KludgeHack

Flex 3D Plataform

Since the long release of Adobe Flex, I’ve been wondering this cross-platform RIA development framework could take us.

Adobe provides some demos, but none of them delivers even a small percentage of Microsoft WPF.

Outsmart is a RIA development studio that is creating a 3D rendering platform in Flex.

Using rendering methods similar to that seen in the Papervision 3D project, Outsmart have developed a 3D engine that is capable of (from their blog):

• Realtime polygon rendering engine with texture mapping
• Perspective and isometric rendering modes
• Free and/or fixed camera control
• Depth of field rendering effects
• Ability to project any Flex UI, Flash SWF or FLV onto any 3D surface
• Ability to interact with a Flex UI in 3D space

The online demo puts you in control of an animated character who moves around the stage when you click the floor. To look around, click and drag with the left mouse button. Dragging the floor rotates the camera and SHIFT+drag zooms it in and out.

The Flex components are probably the nicest touch with interactions being quite intuitive. The demo itself is minimal, but you can easily see how future iterations of the technology could lead to a compelling user experience, both with corporate applications and 3rd person gaming.

You can find this demo here. Some others could also be found at their blog.

They are also planning on releasing a virtual chat with customizable avatars.