VIDEO: Flash turns 3D as ‘Molehill’ goes public

Flash game developers today rushed to Adobe’s website as the firm launched the first public preview of its 3D-capable player, Molehill.

Announcing the release on stage at the Flash Gaming Summit, Adobe said Molehill will allow developers to build Flash games that run full-screen in HD resolution at 60fps with 3D scenes.

Video demonstrations of the tech can be found below.

The graphical milestone has been reached due to Molehill’s hardware-accelerated 3D support.

Mihai Coran, an Adobe-hired Flash ‘platform evangelist’, said “using the existing features you’ll be able to render thousands of triangles at 30 Hz”.

The public preview is, for now, only available to desktop devices. Adobe said it is working on a smartphone version.

The Molehill project was announced in October last year, with the promise that its low-level APIs would “provide advanced 3D and 3D engine developers the flexibility to leverage hardware acceleration for significant performance gains”. A number of developers, such as Frima Studio, are already building content with the tech.

Molehill relies on DirectX9 or OpenGL, depending on operating system, and its API is accessible via ActionScript 3.

Engine vendor Unity today made the surprise announcement that it will update its engine to support Molehill. The company has its own rival to the Flash player.

Further release dates for the technology were not announced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrArtYuEkEI