Aaron Cloutier

Shockwave3D (S3D), despite a number of advantages such as delivery on the Web and small plug-in size, suffers from a few disadvantages in terms of its architecture. One of the "classic problems" with regard to the way S3D is built is the inability of the developer to manipulate exactly when objects are drawn to the screen, or more correctly the order in which they are drawn to the screen. This is in contrast to almost any traditional C or C++ graphics engine on the market today, which since they are written directly against DirectX or OpenGL can simply order the calls to the various draw commands to make sure that certain objects are drawn before or after others. This technique is commonly used, for example, to make sure that skyboxes draw before any other objects in the scene, or to ensure that the Heads-Up Display that features the player controls are always drawn ... (more)