were not clear to everyone
once you make the swf file that is all you need to deploy to your site in your html page. There are no supporting files required. All the required classes are automatically packaged into the swf.
Everything is made of triangles? Think of it this way. 1 point is just that a point. 2 connected points is a line. 3 connected points is a triangle, a closed object that defines a surface. This is the minimum number of points required to do so. Thus 3d programs use it as the base object to define all surfaces. Want a square? it will be made of 2 triangles. The triangle is to a mesh what the pixel is to a bitmap.
Viewports!! Here is one attempt to explain them that I found. The best explanation wold be to play, they would quickly make sense. "The viewport is the sprite that displays the rendered scene. When you render a 3d scene, your camera takes a snapshot of the scene. The viewport
is the picture that is produced by the camera. You can move and position the viewport like a normal sprite.
The camera is your eye inside of the 3d scene. The viewport is the Sprite that flash uses to display what the camera sees." Note it does not have to be the same size as your swf.The big chunk of code that set up a video stream is what you would use in any flash movie if not using components. It is not specific to PV3D really. You can consider it a black box, just copy and paste whenever you need a video stream. You give the video a variable name you will refer to it by in code and the actual name of the flv file. Thats all you ever change.
I only covered very basic primitives, sphere cube etc spinning pretty much in place. You can position them individually and move them as groups.
Something I did not cover, very important, the camera is an object to, so you can move it around your objects and fly it through your scene.
Some common terms
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dae file, a xml based 3d file can be read by PV3D, commonly used as interchange format.
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collada, application that creates dae files, a plugin used by swift3d, 3dsMax, Maya, Blender etc.
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3ds, very common file format, the native format of Autodesks 3dsMax
Getting the Papervision files
The actual PV3D files
http://code.google.com/p/papervision3d/you will need a svn (subversion) client. This basically links a folder on your machine to a trunk of open source code at google code. This way you always have the latest updates.
for the PC, free and pretty much in universal use
http://tortoisesvn.net/downloadsfor the mac, recommended by PV3D and google, free, a bit basic, but works
http://www.lachoseinteractive.net/en/community/subversion/svnx/features/installation tutorial video, take 15 minutes, stop watch this and it will be clear and simple
http://content.madvertices.com/articles/PV3DTraining/assets/1-SettingUp.html
a review of svn clients for the mac if you do not like the free one above
http://gigamaster.blogspot.com/2008/11/mac-svn-clients-review.html
Alternatives to PV3D
Away3d
The other serious contender in the open source flash 3d world, very good.
http://away3d.com/Alternativa3D 5.0
not yet released but very impressive, check out the demos, may be purchased by Adobe
http://blog.alternativaplatform.com/en/2008/04/18/alternativa3d-5-m1/Unity3d
not actually flash but a standalone player, wow!! toss the furniture in the shadows demo
http://unity3d.com/gallery/live-demos/tropical-paradise
3D modeling
Creating models for PV3D---------
Blender
awesome, very powerful 3d modeling application, its hardcore, and its free!!!
http://www.blender.org/Swift3D
the original 3d flash tool, really a modeler that exports vector rendered layered flash files. They invented the Ravix renderer that renders as vectors instead of bitmaps. It can import 3ds files, also can export to PV3D as dae files for true 3d, with the flash and actionscript files written for you.
You can download a trial copy from their site
http://www.erain.com/Products/swift3d/getting models into PV3D
everything about collada file format, open source xml 3d file interchange
http://www.collada.org/mediawiki/index.php/Main_PageSome discussion of the new parser that has been added to allow direct use of 3ds files in papervision. It is not as simple as you might hope.
http://drawlogic.com/2008/04/11/3ds-parser-added-to-papervision-from-away3d/6 page tutorial with files about taking dae file from blender to Flash and mapping video to the mesh.
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/flash_video_3d.htmlgetting Google Sketchup files into PV3D
http://www.jacobmake.com/2008/04/papervision-20-collada-import-dae-from-sketchup/nice blog, several articles and source for getting blender models to PV3D
http://www.rustpunk.co.za/blog/index.php
Good free 3d models
not necessarily easy to get into your PV3D project but quality 3ds files
http://artist-3d.com/index.htmthey already give you free modelling software, check out the huge set of links to more free resources at blender, what more could you ask for.
http://www.blender.org/download/resources/
Tutorials
great set of archived tutorials for beginners. covers everything starting from installing PV3D. I got started and off on my own with these in an afternoon. Video tutorials and source files.
http://content.madvertices.com/articles/PV3DTraining/default.htm#setUpThe more recent blog version of the fab tutorial site above
http://www.madvertices.com/winner of a competition to write a getting started tutorial
http://www.marcpelland.com/2009/01/22/guide-to-getting-started-in-papervision-3d/Excellent tutorials with advanced examples, full source code and file download
http://pv3d.org/site dedicated to open source flash, has a big set of PV3D tutorials, also a very active and smart mailing list, see the link under Forums
http://osflash.org/assorted tutorials, basic to complex
http://www.j-roen.net/papervision/just like its header says, papervision tutorials
http://papervision2.com/blog with lots of source code and explanations, qualifies as a tutorial site I think
http://www.rustpunk.co.za/blog/index.phpAdvanced tutorials, with a game development slant, collision detection etc
http://papergem.wordpress.com/animate the camera along bezier curves with tweening
http://www.madvertices.com/2008/10/tweener-bezier-curve-animations.htmlNEW** 50 tutorials what more can you say! flash, PV3D, other 3d and all sorts of skill levels
http://www.lemlinh.com/flash-tutorials-50-cool-flash-3d/major source of Swift3d tutorials, plus some on other topics 3d.
http://www.swiftdev.com/vb/showthread.php?t=3776Erian makers of Swift3d have their own tutorials, they are video so you can check them out without owning the software
http://www.erain.com/support/Tutorials/slightly off topic using SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) drawing data in flash can be used in PV3D
http://www.flash-creations.com/notes/sample_svgtoflash.php
Useful utilities
mr doob .dae mesh viewer, open the swf, right click on it and select open mesh, select a dae file to view.
http://code.google.com/p/mrdoob/wiki/pv3dpreviewer.
Other Classes that are useful and can be used in conjunction with PV3D
polygonal data structures for game developers, sounds scary, can be used for multi-dimensional arrays of objects in PV3D
http://lab.polygonal.de/ds/TweenLite and TweenMax the tweening classes that I love and use everyday
http://blog.greensock.com/very cool, PV3D with text
http://code.google.com/p/vectorvision/Call a method / function a second later or a frame later. Also has a LoadWatcher for loadProgress
http://code.google.com/p/foomonger/I use this one, for loading multiple files and having access to them across your whole project.
http://code.google.com/p/bulk-loader/this will explain a little and lead you to x-ray introspection, examine the parts of your file at runtime
http://rockonflash.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/papervision3d-xray-introspection-finally/#commentsvia open source flash, a layout manager class, Yes its Nick from FlashMN!
http://www.nbilyk.com/flash-layout-manager
Source Code and samples
these are source files sometimes with basic explanations, see Tutorials for more.
2d objects in papervision, why you might use them and how, short article and source files
http://labs.blitzagency.com/?p=377using interactive objects in PV3D, such as a scroller wrapped on a cube, source files
http://labs.blitzagency.com/?p=315itunes coverflow style file but with video on the back of the album cover when it flips, no source but tips
http://labs.blitzagency.com/?p=314nice blog with source files, not all super complex
http://www.dehash.com/?p=221some source files, pretty complex but cool files
http://www.gskinner.com/blog/archives/2008/10/simple_flash_pl.htmladvanced, lots of source, stuff like geolocation in PV3D
http://blog.zupko.info/generating terrain maps in PV3D, stunning
http://www.cleoag.ru/labs/flex/musicscape/TerrainSnd.swf
source here
http://www.cleoag.ru/2007/03/31/sources-for-papervision3d-terrain/
http://www.cleoag.ru/2007/03/30/papervision3d-terrain/
Forums
the official forum
http://forum.papervision3d.org/seems pretty active and users seem knowledgable
http://www.nabble.com/Papervision3D-f22855.html
its a mailing list, you need to join here to receive the replies
http://osflash.org/mailman/listinfo/Papervision3D_osflash.orgnew does not seem too active yet
http://madvertices.yuku.com/swiftdev is Swift3d focused but covers pretty much anything 3d including PV3D
http://www.swiftdev.com/
PV3D blogs
the official PV3D blog
http://blog.papervision3d.org/
great blog, I started out with his tutorials, great beginner stuff
http://www.madvertices.com/a blog that features a cool site using PV3D each day (almost)
http://dailypv3d.wordpress.com/great math blog, useful stuff for all sorts of flash
http://algorithmist.wordpress.comlots of links to even more blogs, 3dmodels, news, source etc
http://pv3world.com/blog/advanced stuff with a game development focus
http://papergem.wordpress.com/lots of cool experiments, made the dae viewer listed under utilities
http://mrdoob.com/blogadvanced focus, lots of source files
http://blog.zupko.info/all sorts of flash, PV3D, Unity#d etc
http://rockonflash.wordpress.com/category/3d/lots of good links tp useful flash classes etc, 2 parts not immediately obvious so 2 links
http://www.flash-creations.com/resources/
http://www.flash-creations.com/notes/sample_tweensequence.phpall sorts of news and some PV3D focus
http://techblog.floorplanner.com/nice blog with source files
http://www.dehash.com/?p=221flash blog with a game slant and some pPV3D stuff
http://www.thivy.com/blog/good blog lots of flash, some PV3D, very cool experiments, occasional source files
http://blog.st-f.net/design company site with some PV3D stuff
http://www.blog.lessrain.com/category/flash/papervision-3d/More a news and info about PV3D blog, leads to many cool things, keep up with what's new
http://www.papervision3dblog.com/a cool blog with complex work, some source files
http://www.gskinner.com/blog/archives/2008/10/simple_flash_pl.html
augmented reality, basically using the users camera then adding items to the scene it sees
http://www.mikkoh.com/blog/?p=182very hard core geeky blog
http://blog.tartiflop.com/category/pv3d/Russian coders blog, news and info on 3d, covers other interesting developments besides PV3d
http://www.cleoag.ru/useful flash and flex source, examples etc, Yes its Nick from FlashMN!
http://www.nbilyk.com/
Cool experiments and inspiration
daily PV3D selects a inspirational site using PV3D each day
http://dailypv3d.wordpress.com/
killer app that starts with a key word, brings orbit of topics as planet, then displays photos as globe
http://taggalaxy.de/cool msnbc site that displays your selected news topics in 3d
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24207533/randomly generating 3d trees
http://www.cleoag.ru/labs/flex/plant3d/MrDoob, just a few of my favorites below
very pretty, tweening between vertices, chrome balls, and depth of field
http://mrdoob.com/lab/pv3d/dof/07/
stunning fly through translucent balls with lights amongst them
http://mrdoob.com/tools/threedoob/performance/balls_lights/
realtime shadows
http://mrdoob.com/59/PV3D_20_Realtime_shadows_Test_02
more shadows
http://mrdoob.com/58/PV3D_20_Realtime_shadows_Test_03check out the 3d ad. height maps, PV3D drive the jeep
http://www.undergroundaward.com/Jeep3D/uses vector vision for text in PV3D
http://mckinney.com/