O’Reilly: Inside RIA

I read today that a new version of Unity, a 3D Platform for the web, was released yesterday. It is full of new features, but most importantly, it is now free.

No, this isn't my new perspective on using the Google Maps API. In fact, it's much more exciting. Google recently released a new addition to the Maps API for Flash, including 3D perspective, and a new control set that is reminiscent of the controls in Google Earth! Straight from Google: "With a perspective map, the map is projected on a viewport (the screen) using a virtual point of reference in front of the screen (the camera). These three components (the map, the viewport and the camera) form a perspective on the viewport which gives the illusion of depth perception to the map."

In this tutorial I will show you how to build a simple 3D photo album in AS3. We will build an application similar to this one. I will use two AS3 libraries: FIVe3D and TweenLite, both open source. Five3D is a lightweight 3D library written by Mathieu Badimon. TweenLite is one of the many libraries available for script based animation in AS3. It was created by Jack Doyle from Greensock. It's principal characteristic is that it's small (hence it's name) and simple to use. FIVe3D and TweenLite work very well together!

Both Adobe and Microsoft have demonstrated the capabilities and importance of player-based runtimes within the browser -- There is no question about it. There are numerous things that you can do within the player based runtime that allow for an enhanced experience, and amazing graphical capabilities. Now, it appears that more and more 3D browser plugins are popping up.

Lots of news today, First JavaFX, now Google. Google Earth, and the Google Earth browser API are now supported on Macs.

Although I'm up to my neck in RIA every day, I'm still impressed by some of the things that people are able to do with RIAs and the internet. Here are a few examples that really grabbed my attention this evening.

Yesterday, Google released the Google Earth API. This is basically a browser plugin for Google Earth. I have to admit, I was blown away when I saw it in action. Microsoft Virtual Earth beat Google to it with web based 3d maps, but Google is going to give them a run for their money.

Materials
Why do you need to learn about materials in Papervision3D? Take a sphere for example: How do you determine whether the sphere is a globe, an eye, or a basketball? You only know by which material is mapped to the sphere.

This article will cover the basics of the materials available through Papervision3D and teach you how to add materials to Planes. Let's get started, we’ve got a lot of “material” to cover:

Brad Umbaugh and I were interviewed on The Flex Show last week discussing our use of 3D in Discovery Earth Live. You can check out the full interview here if you're interested. In the interview we discuss the nature of 3D interfaces, some things to think about when attempting 3D, and just barely scratch the surface on the differences between Papervision3D and Away3D. Kinda timely given Andrew's post on 3D just a few days ago. Finding the "right" way to use rich innovative features like 3D is a topic I'm really passionate about. We didn't get into the usability aspects of it as much as I'd liked in the interview, but I'm hoping to do a panel at MAX or Web 2.0 NYC later this year and get more into it. Is that something you'd be interested in? Leave us a comment if you don't mind.

I am thoroughly impressed with some of the things that I have seen recently coming out of the 3D flash world. PaperVision3D has come a long, Away3d is looking great, and today was the first time that I have ever seen the Alternativa Platform. I'm speechless by some of the work that I have seen.

Papervision3D opens a whole new dimension to World Wide Web. The third dimension! Thanks to a core group of ActionScript geniuses who understand mathematical representations of 3D space way better than you or me, we can now easily add a new perspective to our Flash applications. This article will cover what’s necessary to set up your first Papervision3D application as well as introduce you to adding 3D objects. Put on your 3-dimensional hat and let’s get started!

Last week I was fortunate enough to have been given a demo and walkthrough of a new Discovery Channel Rich Internet Application built by EffectiveUI. The demo was given by Randy Reiland, (senior vice president, Digital Media, Discovery Communications), Anthony Franco (president, EffectiveUI), and RJ Owen (senior designer, EffectiveUI).