flash ’second life’
Posted by dermot on November 18, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Via coldhardflash, an interesting site called “Whirled” - it’s an attempt to create a Flash version of “Second Life” - the 3D virtual reality chat world.
Users will be able to create their own avatars, and hang out.
Sad to say I found the frame-rate a wee slow. It’s actually quite difficult for Flash to handle a lot of different symbols - which is what the avatars are. If you try to animate a scene with lots of symbols - e.g. a particle effect such as magic, or a flock of birds, you’ll get a really lousy frame rate - down to 4 or 5 fps…which is grim.
Part of the problem with the frame-rate on this site seems to be caused by the use, in some avatars, of the line tool instead of using pure areas of colour or fills. Flash doesn’t animate the line tool very effectively; if you have frame-rate issues or laggy effects, try removing the line tool from your scene. The difference will amaze you. Suffice to say, the whirled.com chaps should have strict file size limitations on avatars, and a total ban on the line tool.
Ah, Flash…so many reasons to be angry with you!
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