Flash11 Stage3D Book Chapter 1

Adobe Flash 11 Stage3D (Molehill) Game Programming
Beginner’s Guide: Chapter 1 Demo

“Let’s make a game using Molehill!”

In chapter one we learn about the new capabilities of Flash 11 with regard to 3d game development. Basic 3d terms such as texture, vertex, normal, mesh, vector and more are explained.

Here’s an excerpt from the chapter introduction:

Welcome, brave hero!

You are about to undertake an epic quest: to make a game using the Stage3D API (Molehill). This quest will be filled with fun and excitement, as well as challenges and setbacks. It is one that you are sure to enjoy. Programming a 3D game is not easy—but you CAN do it! Consider this book your trusty sidekick on an exciting adventure. Much like in a role-playing game, you are the star. You are the hero.

This book will take the tone of a grand adventure story. We will explore Molehill together, overcoming challenges and slowly leveling-up our knowledge. On each step along the way to our goal—the creation of a 3D game—you will earn “experience points”. During your adventure in game making, you will be presented with systematic challenges that we will call “quests”. At the end of each chapter, you will “level-up”.

This book is aimed at complete beginners to Molehill, and is meant to be informal, semi-jovial, light-hearted, and fun to read. You don’t just want a boring appendix of every Molehill command listed in order. That information can be found using Google. Instead, we will start from scratch and gradually explore deeper into the world of 3D Flash games, one skill at a time. It will be example-heavy and filled with information that you can use in real-life game development using Molehill.

Your epic adventure awaits!

Your mission is simple. Armed with this book and a little hard work, your quest is to program a fully functional 3D game filled with action and movement, loaded with eye-candy and amazing 3D graphics. When you have completed all the exercises in this book, you will be the proud author of your very own 3D game, ready to be played by all your friends… and indeed the whole world. Your adventures will become the stuff of legend, to be sung by travelling minstrels in all the taverns in the kingdom.

So let’s get on with it! Time for the training camp; the best place to start is the very beginning. The basics…

Topics covered in chapter one:

‹‹Vector3D: containing an x, y, and z component
‹‹Normal: a Vector3D that has a length of one
‹‹Matrix: a 4×4 group of vectors with position, rotation, and scale
‹‹Vertex: a point in space that is the corner of a polygon
‹‹Polygon: a shape defined by multiple vertex coordinates
‹‹Mesh: a group of polygons (polies) that make up a model
‹‹Texture: a bitmap image that is like wallpaper for a mesh
‹‹Vertex program: commands affecting the shape of a mesh
‹‹Fragment program: commands affecting the look of a mesh

Learn how to program a Flash 11 3d game in my new book:
Adobe Flash 11 Stage3D (Molehill) Game Programming Beginner’s Guide

View the other demos from the book:
Chapter One – introduction
Chapter Two – terminology
Chapter Three – basic quad
Chapter Four – basic agal shaders
Chapter Five – mesh parser
Chapter Six – render states
Chapter Seven – inputs and timers
Chapter Eight – particle system
Chapter Nine – game actor classes
Chapter Ten – the final game demo