Augmented Reality in Flash 10
For those who have never heard of "augmented reality" (AR), here is Wikipedia's definition:
Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery - creating a mixed reality.
Sounds a bit blury? Well... I'll try to make it clearer with a demo...
Demo
First, you will have to print a little black and white "marker". The AR software scans the webcam picture and look for this very marker. When it is found, its 3D position, rotation and scale are computed and used to embed a 3D object. You can found the marker here and it looks like this:
FLARToolkit Marker
Quake 2′s 3D models in Flash 10
Loading and rendering Quake 2's maps is a challenge because Flash 10 doesn't handle complex 3D geometry very well. But what about a smaller count of polygons ? Say a 3D model for example... already done! What about an animated 3D model then?
Details, pictures and a demo application right after the jump...
Flash on the iPhone
It might be one of the most demanded features by both the Flash Platform and the iPhone users communities. Just a few seconds ago, Adobe announced that it is now possible to create iPhone applications using Flash!
You can find a detailed article on Mike Chambers' blog. Basically, Adobe is using the might and mighty LLVM (already used by Pixel Bender and Alchemy) project to create native iPhone applications from a SWF file.
Here are some additional resources targeting the iPhone using the Flash Platform:
Flash inside Safari Mobile is not there yet but it is still something Adobe "continues to work on"...
Load and display Quake 2′s Maps in Flash 10
The Quake-series is really awesome. Not only in terms of gameplay but also technically. Quake 1, 2 and 3 are especially impressive. No wonder why Quake's graphics engine, maps or models file formats have been reused in many many games such as Half Life, Call of Duty or Medal of Honnor! So why not in your own Flash 10 game?
There are so many reasons why loading Quake 2 files inside the Flash player would be considered as just "impossible". Performance would be the first and main one. One would just consider that Flash is not fast enough to display complex 3D graphics, not even those of a game as old as Quake 2 (published in 1996!). But using Flash 10 latests features such as the Vector and GraphicsTrianglePath classes, it is actually quite doable!
Details, pictures and a demo application right after the jump!