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Creating a Shockwave 3D Game Level in 30 Minutes


Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Why Create Shockwave 3D Content?
  3. Creating a Shockwave 3D Scene from Scratch
  4. Adding Models to the Scene
  5. Adding Interactive Elements to the Scene
  6. Changing the Non-3D Elements of the Scene
  7. Exporting and Loading the Sample Scene

Why Create Shockwave 3D Content?

Shockwave 3D is extremely powerful and flexible technology. While there are a number of different technologies that allow for interactive 3D content to be deployed over the Internet—and they all support the same basic functionality required for many applications, such as displaying interactive products—only a few allow for more advanced applications, such as an interactive game, to be implemented.

As with any rich online media, the popularity and installed base of the plug-in is a very important factor. Since 1999, the Shockwave plug-in has incorporated interactive 3D technology (developed by some of Intel's top software engineers) as part of its standard installation. This has ensured that approximately two out of three computers connected to the Internet already have Shockwave installed on them.

Shockwave 3D supports many features, such as reflection mapping, multitexturing, particle systems, subdivisional surfaces, toon rendering, and progressive level of detail. Skinning and bones can be exported from certain 3D applications.

A key feature of Shockwave technology is that it allows for the integration of all forms of media, including the use of 3D content and 2D content (images, video, Flash, and so on) within the same interface. Some 3D-only solutions can be quite restrictive in allowing developers to implement a user interface to their content.

Shockwave 3D currently does not support advanced features such as pixel and vertex shaders. These are available only on newer computer systems and are therefore not viewable on many computers. However, this is more than made up for by ensuring that content can be viewed on every single computer running Windows or Mac OS, regardless of whether or not an OpenGL or Direct 3D graphics card is even available (thanks to a built-in software renderer).

A recent update to the Shockwave plug-in has slimmed the size of the installater from over 4 MB to a very compact 2.5 MB. This makes it even more appealing to many computer users who want to view interactive content online and who still have dial-up modem connections.

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