3D performance considerations

You’ve got the code you need to get started on your own projects. Now here’s some tips and things to remember regarding performance when developing 3D Flash movies.

• 3D calculations can be very processor intensive—the more objects you have in your clip, the slower the movie will run.
• Z-sorting is not perfect. A really good Z-sorting routine that works for all lines, curves and surfaces would require a lot of code. The current methods are good enough for most purposes and are very fast.
• The X and Y coordinates of lines, curves and surfaces in the 3D engine correspond to the X and Y coordinates of the Flash movie. In other words, X increases as we move right, and Y increases as we move down. The Z coordinate increases as we move out of the screen.

Armed with the tools created in this article, you should now be able to create some amazing 3D movies and interactions. Real-time 3D graphs, maps, data displays, and models are just a few of the things that can be created with minor modifications to this code. Don’t be afraid to experiment; some of the best discoveries come from mistakes that we make trying new things.

Have fun!