Papervision3D

NOT PVX, but still very cool

We just wanted to put out a note about what PapervisionX really is and what it isn’t.  There’s been some emails on the list lately talking about it, and we’d rather not leave it up to guessing etc about what it really is and if it’s available etc.

CS4 Branch is not PapervisionX

Ok first things first:  the CS4 branch never was PapervisionX.  It simply included a renderer that used some of the features of the Flash 10 API.  That’s all.  The core engine is still very PV2.0 and it was just a sort of testing ground really.  It wasn’t meant for production or any type of official release at all.  Just merely getting our feet wet.  It was, however, encouraging to see people trying it out and getting somewhat excited.  That definitely helps motivate the team to see excitement like that!

PapervisionX – what it is

PapervisionX is the next version of Papervision3D built from the ground up based on Flash10′s new 3D api.  Ralph and Tim are leading the initial efforts on the core of the engine at the time of this writing (3.16.2009).

We’re going to be handling some things differently with PVX.  For starters, no more “beta” titles.  We’ll be using dot versioning and will be flushing out a milestone roadmap with features married to those revision numbers.  Also, we’re going to be focusing a great deal of energy and effort on our processes.  We’re very aware of some of the issues that have been created in 2.0 at various times which caused the engine to be unstable.  We’ll be making every effort to keep those times to a minimum in PVX.

PapervisionX – why ?

Flash 10 added a set of native 3D features to the 3D engine. To optimally use them, PapervisionX will be a rearchitectured (from the ground up) version of Papervision3D. This way we can retain the API as much as possible, while taking full advantage of the 3D features of Flash Player 10. This will be mostly beneficial in the areas of quality, speed and file size. To do this, certain parts of the engine needed to be rebuilt, which in turn was enough incentive to have a good look at the entire engine architecture. During this effort we also look at rearchitecturing the engine in other area’s, to make it more flexible (for future Flash Players) and allowing us to use newer Flash technologies, like Adobe Alchemy.

What about PV2.0?

We’re not leaving 2.0 behind just yet.  There are still features and changes to the engine we’d like to make and it seems that this version of the engine will largely be the most used for quite some time until FP10′s adoption rate is up to where it needs to be.  We’ve also talked about porting certain features and rewrites from PVX to PV2.0.  Until the rest of the team can actually work on their features for PVX, we’ll be focusing on 2.0 issues list and features.

When is PVX due out? When can we play??

PVX is still in the early stages of development.  Focus, right now, is on the core architecture.  We dont have a date right now.  However, we’re all aware of how much people want to try it out/test/blog/use for production, and we’re also determined to keep to a schedule.  So, while we can’t give any dates right now, we can say that you will see more updates and progress as we go along so you’re not in the dark and wondering.  As soon as we have dates that we feel we can meet and hold to, we’ll post them immediately.

Thanks all for your patience and help – PVX is going to be one of the best offerings yet for Flash 3D and I think it’ll blow your socks right off