Roadmap

In the interest of transparency, we provide a high-level detail of the roadmap for adding 3D support to Flame. We hope this roadmap will help others in making plans and priorities based on the work we are doing and potentially contribute back to the project itself.

The goal of the package can be split up into two sections, the primary goal is to provide an API for Flame developers so they can create 3D environments without having to learn new Flame concepts. This means the package will tie into the existing FCS and provide the tools needed, like a CameraComponent, World and similar components.

In a perfect world this API does not depend or even know about the Flutter GPU, which brings us to our secondary goal: to abstract the Flutter GPU into an API that is user-friendly for 3D development. That includes simplifying things like creating render targets, setting up the color and depth textures and configuring depth stencils. But it also includes higher level APIs like geometric shapes, texture/material rendering and creating Meshes that can use those shapes and materials.

Goals

Abstracting the Flutter GPU into a user-friendly API for 3D

• Abstract the GPU setup into a class that represents the graphics device
  • Setup binding logic for meshes, geometry and materials.
• Provide a Mesh API
  • Provide Surfaces that can hold geometric shapes.
  • Provide a Material API
    • Define a Texture API to be used with the Material API
      • Support images as textures
      • Support single color textures
      • Support generated textures
    • Provide a standard Material
  • Support custom shaders
    • Add a more dev friendly way to set uniforms
  • Support multiple Materials by defining surfaces on a mesh.

Providing a familiar API for developers to use 3D with Flame

• Use the existing CameraComponent API for 3D rendering
  • Provide a custom World
  • Support existing and custom viewports
  • Support existing and custom viewfinders
• Create a new core component for 3D rendering (Component3D)
  • Implement a Transform3D for 3D transformations
    • Implement a notifying Vector3 and Quaternion for 3D positioning and rotation
  • Add support for gesture event callbacks
• Create a component that can show meshes (MeshComponent)
  • Ensure materials can be set outside of construction (in the onLoad for instance)