This is a very cool experiment – using a socket in AS3 to interface with Brain Computer Interface (BCI) hardware. Check it out at this url: http://seantheflexguy.com/blog/2009/12/30/neurosky-mindset-brain-computer-interface-actionscript-3-0-api/

C++ – or whatever Box2D is written in – is not, and it’s a little painful to setup and easy to break.  For my sanity as much as anyone else’s I’m working on a set of classes in AS3 that wrap around the Box2DAS3 classes, and provide you with a more familiar syntax for working with Box2D – objects, methods and utilities that makes it quicker to throw things together and don’t require you to rethink the way you work.

Well, that’s the eventual aim anyway.

Here’s the result of the first round of development – creating a Box2D world and adding objects, in about 6 lines of code.

var options:Box2DWorldOptions = new Box2DWorldOptions( 500, 280, 30, 9.8 );
options.setWorldEdges( true, true, true, true );
var world:Box2DWorld = Box2DUtils.createBoxedWorld( options );
world.debugDraw = true;
world.animateOnEnterFrame = true;
addChild( world );
for ( var i:int = 0; i < 30; i++ )
{
world.createCircle( 500 * Math.random(), 280 * Math.random(), 50 * Math.random());
}

And here’s the result:

Not at the point of getting any interaction, or anything more interesting yet, but I’ve create a utility class for creating Box2D worlds and a Box2DWorld class (as opposed to b2World, which it extends).  The aim of these classes is to condense about 40 – 60 lines of initialisation and basic scenarios into just a few lines, using default variables whilst still allowing for optional overrides.  So if you wanted a world with 0 gravity, that’s just a case of changing it at the start.

I’ll post the classes soon – just as soon as I decide the best way to do so.  It’ll all become more clear then, I hope.

Here’s the result:

It’s pretty.  I won’t even try to explain the idea behind it, but it’s basically an attempt at simple life simulation, with some AI governing the actions.  This time around I’ve built it with the aid of Box2D, so all the movement, impacts and interaction is achieved by punching some figures into the Box2D world, which makes the thing a helluva lot easier.

The big plus of “trying something new”? I now have a basic understanding of trigonometry!  I didn’t even have to Google anything!

You can name your loops!  Okay, so it’s not very exciting, but naming your loops will make things so much easier to organise and understand – I expect.  Check out the link to read all about it;

http://blogs.adobe.com/cantrell/archives/2009/12/labels_in_actionscript_3.html

For Animations & Tweening:

GreenSock Tweening Platform [link]
The name actually encompasses five different varieties of animation libraries, and is awesome at scripting individual and timeline animations.  Not just that, but it comes packed with a load of animation options that you didn’t know you wanted, until you see them.  Like realistic motion blur.  That one’s cool.  Especially once you’ve tried making it yourself in the past…

Game development

Collision Detection Kit [link]
Much like the GreenSock stuff, just how good this is really has to be seen to be believed.  The basic Actionscript hit-test tools were never really that great.  Sure they worked, but if you wanted anything more than a Boolean response, it was no good at all.  The Collision Detection Kit gives you enough information to do proper physics – working out things like what, where and how hard things hit.  It works with any display object – vectors, bitmaps, even video.

Box2D [link]
Box2D.  Runs blindingly fast, precisely calculates physics and interactions.  It’s a true physics engine, rather than others (like Collision Detection Kit) which are just imitating physics.  A little hard to get into because it’s all written differently to every other Actionscript example I’ve ever seen (“You must unlearn what you have learnt”) but once you get over that hurdle, it’s just so… powerful.

Documentation for Box2D isn’t very new user friendly, but Emanuele Feronato has a fantastic series of blog posts on Box2D which will prove invaluable.

That effect is all very cool, but even more surprising is that it seems to be an Actionscripted effect, rather than a Pixel Bender effect.  You can find the blog post from the guy that created this here, and even better can find a live online example here.

• http://fladdict.net/exp/ginnyeffect/
• http://blog.jactionscripters.com/2009/09/09/genie-effect-with-as3/
• http://wonderfl.net/code/b8ec2e7155357ddc65d21eb8b1fa2e94c8363cfc

var matrix:Matrix = new Matrix();
matrix.translate(-bmd.width / 2, -bmd.height / 2);
matrix.rotate(90 * (Math.PI / 180));
matrix.translate(bmd.height / 2, bmd.width / 2);
var matriximage:BitmapData = new BitmapData(bmd.height, bmd.width, false, 0x00000000);
matriximage.draw(bmd, matrix);

The code above can rotate an images BitmapData, using a Matrix to transform the image when you draw the data.  It’s only really designed to rotate the image in 90 degree increments though – so be aware of that.

How it actually works is to create a new Matrix object, offset the source BitmapData’s width and height (so the rotation goes from the center of the bitmap), rotate the BitmapData, move the BitmapData again (to undo the previous offset), create a new BitmapData object to draw the rotated BitmapData into, and finally draw the source BitmapData with our newly created Matrix.

Simple.