Unity 3D to target Flash Player as a 3D platform with "molehill"

[maskedMan]

http://blogs.unity3d.com/2011/02/27/...3d-on-the-web/

This is huge. Absolutely huge. This could put to bed any and all the current crop of 3D libraries in the AS world. No need for papervision. No need for Away3D. No need for any of them.

I've played around with Unity before, and it's a sweet dev environment but I never stuck with it because almost nobody wanted content targeting the Unity player. Now that Unity 3D will have the ability to publish swfs, and target the new Molehill apis, and even allow you to code in ActionScript(!) that completely changes the game.

If Adobe has the money laying around, they'd be smart to buy Unity right now because odds are they don't have (and probably can't internally build) a 3D content editor that rivals Unity.

[asf8]

That is certainly interesting and exciting, thanks for sharing the news.

[maskedMan]

Yep. One thing I forgot to mention also is that part of the reason this is so exciting is that Unity already also has the ability to export native iOS and Android applications. Adding swf to the supported targets is just mindblowing.

[tadster]

Wow, total bliss.

[Noct]

Wow, that. is. awesome! I've been wanting to do 3d dev in Flash for ages, but I just did not want to learn PaperVision. From everything I've read, this is going to vastly simplify things for AS oreinted ppl like ourselves.

[asf8]

I don't think it will necessarily "put to bed" all the current 3rd-party 3D libraries. But it will certainly be interesting to see how these various 3D libraries implement this new support into their existing libraries, some are already releasing beta support. Some exciting things on the horizon for Flash and 3D, finally!

What's interesting is wasn't "Molehill" in a sense supposed to better align Flash competitively with Unity concerning 3D capabilities? I am curious if Adobe will eventually have some sort of an IDE interface for utilizing and interfacing with these features in addition to the actual API. Regardless this will certainly push forward the Flash platform as well as Unity given Flash's install base.

Just another reason to open up Flash Player support on iDevices, those users are gonna miss out on more exciting things. ;-P.

[maskedMan]

Originally Posted by asf8

What's interesting is wasn't "Molehill" in a sense supposed to better align Flash competitively with Unity concerning 3D capabilities?

Yeah, that was definitely what I'd imagined a long while back, but...

I am curious if Adobe will eventually have some sort of an IDE interface for utilizing and interfacing with these features in addition to the actual API.

I'm not so sure. Or rather I should say that I'm not so sure that they're working on one internally or have any plans to. My suspicion is that they are / were planning on seeing which of the current open source projects are best supported and most featureful, and building that into their current crop of IDEs... or if a proprietary library / tool crops up, to possibly buy it from the creators. It beats sinking man-hours into a project of unknown value in a market where the platform itself is under assault.

One thing I find interesting is that there's plenty of excitement about this development even among Adobe evangelists. *That* took me by surprise. I have to wonder if this isn't something that Unity and Adobe were working together on in smoke filled back rooms.

Just another reason to open up Flash Player support on iDevices, those users are gonna miss out on more exciting things. ;-P.

No way, just another reason to keep it out of the walled-garden. It was never about performance or battery life. It's all about keeping a platform that Apple can't control from delivering experiences that could divert money and attention away from their app store, and to keep their platform clear of competitors to iAds. A stronger Flash Player only gives them more of a reason to say "no".

[Rhuno]

This is FANTASTIC news! I haven't messed around with Unity a whole lot, but I will definitely be looking more into it now. A couple of coworkers of mine made a really 3D app with Unity a few weeks ago. They were so excited because they said Unity made it pretty easy to do. Great find!