Revisiting Papervision3D
Mar 9, 2008 Experiments
I subscribe to the Papervision3D RSS feed, and once in awhile something interesting comes along and gets me thinking. This recent entry was as such: a gallery of sites that utilise Papervision3D to create new, innovative graphical user interfaces for their users. Looking at them got me psyched up to start on my own (long overdue) site.
However, going through some of the sites raised a common issue, and that issue is one of userability.
History
As someone in the comments noted, History repeats itself. Looking back to the early days of gratuitous .gif animations, unusable Flash websites, and then to the more recent AJAX revolution of Web2.0. Whenever something innovative comes forward, people struggle to find “proper” use for it, and instead end up throwing it all at the user in the hope that they will be “shocked and awed” by it. Perhaps, in the Dark Ages of Web1.0, this strategy would have worked (and it did, for a time). However, people on the internet are now tech-savvy: they want their stuff, and they know how to get it. To prevent them from doing so in any way would be a death-sentence to any website.
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Tags: Flash, GUI, Papervision3D, user interface, userability, websites
Labs: Line-Of-Sight
Nov 23, 2007 Experiments
Did a quick little experiment with Line-Of-Sight Calculations in AS3.0. I’m not too happy with it at the moment, and trying to find a balance between performance and accuracy, but you can see what I have done so far in the Labs.
Experiment Focus:
- flash.geom.Point;
- Line of Sight
Totally Forgot My Labs
May 2, 2007 Experiments
A nice person pointed out to me that my Labs wasn’t working. It seems I totally forgot I actually spent money buying a hosting package with Dreamhost! How silly.
I have updated all my previous posts, and updated my links. Hope you guys enjoy!
Labs: Camera Fun ReDux
Dec 21, 2006 Articles, Experiments
Okay, so not really Camera.
I know not everyone has a Webcam to use, so I decided: why don’t I make one that uses a .flv? So I sat down again, and tweaked my code a little to use a .flv instead of a camera. And boy did that stump me for awhile. Talk about hitting your head against a brick wall.
Labs: Camera Fun
Dec 20, 2006 Articles, Experiments
I’ve seen alot of things out there that show off various things. Stuff like FlashGuru’s Webcam Mosaic for example. So I decided to throw down the gloves and put forward one of my own amatuerish experiments.
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Labs: Vexations
Dec 18, 2006 Articles, Experiments
Had a little fun with Vexations, by Erik Satie.
Vexations is a seemingly short piece for solo piano, if it weren’t for the open performance directions:
“Pour se jouer 840 fois de suite ce motif, il sera bon de se préparer au préalable, et dans le plus grand silence, par des immobilités sérieuses“
This loosely translates to “To play this piece 840 times by yourself, it is advised that you immobilise yourself in preparation”. A live performance of this was conducted by a team of pianist cum contemporary composers (the only people insane enough to attempt such a feat) including John Cage, composer of the infamous “ 4′33” “. The performance had only 1 member in the audience: Andy Warhol.
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