Flash to accelerate 3D graphics

Adobe is set to reveal a new 3D graphics API (programming interface) for flash that will let developers use real-time 3D graphics. This seems like a late move, but today, there aren’t many solutions to create game-like 3D graphics on the web. In fact previous attempts (VRML… yuck!) have all failed because they were simply not up to the task. More recent attempt like WebGL is not yet gathered enough support, and tech giant Microsoft has ruled out its support in the upcoming Internet Explorer 9.

What Flash 3D will really offer is not clear yet. At the moment, my expectation is that it should at least offer a level of graphics capabilities that is comparable to Direct X 9 (think PS3 or Xbox 360 quality level, but not speed). the first question that developers will ask is: how fast is it? Well, it’s hard to tell, but the nature of Flash would make it harder to write high-performance games like Crysis. That said, there are other opportunities like casual games. Developers might even be tempted to write games once for flash, then run them on both desktop and mobiles — if performance allows, we’ll see. Adobe will reveal more details during the upcoming MAX conference in October (23-27).