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3D Ball Adventure (JigLibMotionSpringCamera3D) Part 3

February 22, 2009 by Devin Reimer

3D Ball Adventure Version 3 Screenshot

Over the passed week and an half, I went through almost every line of code in this project and rewrote and refactored it. After a bit of work, I discovered the cause of the major camera bug that would cause the camera to freak out when pointed north. This issue is now fixed. The springiness of the camera has also been loosened up a bit, so the camera motion is a lot smoother.

Since I got the new camera system to work, I decided to make it a nice and programmer friendly class called JigLibMotionStringCamera3D. I am aware that this name is terrible and long, but it describes the camera’s function perfectly. The camera uses a JigLibFlash RigidBody object as its target and moves based on its motion not the direction it is facing. Part of the camera’s smooth motion is achieved by extending the SpringCamera3D class. While this camera does have specific job, I know that there are a lot of uses for a camera like this. If you find a cool use for it, drop me a line.

The viewable area of this version has been increased and a little challenge has been added to the end of the level for those who played the last version.

If anyone has created any cool levels using the xml level creator send me an email. I would love to incorporate them in my next version.

To play the demo click here.

To get the source click here.

Note: You will need Papervision3D, JigLibFlash and Tweener to compile the source.

Update: The swf example has been updated to fix an issue when viewed on any page but the main page. Thanks to Chris Hill for pointing this out.

3D Ball Adventure (JigLibFlash, SpringCamera3D, Papervision3D) Mashup Part 2

February 9, 2009 by Devin Reimer

I have been busy over the past week improving the ‘3D Ball Adventure’ game. While the use of the SpringCamera3D in the last version was usable, it did have a problem, it was locked onto to two planes of motion and had no rotation. So I under took the challenge of creating an easy to use 3rd person camera view using SpringCamera3D. I greatly under estimated the challenge of creating a camera system that competently followed the motion of the ball but also gave the user the freedom to make camera corrections. While this version isn’t perfect, it is still pretty cool.

I also have updated the xml level generator with new features like object groups, player start position, standardized objects. Also instead of x,y,z being the center of a box, it is now the top, close, left corner (which is way easier to design for).

To play the demo click here.

To get the source click here.

Note: As before you must have Papervision3D and JibLibFlash to run the source.

3D Ball Adventure (JigLibFlash, SpringCamera3D, Papervision3D) Mashup Part 1

February 2, 2009 by Devin Reimer

3D Ball Adventure Version 1 Screenshot

A couple of weeks ago a new 3D physics engine for AS3 called JigLibFlash was released into early alpha. I’ve been playing around with different 3D physics engine for Papervision3D for a little while now. The problem was I could not get the ease of use and performance I wanted out of anything that was currently available. This finally changed when I came across JigLibFlash. This library is relatively easy to use and the performance is quite good. Check out the code base at http://code.google.com/p/jiglibflash/ or jump over to their blog at http://www.jiglibflash.com/blog/. Important Note: This library is currently undocumented, has no tutorials and is in early alpha so it is not for the faint of heart, but if that does not bother you go check it out, you will be impressed.

I have been working on a new camera type for a while that would realistically follow around a 3D buggy. I thougth this class was starting to get pretty good, that was until Benoit Beauséjour release his SpringCamera3D class, which blew the version I’ve been working on out of the water. This class is easy to use and will make your 3D apps look a lot more profession. For a good example on how to use the new SpringCamera3D class in Papervision3D check out a demo at http://pv3d.org/2009/01/23/springcamera3d-and-driving-a-car/

So while playing around with both these very cool new developments I thought wouldn’t it be great if I mashed these two together and create a cool game. At that moment 3D Ball Adventure was born.

Continue reading for a working demo and source code.

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