AS3 3D and physics engines

2D physics engines:

APE

This engine may be the most well-known one. It has been ported to C++ and Java. MIT license.

Box2DAS3Box2DFlashAS3

Crayon Physics Deluxe made the people attracted to this engine. Box2D was written in C++, now ported to AS3 as Box2DFlashAS3. zlib/ligpng licence.

FOAM

It was lately released, but seems worth trying. MIT license.

Fisix

Perhaps you do not know this engine because of its own license. Let's check the demo.

Motor Physics

This one is expected to join the AS3 physics engine list. Some demos are already available. zlib/libpng license.

This seems a little complicated compared with C++. In C++, there are practically two choices of 3D physics engine, PhyX and Havok. Which engine will survive? 3D graphics engine:

Papervision3D

I think that I do not need to explain about this most known 3D engine. MIT License.

Away3D

This engine is Papervision3D based one, but has has better visual quality.

Sandy

I immediately understood this name because I am a Japanese (see why). The API resembles Java3D, e.g. TransfomGroup class.

-------
Corrected the name of Box2DFlashAS3. (Nov. 23)

a nasty one.

A really really nasty one. I can not understand a compile error of C#, CS1583 that says 'file' is not a valid Win32 resource file. For details, see MSDN Forum. I saw this error when I compiled Apple Wireless Keyboard Helper for Windows at 3:00 am. I was sleepy and did not have energy to read articles on the forum. Then I read only the latest post that says:

Just double click on properties at solution explorer then you will see an option button with a textbox contaning file name delete it ,or copy same file in your home comp at same location.

I tried this way then succeeded to compile the project. I started to test the application against my JIS keyboard, and found that '英数' and 'かな' key have scan code 113 and 114.

Color detection by AS3

Here is a demo of skin color detection by ActionScript 3.

• Inspired by this video.
• Hatsune Miku swings her arm when skin color moves vertically.
• Push V key to show/hide camera input.
• Push M key to show/hide detection result.

Detection algorithm is of this paper, section 3.1. Because this algorithm is very simple, it can be implemented by bitmap filter. Performance should be compared between both implementations.

tracd does not accept folded http header

I found that tracd does not work in some cases, specifically when the http header is folded because of its longness. To solve this problem, I modified /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/trac/web/wsgi.py as following.

1. Make unfold_header function.

   def unfold_header(self):
       lineno = 1
       while lineno < len(self.headers.headers):
           header = self.headers.headers[lineno]
           if header.startswith(' ') or header.startswith('\t'):
               self.headers.headers[lineno - 1] += header
               del(self.headers.headers[lineno])
           else:
               lineno = lineno + 1
   

2. Call this function from setup_environ function in WSGIRequestHandler class.

   length = self.headers.getheader('content-length')
   if length:
       environ['CONTENT_LENGTH'] = length
   
   # insert this line here.
   self.unfold_header()
   
   for name, value in [header.split(':', 1) for header
                       in self.headers.headers]:
   

This was my first time to program in Python, so there might be some problems. But this modified tracd is working for now.

mqo loader beta ?

I have eventually submitted my metasequoia loader to Snippets of Spark project. Only few tests about my library have done, so any bug reports are welcomed.

My next task is perhaps to load MIKOTO file that describes motion of metasequoia model. Watching motion of 3D model will fascinate us rather than watching rendered image that never moves.

mqo loader private alpha

Here is my private alpha version of .mqo file loader for Papervision3D. Mqo files are used by Metasequoia typically in Japan.

Location of flashlog

Since I changed my computer from XP to Vista, today is first time to use trace function of AS3. First, I created file named mm.cfg and wrote these lines.

TraceOutputFileName=D:\Users\\Documents\AS3\trace.txt
ErrorReportingEnable=1
TraceOutputFileEnable=1

But this did not work. I changed all the backslashes into slashes, but nothing has changed. I removed the first line to put the output file in default location, then it worked. Even TraceOutputFileName is not an necessary option, this behavior is strange.

I found the answer of this problem in the LiveDocs.

Note: Beginning with the Flash Player 9 Update, Flash Player ignores the TraceOutputFileName property.

TraceOutputFileName no longer works.

Poor Japanese VS2005 Express

Playing with Orcus is something exciting, but VS2005 Express Edition is still good choice for indie programmers. You can get it by pushing 'Go' button at here.

Japanese version is somehow complicated. When you click 'Web からインストール', you will be requested to log into msn. Moreover, an annoying form will appear that must be filled out. Your name, email address, address of work location, and some questionnaires will be needed. But you can download Japanese version from English site. Of course, a key to activate Visual Studio is needed.

Use macro for dynamic linking of DLL

Dynamic linking of DLL needs more code than static linking. We have to use GetProcAddress() API for each functions. It may cause bug if we make typo.

m_fnSetCommInfo =
  reinterpret_cast< FnSetCommInfo >(
  ::GetProcAddress( m_hLibrary, "SetCommInfo" ) );
m_fnGetCommInfo =
  reinterpret_cast< FnGetCommInfo >(
  ::GetProcAddress( m_hLibrary, "GetComInfo" ) ); // <-- Ahh !!

Define statement prevents such bug.

#define LOAD_FUNCTION(name) \
  m_fn##name = reinterpret_cast< Fn##name >( \
  ::GetProcAddress( m_hLibrary, #name ) );

LOAD_FUNCTION( SetCommInfo );
LOAD_FUNCTION( GetCommInfo );

This is easier to read. Macro sometimes prevents bug.

Adding feed subscriber to Firefox

There is RSS button on the address bar of Firefox when a web site is providing feed. You can add any feed subscriber by doing follows:

1. Input about:config into address bar.
2. See there are some browser.contentHandlers.types.N.(title|type|uri) entries.
3. Add subscribers after them.

For example, I add Fastladder by adding these entries.

• browser.contentHandlers.types.6.title = Fastladder
• browser.contentHandlers.types.6.type = application/vnd.mozilla.maybe.feed
• browser.contentHandlers.types.6.uri = http://fastladder.com/subscribe/%s

running svk

Running svk is not hard, however some terms are different from svn's ones. commit is push and update is pull. These may be more intuitive terms than svn's. As I said, svk can reduce revision number of repository. To do this, use -l option for push that means merge everythins into a single commit log.

svk push -l //local/YourProject

Then you can commit your source files after changing few lines without worrying about revision number. I think this is most important thing for refactoring.

Another first step guide of svk. Simple and easy to understand. I do not need boring text but really need sample code or command. When there is something unclear, I will search official document that is more accurate, reliable one than somebody's blog.

install svk

I know Mercurial is a great SCM system which is called distributed one. I am using svn and commiting my code many times when I made changes. It may disturb others because revision number changes frequently. Distributed SCM systems are different, however they do not have integrated GUI like TortoiseSVN. Even if Mercurial got such interface, repositories I am working on are still svn's one. svk is a solution to use svn as distributed one. I refered these sites to install svk.

• svk - 気の向くままに･･･ - livedoor Wiki（ウィキ）
• Greenbear Laboratory - SVKを使ってみよう

At the moment, I made a copy of remote repository and checked out files from there. Revision number had been smaller. It seems that revisions are skipped which are not related to files I got from remote repository. This may be a problem when I use svn:keyword like $Id$ or $Rev$. Later, I will write about it.

template typedef

Last week I knew this code is possible to compile.

typedef CWindowImpl<Hoge> CWindowImpl;

I felt it is a little strange. I could not understand how the compiler interpret these two symbols are different ones. Today, I replaced strtok by boost::tokenizer for better security and readability. Some code fragments I've found via Google used typedef like above. Perhaps it is possible because their namespaces are different, boost and other. I will continue to use this idiom for readability especially code using boost and WTL.

First post

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