On the 3rd of December, I'll be doing a workshop on getting started with Unity at the upcoming Adobe Usergroup XL meeting in Amsterdam. During this 2 hour workshop, a short introduction on Unity will be given. What is the tool and where could you use it for. Which elements do we find in the interface, where does this overlap with Flash, how to program and how to create a first game. Right from the start when we have a look at the interface, you can actively work on the examples by using your own laptop. By playing around with Unity, you'll get familiar with it. This workshop is a good start to continue learning Unity on your own, after the workshop.
Depending on the sign-ups  this could be an English spoken workshop.

Besides my workshop, there will be lots of other interesting presentations and workshops during the day. You should keep an eye on the website of the usergroup for updates about all sessions and speakers. So far the other confirmed speakers are:  Pascal Leroy, Dave August, Zender, Tobias Mannewitz, De Monsters, Rufus Deuchler, Champagne Valentine, Serge Jespers, Hanazuki, Jason Levine, Ralph Hauwert, Dirk Groten, Paul Burnett.

Tags: Events, General, Presentations, Unity3D by Paul Tondeur
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I already twittered this while being on vacation, however I thought it would be nice to give this some extra attention, since I think the conference is going to rock. After investing a lot of time since last years Unite conference in Copenhagen, it would be very interesting to see where other developers have been into and join the very promising sessions that are scheduled (http://unity3d.com/unite/agenda).

If you don't have a ticket yet, you should really rush, as the conference already starts in a little more than 2 weeks on the 27th of October.

In my point of view, Unity made a very wise decision this year by organizing a special day for Flash developers. This day will give the conference a kick-start for Flash developers who want to get into Unity, as they will be introduced to everything they need to know to get along with the rest of the conference (and start themselves with some Unity development afterwards). I would have been so grateful when such conference day was available at the time I got into Unity.

I feel very honored that 'm invited by the people of Unity to come over and do a session for Flash developers. My talk will be about using best of both worlds and how to interact between the two. Unity for 3D content and Flash elements for 2D content. I have some very interesting cases in mind, which I'll work out in the next two weeks and present at my session.

John Grden from the Papervision3D team will host another session, as well as Mauricio Longoni who created u3dobject.

So to conclude this and be honest; if this is within your field of interest you just need to be there! So get your tickets today and see you in San Fransisco!

Tags: Actionscript, Events, General, Presentations, Unity3D by Paul Tondeur
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The video registration of the Adobe Usergroup Meeting #12 about games is made available on the website of the Dutch Adobe Usergroup. This is including my presentation about serious multiplayer 3D games using Unity, Flash and Red5.

I've receive quite some feedback, including some international feedback of people who are disappointed the presentation is in Dutch and they can't understand it. I'd love to get invited and do this presentation for an international audience, so ping me a message when you have an opportunity (hint: I'll probably travel to California in September ).

Regarding the presentation, also make sure you'll watch the following presentations:

• Senne de Jong - The Impossible Takes a Little Longer
• Tim Hudson and Sander Wichers - Serial K-Killers
• Wim van der Plas - It's All in the Game
• Daniël van Gils - Combine the real and virtual: a guide to augmented reality games and installations
• Jan-Willem Reuling - An Adventure with Adobe AIR
• Martin Janse - Game Publishing
• Quinten Beek - Security in Online Gaming, keeping the hackers out

Kudos to the Adobe Usergroup for making these videos available!

Tags: Events, General, Javascript, Presentations, Red5, Unity3D, Video by Paul Tondeur
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Today's meetup of the Dutch Adobe Usergroup has been a very successful day. Not only because I did one of the presentations. The other presentations where very interesting as well. It was very interesting to hear experiences from other people that are involved with game development. The line-up was top of the notch, with speakers like Senne de Jong from Little Chicken Game Company, Tim Hudson and Sander Wichers from Virtual FairGround, Quinten Beek from MediaMonks Games, Daniël van Gils from Kamerblauwlicht and more. Check out the Adobe Usergroup website for more details.

Couldn't make it to this meeting? Don't worry, all sessions will be available on the Adobe Usergroup website soon (I'll dedicate a new post on this once it is available).

I've been asked to do a presentation about what I'm doing with Unity, Flash and Red5. Hopefully it gave some new insights to at least a few of the 250 attendees. I really liked talking about my recent passions and want to thank the Adobe Usergroup for inviting!

I've just posted my presentation slides to SlideShare, while waiting for the session videos that will become available soon:

Tags: Events, General, Javascript, Papervision3D, Presentations, Red5, Unity3D by Paul Tondeur
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I've just been confirmed as one of the speakers for the next Adobe Usergroup meeting. This will take place at 13 may in Amsterdam.

The theme for this meeting is "Games" in its broadest definition. Although the name of the usergroup implies otherwise, it is technology and platform-agnostic. This gives me the chance to talk about "Serious multiplayer 3D games using Unity, Flash and Red5". I'll talk about how we combined the best from the Flash world with Unity3D as the fundamentals for serious 3D browser-based games. Flash is used for everything that's related to the interface and requires usability. Unity3D is used to display everything that is 3D. Javascript let both elements on the page communicate with each other. Red5 is used to add multiplayer functionality to Unity3D.

The Adobe User Group is an assocation in the Netherlands aimed at creative professionals: the pixelpushers and the code-warriors, the projectmanagers and the art directors. People who are hands-on and share a passion in delivering creative work. Meetings are more like regular mini-conferences, being held 6 times a year and attract 200-250 people on average. Each meeting/presentation will be recorded and made available as an on demand streaming video on their website. So for those who can't make it to the meeting there's a chance to watch the video afterwards. However, as it is the Dutch usergroup meeting, presentations are mostly in Dutch. So will be mine.

Did I already mentioned the meetings are free!? For more information about other speakers, the usergroup in general and sign-up, check out their website: http://www.adobeusergroup.nl/site/list_messages/204

Anyway, I'm quite excited about presenting where I've been working on for quite a while. I hope to see some of you there!

Tags: Events, Presentations, Red5, Unity3D by Paul Tondeur
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On Wednesday the 25th there will be a 3D web meeting at the Waag in Amsterdam. This will be the day after FITC Amsterdam ends and this is no co-incidence. Members from as well the Flash3D and Unity3D community will join this meeting and discuss about questions like: “What should the 3D Web look like?”, “How could we create a 3D version of Wordpress?”, “What should the 3D Web be capable of doing?” and “What roles can Flash 3D and Unity 3D play in Web 3D development?”.

Robert Shepherd from Eduverse invited me to join this event. It's awesome people are organising such events. Hopefully he'll get an interesting group of people together. Since it's the day after FITC, I don't think that should be much of a problem? A bigger problem might be the space, which is limited to 25 people. So sign up ASAP!

For more details and sign up, go to: http://www.eduverse.org/index.php/2009/02/13/3d-web-meeting/

Tags: Events, Papervision3D, Paperworld 3D, Unity3D by Paul Tondeur
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Last Thursday evening the first Dutch Unity3D usegroupmeeting took place and as far as I know it, it was the first Unity3D usergoup meeting ever worldwide. We received 20 signups and about 15 people showed up. This was a small group of very enthousiastic people. Some of them where new to Unity and others where very experienced.

We started off with Lucas Meijer, his session was planned to go about realtime 3D basics. However he had a small surprise in mind for us coming directly from the Unity3D headquarters in Copenhagen: Sneak peaks of Unity3D 2.5! Including showing us the Windows version! The guys at Unity3D have done an even more awesome job with this upcoming version. I personally can't wait till it's out!

Next on stage was Stijn Raaijmakers and myself, presenting about our work to get RTMP support in Unity3D. This was quite a technical sessions, but I've heard some possitive feedback about this afterwards. People seem to be really interested in the combination of Unity3D and RTMP/Red5. The session ended with a multiplayer "Tropical Island" (the default Unity3D project once you install it), in combination with a top view map build in flash, to see the location of each user on the island.

After the break Vincent Verweij started with his session about Unity3D iPhone. It was very interesting to see some Unity3D work on the iPhone and hear about Vincent's expierence with development. And beside that his experience with Apple in general.

Bas Smit did the last talk of the evening about building custom shaders for Unity3D 2.5 using ShaderLab. He did a good job explaining why you somethimes want to do this and how you can achieve it.

We planned that each presentation should fit in 30 minutes, but we found out this was way to short (Note to self: next time, shedule each presentation for an hour). So we where done with the presentations around 11PM and it was time to talk with each other in person. I heard nothing but possitve reactions about this meeting, so it's not the question if there will be a next meeting, it's the question when it will take place...

Read more to see some pictures made during the evening, to get an impression about what was going on.

(more...)

Tags: Events, General, Unity3D by Paul Tondeur
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I've just uploaded my presentation which I've held at the Dutch Unity3D usergroup meeting last Thursday. Which is unfortunately Dutch only. ( Invite me to come over and talk about this abroad and I'll make an English version available )

Tags: Events, General, Presentations, Unity3D by Paul Tondeur
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Within 2 day's the first Unity3D usergroup meeting will take place! In the last few days the sign-ups are going fast. In case you want to come over and have not signed up yet, please make sure you do ASAP, so we will be prepared for everyone.

We've just finalized the program and I must say that it's going to be a really interesting evening!

19.30 - Arrival
20.00 - Realtime 3D basics by Lucas Meijer
20.30 - Multiplayer Unity3D using Red5 by Paul Tondeur and Stijn Raaijmakers
21.00 - Break
21.15 - iPhone development using Unity3D by Vincent Verweij
21.45 - Custom shaders by Bas Smit
22.15 - Drinks
23.00 - Evening ends

Hope to see you Thursday!

Tags: Events, Unity3D by Paul Tondeur
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After being at Unite in Copenhagen (Unity3D conference) last October, Vincent Verweij from Makayama and myself where inspired by all the work we saw there and decided that we had to organize a meeting for the Dutch Unity 3D users. During this first meeting we would like to invite everybody who wants to bring some of their own material and present it.  When you are around on Thursday the 15th of January, you are invited to join us.

More information and (free) sign up is available at www.unity3dusergroup.nl

Hope to see you there!

Tags: Events, Unity3D by Paul Tondeur
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