Produce vertex and fragment shaders that run on 3D hardware
- Recent Updates
- September 22, 2011 — Pixel Bender 3D preview 3 is now available to download. Pixel Bender 3D preview 3 addresses many bug fixes, including some reported in the user forum, changes some public interfaces, and provides two additional example projects. Review the release notes for more details. See the Pixel Bender blog for an important announcement about the future of Pixel Bender 3D.
- Download Pixel Bender 3D preview 3
Welcome to the prerelease of Adobe® Pixel Bender® 3D. Pixel Bender 3D is a version of the Pixel Bender kernel language that allows you to produce vertex and fragment shaders that run on 3D hardware to generate output images. These kernels operate on 3D objects and affect their appearance. Pixel Bender 3D is built on the Stage3D APIs, previously codenamed "Molehill," and found in Adobe Flash® Player 11, which handles the display of 3D objects in Adobe AIR® and Flash Player. Pixel Bender 3D provides a quick and convenient way of supplying shaders to Stage 3D. Where appropriate hardware is available, Pixel Bender 3D is GPU accelerated.
Download and Discuss
Download Pixel Bender 3D
Discuss Pixel Bender 3DPixel Bender is a high-performance graphics programming technology intended for image processing. Because Pixel Bender 3D is an extension of the Pixel Bender 2D kernel language, users are expected to have previous familiarity with the syntax and program structure of that language. For more information about the structure and usage of the Pixel Bender kernel language, visit the Pixel Bender Technology Center.
Getting Started
Follow these steps to get started with Pixel Bender 3D:
- Download the Pixel Bender 3D prerelease
- Review the Pixel Bender 3D release notes
- Download and install Flash Player 11
- Unzip the package and navigate to the unzipped location.
- Learn more about Pixel Bender 3D by reviewing the provided documentation (/docs/), including Adobe Pixel Bender 3D Reference and the Pixel Bender 3D ActionScript APIs.
- Use the sample files included in the prerelease (/examples/) to create your own Pixel Bender 3D programs.
- Ask questions or share your feedback in the Pixel Bender 3D forum
Please note that your submission of comments, ideas, feature requests and techniques on this and other Adobe maintained forums, as well as Adobe's right to use such materials, is governed by the Adobe.com Terms of Use.
Community
Below you'll find references and links to help you participate in the Pixel Bender 3D community.
Online Forum
Ask questions and discuss ideas with other Pixel Bender 3D users in the Pixel Bender 3D forum.
Visit the Pixel Bender 3D discussion forum
Please note that your submission of comments, ideas, feature requests and techniques on this and other Adobe maintained forums, as well as Adobe's right to use such materials, is governed by the Adobe.com Terms of Use.
Adobe Developer Connection
Learn about the structure and usage of the Pixel Bender kernel language.
Visit the Pixel Bender Technology Center
Pixel Bender Team Blog
Follow the latest news from the Pixel Bender development team.
Resources
If you want to learn more about releases on Labs as well as other Adobe technologies, visiting a user group or connecting with an Adobe Community Professional is a great place to start.
Product Details
FAQ
- What is Pixel Bender 3D?
- Pixel Bender 3D is an extension of the Pixel Bender kernel language which allows you to write shaders that operate on 3D objects and affect their appearance. The outputs of Pixel Bender 3D kernels are the positions of vertices and the color of surfaces. The primary operations are changing the positions of vertices in a mesh and setting the color of each point or fragment of a surface.
You can use Pixel Bender 3D shaders to show the effect of lighting on an object, and achieve very fine control of the exact color of each point on the surface. After writing the kernels that define these operations, you must process them with a command-line utility to produce code that you can load and run in Flash Player, using the Stage3D APIs. - What are the differences between Pixel Bender 3D and Pixel Bender 2D?
- Pixel Bender 3D has more extensive array support than the Pixel Bender kernel language. The following are not available in Pixel Bender 3D: the imageRef and region data types, region functions, inverse trigonometric functions, and the evaluateDependents function. No graph language is available for Pixel Bender 3D.
- What is included in this Pixel Bender 3D prerelease?
- This Pixel Bender 3D prerelease includes Mac and Windows Pixel Bender 3D command-line compilers, Pixel Bender 3D ActionScript library containing the welder and translator components, ActionScript example files and Pixel Bender 3D sample files, ASDocs documentation for the Pixel Bender 3D ActionScript API, and Pixel Bender 3D Reference documentation.
- Who should use Pixel Bender 3D?
- Pixel Bender 3D is intended for programmers who wish to develop shaders for 3D objects in Flash Player in a quick and convenient way. Because Pixel Bender 3D is an extension of the Pixel Bender kernel language, users are expected to be familiar with the syntax and program structure of that language. For detailed descriptions, see the Adobe Pixel Bender Reference and Pixel Bender Developer’s Guide in the Pixel Bender Technology Center.
- Where can I post issues and comments?
- Please use the Pixel Bender 3D Forum to ask questions and post issues or comments.
System Requirements
Windows: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 with a DirectX 9-capable graphics card
Mac OS: OS X 10.6
Pixel Bender 3D preview 3 has been tested with:
- Adobe Flash® Builder® 4.5.1
- Adobe Flash Player Beta 11.0.1.80
- Adobe Flex® SDK 4.5.1
- Adobe AIR® 3.0.0.3580
Release Notes
This release of Pixel Bender 3D is prerelease software and is designed for evaluation purposes only. The technology is not final; but, many portions of the technology are fully implemented and ready for you to try and discuss.
