#mcfunkypants

via @McFunkypants

hey cool, math translated to code you actually understandhttps://t.co/vm3iFr2qJI whoa.. maybe we could finally learn university level math this way.. taught using a language we already understand pic.twitter.com/RWYnqfeS33

Flash Stage3D

.blog.bookreview

A friend of mine from one of the many awesome internet communities we both frequent, Christer, or more commonly referred to as BreakdanceMcFunkyPants (or even just @McFunkyPants) - released a book near the end of 2011 that he asked me to review it - so I finally have. It has been out a while, I realise this - I have been busy but also tentatively watching for other interesting sources of information, and watching the growth of the platform and technology that is, Adobe Flash 11 - Stage 3D (previously known as Molehill). The technology Stage3D brings 3D acceleration to the Flash platform, as the book aptly explains and details, but it also brings a new aspect of programming games to Flash that many existing Flash developers are not accustomed to. Stage3D has a lot of lower level aspects that Flash has kept well wrapped for a long time, making the creation of games in Flash really approachable for new programmers and developers of all kinds. This new technology was released quite early for developers too, and has a lot going for it in terms of new ground in Flash. This has good and bad implications, one bad thing being the lack of resources at first, which excludes a very large portion of the enthusiastic existing user base. Soon after this, a lot of new resources and blogs are created dedicated to the new technologies, which is fantastic - except the technology can change and evolve. Savvy developers with experience in 3D and dealing with shaders and lower level GPU technologies have no problem picking things up as they go, and if something doesn't work from an early resource, they can probably spot why. But, there are many Flash users that face these new concepts for the first time ever - on top of new Flash API's - and can easy get stuck or discouraged. On one hand, there is this great new unknown territory that is so desirable, but faced with outdated resources and evolving technology - It makes a lot of the subtle breaking changes to the existing resources and tutorials insurmountable for the people that are still learning the foundations. They don't yet grasp all aspects before using the new technology either, so when something doesn't work - it is really hard to get past on their own.

That's where books like this come in. This book came at a great time for Stage3D - It has the information from a fairly stable place in the Stage3D ecosystem. Now, don't get me wrong, obviously there are a lot of positives for the early release of development technologies, I fully support this approach - The purpose of the paragraphs above were to point out the value of the book at hand. It's one of the best and few complete resources for Stage3D, and it comes from a new developer stand point at well - great for bridging that gap.

The book goes from the very first empty screen of a game using Stage3D to a fully realised demo that you can play right now. You don't need to have programmed any shaders or stage3D or even much 3D before diving right in. But then again, the book touches on concepts that intermediate and advanced developers can probably use as well.

Overall I found reading the book itself pretty entertaining, Christer is a great guy and his personality comes through into the book - while still being a solid reference and taking itself seriously and professionally. I personally found that some of the code examples were quite hairy to navigate, conflicting with my own styles and preferences of coding but that is not really a deterrent. My Pros + Good solid reference + Still relevant months after release + Fairly fleshed out demo/example for beginners + Covers the concepts of games in general (timing, etc) + Covers many aspects of a full game (particles, etc) My Cons - Only one (full) example, still covering the entire books concepts though - Code practices and clarity in examples (i.e [embed] all over, instead of isolated to resource files etc.