Flash Player investing in a 3D future, plans coming in October

Man, Adobe is really teasing up Flash and 3D. Straight from the mouth (or, rather, keyboard) of product manager Thibault Imbert: "What kind of [3D] API? True textured z-buffered triangles ? GPU acceleration? Even better? What I can say is forget what you have seen before, it is going to be big." Big talk in regards to a session at the company's upcoming MAX 2010 conference entitled (aptly enough) "Flash Player 3D Future." According to the description and some added details care of Imbert, expect discussion and demos of a renderer coming in a future version of Flash Player. We'd love to give you something more concrete, but looks like that might be awhile -- the talk isn't until October 27th.

[LickMySparseVoxelOctree Posted Jul 8th 2010 9:04PM]

This is 3D as in 3D games, not as in 3D movies. I think some people misunderstood the topic of this new.

Obvious enough, this is a take on HTLM5 by Adobe. Without this move, claims of HTLM superiority over flash would remain true, at least in this point.

[zangetsu2 Posted Jul 8th 2010 9:37PM]

@LickMySparseVoxelOctree
Yes, this will make Flash even useful-ier, but even without this, Flash is still superior to HTML5 for gaming. Where HTML5 shines is embedded video.

In this day of huge amounts of RAM, I am interested to see what web developers will do with a good 3D library. Crysis.com, yeah?

[Ben64 Posted Jul 8th 2010 9:28PM]

It's like you put 2 things I don't care about together and created one massive thing that I don't care about.

[Ambient80 Posted Jul 8th 2010 9:33PM]

I just really, really find 3D to be absolutely underwhelming. I mean, good for Adobe making a push for the market, but there has yet to be a movie (yes, even Avatar) or game that has made me think that I ABSOLUTELY have to have it in 3D. I feel like it's being pushed way too hard as the next big thing, when it just seems like a passing gimmick to me.

Does anyone feel differently? Can someone tell me any true uses of 3D as it is right now? Not trolling, I just would really like to know what it could be used for. I think a 3D phone would be goofy as hell, regardless of who's name or OS is on it. i3D! 3Droid! WebOS-3D! No thanks... in fact, /vomit.

[Ambient80 Posted Jul 8th 2010 9:36PM]

@Ambient80 To be clear, I think even on a desktop it would be dumb. Even if it had the same technology Nintendo is using in the 3DS so you didn't have to use glasses, it would have very limited use. I dunno, maybe I'm just a bitter person, lol.
GET OFF MY LAWN!

[zangetsu2 Posted Jul 8th 2010 9:44PM]

@Ambient80, everyone else posting
I'm 99% sure they mean 3D as in 3D modeling of polygons, not 3D stereoscopic images.

(3D as in Virtua Fighter, not as in Avatar)

[thinkspring Posted Jul 8th 2010 10:09PM]

I'm not sure about the headline- "investing in a 3D future"- but having an official framework might not be bad thing for Flash developers to have in their arsenal. And yes, we are talking about 3D models, triangles, tessellation, etc- not slapping on a pair of overpriced glasses to play a 'true 3D game' (or at least I really hope not). As far as I know the MPAA has not squatted and tried to mark it's territory on browsers and web plug-ins... yet.

I certainly don't believe 'all websites need to use 3D' or anything crazy like that, but the ability to have a common, reliable (Hardware-accelerated? Possibly with physics?) 3D framework running in the Flash Player could be a plus. The several third party engines that currently exist are all impressive in their own way, but there are so many of them- and most are private projects kept alive by dedicated developers on their own time- maybe Adobe has (or will) hire some of those folks!

http://temp.roxik.com/datas/physics/index.html (Roxik)
http://www.helloenjoy.com/ (Papervision)
http://away3d.com/away3d-showcase-video-for-2010 (Away3D)

[Perspective Posted Jul 8th 2010 10:48PM]

With Adobe, things are always "coming."

[cdf74dc9 Posted Jul 8th 2010 11:30PM]

@Perspective

I come and it delivered. Nuf said.

[Mike10010100 Posted Jul 8th 2010 11:28PM]

@HighestRanked2

Amazing how you think that Flash will simply die. HTML5 and Flash can coexist together! It's only because you're an iFanboy that you believe that Flash must die! You're rationalizing Apple's decision not to support Flash, even when it doesn't severely impact devices in the way that Steve Jobs said it did.

[delicatessen lama Posted Jul 8th 2010 11:30PM]

3D menus/environments or 3D bullsh** like in Avatar?

[Prevacator Posted Jul 8th 2010 11:38PM]

Flash currently offers better playback for video, but you can already get FULL 3D graphics via WebGL. And at incredible frame rates too, because it's hardware accelerated.

[Arley23 Posted Jul 9th 2010 1:32AM]

HTML5 > Flash ANY DAY FLASH GEEKS!!

[o7o Posted Jul 9th 2010 1:43AM]

@Arley23 And why exactly you think so? I don't believe it's just because Steve Jobs said so!

[darkmax Posted Jul 9th 2010 3:04AM]

I wonder if they will first commit themselves to correcting all the crashes on Windows and Apple platform.

And that little glitch that they are causing the world from moving onto 64 bit browsers.

Truly, how can such a reputable company keep making promises, not producing them, and then make some more empty ones?

[Awall Posted Jul 9th 2010 4:13AM]

"I love 3D, but just for full disclosure I also think headaches are dope."

~Aziz Ansari

[digitalzombie Posted Jul 9th 2010 4:57AM]

Kill flash already. It's closed source and not an open standard. Developers are on the whim of one company.

You guys can argue about video games all you want but Javascript can do that perfectly fine. Here's proof www.quakelive.com .

Flash is going down just like Cold Fusion. Javascript +HTML5 is going to kill Flash and PHP is dominating Cold Fusion. What's that I hear? The tears of Adobe crappy technology going down? Good, I'm licking the tears and it's so sweet. I don't have to deal with PHP workarounds for Flash cause they haven't fix their crapping bugs yet.

[MagnetMan Posted Jul 9th 2010 6:12AM]

Too little, too late.

Flash should have implemented a 3D API nearly a DECADE ago. Now flash has to contend with the likes of NaCl and development environments like Unity 3 and WebGL. Instead of showing vision, they have maintained a monopoly and progress has stagnated. This is precisely why it's bad to let one company run the show, it slows progress.

I'm glad that flash is bringing a 3D api to the market. A lot of great devices will get cool games, and with NaCl around the corner, Flash/AIR may find a new home. However, this should have been implemented long ago.

[Nintendoftl Posted Jul 9th 2010 1:36PM]

Maybe the 3d will work on the ipad
*sarcazmz