Comparison of Flash 3D Engines

Question

Hi,

I am currently digging into the whole Flash 3D stuff and I am quite unsure which engine I should use. I really prefer haXe for development but ActionScript 3 is also fine.
Therefore I would like to ask you about experiences you have made!

If you answer this question please consider the following points:

• Easy to use? Easy to learn?
• Quality / Quantity of documentation?
• Active community?
• Features (lightning/shadows, click detection, collision detection, ...)
• Performance / stability of rendering? (make use of Flash Player 10 features?)
• Quality of rendering?

My current candidates are:

• Papervision3D
• Alternativa3D
• Sandy 3D (only engine with native haXe version)
• Away3D

These are the 4 major engines I have found. If you know another one, then please write about it! (I would prefer open source.)

I am looking forward to seeing you opinions.

P.S.: I am aware of this SO question, but it is quite old and does not have satisfying answers.

Answer 1

Well from what I know, Papervision3D is no longer being supported.

In my opinion, Away3D is very good, there is also a "lite" version which is pretty fast as far as I know. Alternativa3D is very good too, and it's free now it I'm correct.

There are a few other, like Flare3D, Yogurt3D...

In the long run, I'm pretty sure they all have the same major features, so it's up to you to use the one you feel most comfortable with. So you might want to check out the websites and look at the docs and all that.

Also, unless you missed it, adobe are going to be releasing Molehill, a hardware accelerated 3D API soon. It has just been announced a Adobe Max, so I think it's safe to say that we might see a change in 3D engines over the next 6/7 months.

Answer 2

There is also going to be a open source Adobe 3D engine built on MoleHill called Proscenium.

I can't comment, but that evoflash video using molehill is amazing __dominic!