ActionScript 3.0 Bible

Chapter 40. Advanced 3D

FEATURED CLASSES

• flash.display.Graphics

• flash.display.GraphicsTrianglePath

• flash.geom.Utils3D

• flash.geom.PerspectiveProjection

• flash.geom.Matrix3D

• flash.geom.Vector3D

In Chapter 15, "Working in Three Dimensions," you learned how to place display objects in 3D space, using what I'll call the 3D display list API. There I introduced perspective projection, the 3D coordinate system, and points and vectors in three dimensions. If all went well, this was a gentle introduction to 3D concepts, and the 3D display list API was a simple and natural interface for 3D work.

Then, in Chapter 34, "Geometric and Color Transformations," you learned about 3D transformation matrices. You delved much deeper into the mathematical principles that enable 3D. You learned how matrix multiplication concatenates transformations and matrix-vector multiplication projects vectors (when the vectors are written as row and column matrices). You didn't use this for any additional rendering techniques, but you did see how to manipulate 3D data such as points and transformations.

In this chapter, you'll put together your grasp of 3D gained in Chapter 15 with your theoretical understanding of transformations and vectors from Chapter 34, along with your experience using the vector graphics API from Chapter 35, "Programming Vector Graphics," and Pixel Bender from Chapter 38, "Writing Shaders with Pixel Bender," to use the lowest-level 3D facilities provided by Flash Player 10. With these advanced 3D techniques, ...