[Flash 3d engine] Away3d and events (Basic questions)

Question

I'd like to play around 3d in Flash and I'm wondering how sophisticated objects can i load from 3D Max... coś as i read it's possible to load something from 3d Max

I've read that popular 3d engine is Away3d (many tutorials), so if there is nothing better... i'd like to focus on it.

I've forgot to mention that i'm not familar with Flash, but the best way to learn something is to do something interesting with it... :)

Main question:

Can I load object from 3ds and link parts of this object to some actions in Flash. Better example: I'd like to load a Car and when user click on car's door i'd like to show some informations, about those door, or pass this event outside for example to any other application in PHP, Java etc... and when he click on car mask i'd like to raise other event...

Is it possible to create such interaction??

Thx in advance :)

Answer 1

probably the simplest way to pass an event outside of the flash app is with ExternalInterface

This allows you to call to javascript and from there continue on with what you need to do. And you can call your method which makes this request upon a click event of the material the car has. unfortunately I'm not great with Away3D (papervision person myself) so I can't be of any advantage there.

Googled

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/external_interface_05.html

Answer 2

Away3D can load 3DS models: http://code.google.com/p/away3d/source/browse/trunk/fp10/Away3D/src/away3d/loaders/Max3DS.as

Example: http://code.google.com/p/away3d/source/browse/trunk/fp10/Examples/Away3D/as/src/Basic_LoadModel.as

However, I have only worked with Collada DAE files in Away3D: http://code.google.com/p/away3d/source/browse/trunk/fp10/Away3D/src/away3d/loaders/Collada.as

I was able to load and parse a Collada file, then find and manipulate the nested objects and textures. Here is the Away3D DAE example: http://code.google.com/p/away3d/source/browse/trunk/fp10/Examples/Away3D/as/src/Advanced_MultiMario.as

And here is an example InteractiveTexture: http://code.google.com/p/away3d/source/browse/trunk/fp10/Examples/Away3D/as/src/Intermediate_InteractiveTexture.as

So in short, I think what you are trying to achieve is possible. Of course, you'll actually have to download the full Away3D source & examples to compile and run these examples.

I should warn that this is not a great project to get started learning Flash. Away3D has decent documentation and the examples show what can be achieved, but I would personally rate this as an 'expert level' project, not a beginner one. Setting up your development environment, properly exporting your models, loading them, and manipulating them is quite an undertaking.

Good luck!