That's a lot of questions in one! :))
Just a few answers for the less obvious ones.
applyRotations();
if you set rotationY to an object and applyRotations() after that
you will see no changes on screen.
but something happends at mesh level. all faces were rotated according
to your rotationY
the rotationY of the object is set back to 0. In short its a
destructive way to apply rotations.
It was changed within the mesh object space. not the world space.
same for your question about center.
its especially handy for exporters, modelers etc..
As about the Mesh functions like gotoAndPlay etc.. 11, 12, 13 of your
list
Away has an internal mesh animation system. So you need be able to
drive your animations.
The mesh animation data is stored in dictionaries and updates the mesh
information.
The way it works is in a way similar to the Flash timeline.
When you play with it, you will be able to notice the nuances between
properties.
I suggest you first play a bit more... you have done the first steps
tutorials..
You can find more under the tutorial section on away3d.com.
Doc
You, like any other user, are able and invited to add comments/
examples to the doc!
http://away3d.com/examples.php?add=new
Welcome to Away Deril!
Fabrice
On Mar 9, 2009, at 2:03 PM, Deril wrote:
Hello.
I started to learn Away 3d. I have read everything at
http://www.flashmagazine.com/Tutorials/category/away3d/ and
http://blog.tartiflop.com/2008/11/first-steps-in-away3d-part-1-getting-started/
as good introduction and now I dive in..
I am planing to know AWAY 3d from inside out. So my learning curve is
different from others, It takes much more time, but makes me a better
specialist.
(this is an example of what I mean :
http://www.mindscriptact.com/src/away3d/A3dPrimitives.as)
While learning I want to know... not only what stuff is.. but also why
it is.. and how it is. In most cases with class members it is clear
and even trivial. But in some cases I found documentation not clear...
or.. I simply fail to understand because of lack of knowledge...
I have a deal for you... :) help me clear my knowledge gaps... and i
will write in-depth documentation on classes.
Also... learning from live docs makes me a tester of it.. I will note
on stuff that I will find not clear, incomplete or plain wrong.
Little background. I am new to 3d. And I am also new to AWAY 3d
framework. So some of my questions may.. and probably will be result
of my lack of knowledge. So I ask patience.. and if you point me to
info source or hints on that to look for - I will be more then
grateful. I also don't rush to read ... for an instance Mesh tempts to
ehamine Geometry class. But it seams for me that you should get the
point of the class.. by reading it.. without knowing rest of the
framework.. so aether a am too dumb to understand it.. or livedocs is
not clear, and I am more then wiling to fix both these problems...
Also ... maybe you can suggest learning path. Currently I am picking
classes by common sense, classes that looks most important to go with.
I will numerate my questions, so it will be easer for you(and me) to
refer to it.
Thanks for your time:
### Object3d class :
1 :parameter center : ... what for? (debugging?) I have failed to get
something not (0,0,0) ... even after moving object in various ways...
and even creating face that alters bounding box...
this.turtle.moveTo(200, -500, 0);
this.turtle.applyPosition(100, -200, 0);
this.turtle.addFace(new Face(new Vertex(1000, -1000, 1000), new Vertex
( -1000, 1000, 1000), new Vertex(1000, 1000, -1000)));
trace('center:'+this.turtle.center)
2 : applyRotations() , applyPosition() it works 'without altering the
appearance of child objects' ... but what 'appearance' means, is it
saves some render time? don;t perform .. I don't know.. meshing?.. or
other task?...
3: translate , rotate : it works with vector, to perform move and
rotation.. but its not clear what kind of vector... Common sense(and
testing..) tells me vector is drawn from object center to axis:
(Number3D). I suggest to write it in live docs... something like..
"vector is defined by drawing line from objects center to axis
parameter"
4: ownCanvas : if I understand correctly... 'true' forces to
calculate object triangles separately.. and most likely create a
dedicated sprite.. (for effects like glow .. and stuff)
is object put in it? because if it is... it most likely will affect
Z sorting..
5: animationLibrary,geometryLibrary,materialLibrary
if I understand corectly.. these 3 are generated with 3d importers..
and is not meant to be created otherwise?
6: inverseSceneTransform : well... I remember math.. and what it means
to inverse a matrix in theory.. but fail to grasp there it is useful
in practice.. any hints?
7: tick(time:int), traverse(traverser:Traverser):void : these I dont
understand because I have no knowledge about traversing...
8: updateObject(), udateSession() ; no documentation on these two...
### Mesh class :
by looking to class diagram(http://www.mindscriptact.com/swf/away3d/
Away3ddiagram.html)... I decided that Mesh is next important class..
but here I found myself confused about animation stuff.. i feel like I
lack some kind of info here...
11: fps, loop, smooth: some parameters of anim is write only : why?
12: transitionValue, smooth, frame, hasCycleEvent : trying to do
something with these properties returns : "TypeError: Error #1009:
Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference." althow
hasCycleEvent, isRunning works fine.
13: gotoAndPlay(), gotoAndStop(), play(<AnimationSequence>),
setPlaySequences() - doesn't make much sense ... it appears that for
an instance.. turtle is a MESH.. its not animation.. and I still have
these functions.. what for ? Error #1009 here too...
14: invertFaces() - has no effect on turtle.. : this.turtle.bothsides
= true; this.turtle.back = new ColorMaterial(0x000000); : isn't
helping.
15: clone() , cloneAll() : how these differ : Goametry containis face
and segment elements it seams clone() clones it too...
trace((this.turtle.clone() as Mesh).asXML() == (this.turtle.cloneAll
() as Mesh).asXML()); returns true...
16: Mesh has methods to draw triangles and segment.. and make your own
Mesh.. but how to code animations? how to set frames? this class is
very odd to me.. it has animation functions. But no means to define
your own.. also.. most of proprieties IMHO should return defaults even
if no animation is present.. or.. at least I would like a way to
check.. Mesh has animation or not... I kinda stuck in here.. help!
