1. Flash Online Conference #7
Scripting 3D apps with Lua and C++
@Minko3D
http://minko.io

2. Available today on minko.io
LATEST MINKO 2 ADDITIONS

3. New Minko 2 Features
 Editor
– Auto-save
– Multiple optimizations
 Framework
– Mutiple fixes on the lighting system
Available today!
http://minko.io/download

4. Codename « Normandie »
MINKO 3

5. Motivations
 Target new platforms
– Keep the « design once, deploy everywhere » workflow
– Larger community
 Increase performances, epecially CPU-wise
– Multi-threading?
 Leverage existing codebase

6. Technological choices
 C++11 core framework and plugins
 Develop once, deploy everywhere
– Windows, Mac, Linux
– Android, iOS
– HTML5, Flash
 Work with all the tools you like

7. Demo – HTML5 Sponza
http://minko.io/showcase/sponza-html5

8. Babolat Play - First commercial project!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewUUerxdZ7U

9. Babolat Play - Fallback
Run web app.
yes
Is
WebGL
available
?
no
Generate JPEG on the
server
Thanks to Minko 3, the same code runs on the server side
and in the browser.

10. New Platforms
Platform
Status
Target
Languages
iOS
OK
Native
C/C++
Android
OK
Native
C/C++
Flash (Stage3D)
WIP
X-Compilation
C/C++, AS3
Windows (DirectX)
OK
Native
C/C++
Mac
OK
Native
C/C++
Windows (OpenGL)
OK
Native
C/C++
Linux
OK
Native
C/C++
HTML5 (WebGL)
OK
X-Compilation
C/C++, Javascript
Windows Phone
WIP
Native
C/C++
BlackBerry 10
NA
Native
C/C++
Firefox OS
NA
Native
C/C++

11. How can I help?
 Show your love for Crossbridge and Minko on the dedicated
feature request on Github!
– https://github.com/adobe-flash/crossbridge/issues/28
 Please leave a comment, even just a +1

12. 2D/3D file formats
 50+ 3D file formats
– 3DS, BLEND (Blender 3D), DAE/Collada, FBX, IFC-STEP , ASE, DXF,
HMP, MD2, MD3 , MD5, MDC, MDL, NFF, PLY, STL, X, OBJ, SMD,
LWO, LXO, LWS, TER, AC3D , MS3D , COB, Q3BSP, XGL, CSM, BVH,
B3D, NDO, Ogre XML, Q3D
 20+ 2D file formats
– JPEG, PNG, TIF, TGA, RAW, PSD…

13. Effect files
 Store a fully setup multi-pass rendering effect
 Include 3rd party shaders and plug them in the engine using
bindings
 Support über-shaders using automated macro definition
based on bindings
 Handle multiple rendering techniques to choose from at
runtime
 Can fallback to another specific technique when the selected
one fails (WIP)

14. « flash » technique
« windows » technique
Portable Effects & Shaders
"techniques" : [
{
"configuration" : [ "windows" ],
"passes" : [
{
"vertexShader" : …
"fragmentShader" : …
}
},
{
"configuration" : [ "flash" ],
"passes" : [
{
"vertexShader" : …
"fragmentShader" : …
},
{
"vertexShader" : …
"fragmentShader" : …
}
}
]
 Group passes in a named
« technique »
 Select that technique at
runtime based on some
flags
– Platform
– Available features/plugins
– Custom flags

15. Leap Motion support
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p14kJNJ9Eoc

16. Oculus Rift support

17. SCRIPTING IN MINKO 3

18. C++11 is great, but…
 Is a new language for most developers
 It’s too complex for prototyping game design
 Requires some setup to get started
 Slow iteration times

19. Core Framework Language
 Fast
 Rich & expressive
 Optimized for each target
C, C++, Java, C#...
VS
Javascript, Python, AS3…
Scripting Language
 Simple
 Interpreted
 Dynamic

20. Complaints about ActionScript
 Garbage collector is messy
 No operators overloading
 Bad performances
 No (easy) concurrency

21. We chose… Lua!
 Fits all the requirements of a scripting language
 Vastly used by the video game industry (World of Warcraft, Fable
II & III, Neverwinter Nights, …)
– Complete list of games scripted with Lua
 Very (very) fast
– LuaJIT is comparable to Javascript V8, if not faster
 Designed to be embedded
 Designed to script games
– Simple but very efficient syntax
– Minimalistic set of features but very extensible
– Coroutines!

22. C++  Lua? LuaGlue!
 C++/Lua bindings
 Open source project
– https://github.com/Tomasu/LuaGlue
– We contribute as much as possible
 Leverage C++11
– Optimize as compile time as much as possible
– Simple binding interface
 Used to bind 90% of Minko’s C++ API
– Write 100% of your app in Lua

23. ActionScript VS Lua
ActionScript
 Messy garbage
collector
Lua
 Customizable garbage
collector
 No operators
overloading
 Operators overloading
 Bad performances
 Very fast + custom
C/C++ bindings
 No easy concurrency
 Coroutines

24. Minko 3 VS Flash
Application
Application
Flash Runtime
Minko 3
ActionScript VM
Lua VM
Core Library
OS
ANE
Core Framework & Plugins
OS

25. Flexible
Application
Application
Flash Runtime
Minko 3
ActionScript VM
Lua VM
Core Library
OS
ANE
Core Framework & Plugins
OS

26. Open Source
Application
Application
Flash Runtime
Minko 3
ActionScript VM
Lua VM
Core Library
OS
ANE
Core Framework & Plugins
OS

27. Customizable
Application
Application
Flash Runtime
Minko 3
ActionScript VM
Lua VM
Core Library
OS
ANE
Core Framework & Plugins
OS

28. Coroutines
 A function can suspend its execution…
– coroutine.yield()
 … and then resume « sometime later »
– coroutine.resume()
 Gives the illusion of parallelism
– Yet no complicated threading stuff
– Fully cross-platform
 Allow the creation of non-blocking (heavy) functions
 Can (always?) be used in place of events/callbacks

29. Coroutines
function myScript
doSomething()
while isIdle
say(‘hello how are you?’)
wait(seconds(3))
while no isIdle
wait(keyboard:keyDown())
handleKeyboard()
…

31. Event driven
Coroutine driven
 Action => reaction
 Breaks the code in multiple handlers
 Messy execution flow
 Messy scopes
 Wait for « something » to
happen
 Non-blocking
 Simple execution flow
 Meaningful and readable

32. You chose!
 C++
– Performances
– Rich and powerful language
 Lua
– Simple and efficient
– Fast iteration times
 Mix both in any project on any target

33. 2014
 New Minko editor
–
–
–
–
–
Script editor
Live coding
ShaderLab
Animations editor
Plugins system
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuR1e1PjU8Y
 Open beta of Minko 3 (January)
 An amazing new Minko product for businesses and teams

34. Don’t forget to check http://minko.io !
JOYEUX NOEL!
THANK YOU SERGEY 