Hi, There is no official release date for the Molehill public beta at this point (other than "first half of 2011".) TBH, we don't know for sure either, but we expect to be able to release Away3D 4.0 alongside Molehill, and there are no signs right now that it would be impossible to make that date. So that's what you should expect.
In terms of API changes, and preparing for the jump, I think that in any application that doesn't "hack" the engine in any way should be fairly simple to port over. We are trying to keep the API consistent where it makes sense to do so. I will be honest though and tell you that we are taking this chance to make a lot of changes both to the core (duh!) and those parts of the API where we have previously felt that there have been issues and inconsistencies, but that we haven't been able to change because we didn't want to break backwards-compatibility too much between dot- releases. For Away 4, a lot of stuff is changing. That doesn't mean that all 3D applications written for 3.6 needs to be scrapped and done from scratch, but it does mean in a lot of cases that you need to do some refactoring and a bit of search-and-replace. But to be frank, that should be the least concern for most people looking to port games and applications to Molehill-powered engines. Why? Because the work of refactoring some code in a 3D project is nothing compared to "refactoring" a bunch of 1000 triangle low-poly meshes into the 50.000 triangle versions of the same models that people will soon be expecting to see in Flash 3D games and applications. Once Away4 comes out, we will try to release a "porting guide" that documents the important changes (albeit perhaps not every single property that has been renamed). If we don't manage to do so, please hold me personally accountable for it. :) (And if we do manage to get it out in time, please buy us a beer if you see us at a conference. ;)) Cheers /R On Dec 16, 5:54 pm, n7 <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > I have a question: Are there any guidelines on how to code your Away3D > app to facilitate re-writing it when away4 kicks in? > > I'm currently developing a 3D application which is suppose to display > a huge amount of vertices and molehill is my hope for this to work > with decent fps number on ordinary PC:) > > Also, is there a more specific date for launching public beta of > Away4? I've heard a rumour we can count on molehill beta to be > released by February 2011. > > love, > n7
