Welcome to CubicAdvert Public Alpha:
CubicAdvert is a 3d gateway link box designed and built by funcrandm. As of 25/03/2007 this is the public alpha release.

What is it?
Its what it says :) The box spins, you can select an image and you jump to the site the image represents. The final version will pulsate in time with music highlighting individual links. Each pixel is for sale, in units of 10x10, allowing a different link for each 10x10 block... if you require you can have a larger block of course. Why that size... well i wanted it to be 1x1 but it was too small, as was 8x8 ( it would have fit perfectly in the dct blocks at that res... but i digress. )

What news have you got?
09/04/2007
Alpha is almost complete, with AS3 and the basic functions working, just need to get the DCT for fourier analysis working and i'm there :P
- Added text box for current face and position :)
08/04/2007
- Ported code to ActionScript3.0, much faster! I'm impressed with what i've seen so far with AS3. I've dl'd an alpha version of Flash 9.0, so i can try out a variety of ideas in it. I'm happy for a while :)
07/04/2007
- Added zoom, pan and tilt buttons.
- Ported code to ActionScript2.0, it feels slightly faster, and is now class based :) I dl'd the public alpha of Flash Pro 9.0, and i'll attempt an ActionScript3.0 port next :)
- Started to push the website out there, i've had some interesting mails back so far, and will be putting up some more links presently :)

Who are you, and where did you come up with the idea?
I'm an ex-lead graphics programmer for a well known british studio of a large american games company and i've been interested in what we could to cross over with 3d on the web. I came up with an idea a while ago, around 95-97ish when i saw a light synth called cthugha and a browser called cello, "wouldn't it be cool to have those visuals on cello in 3d and to be able to 'jump' about to different pages." A couple of years later I was doing a masters at UCL and one of the other students, Giles, was working on a vrml plugin which was a step in the right direction, but still a bit of a pain, as hardly any of the browsers around supported it. In order for vrml or any other 3d plugin to be widely used it would have to have a killer app, and since nothing really took off we didn't really get 3d on the web pushed as hard as it could be. Recently i noticed that flash, possibly the plugin in widest use supported affine texture transformations... "hmmm, i might be able to get texture mapping running..." So that was it, a lightbulb went on and the start of a coding adventure began, out of the other side a 3d engine, 3d link gateway and some music synchopation code appeared. As of 26/03/2007 you can see the alpha version of my endeavours :)

How does this affect me?
Well, you can pay to be on the gateway. Its the first of its kind as far as i can see, so you'll get the added bonus of being a prime mover and getting traffic to your site from the start. Once the texture cube is finished it will become a living breathing part of the ShapeJam site, and supply links in a sidebar which although smaller than the current implementation will be zoomed in and always feeding links and images to the sites users.

How do i get my link on there?
If you have a look on the how page it goes through the steps you need to take to do that.

£1 a pixel eh, what do i get for my cash donation?
You get a place on the cube which will be hosted both by this site and shapejam. I will do everything in my power to keep the cube running for at least 3 years in its current form. You will also be entitled to vastly reduced fees on the next stage of evolution after the cube is complete... Unfortunately I can't say what it is, but watch this space :) If more than 75% of the cubespace is taken I will package up the 3d engine and offer the tools and cube tech for free to anyone that has paid for adspace on the cube.

What is the next step?
Here is the worklist for getting this to a form i would find complete:

1. Text box in bottom right-hand corner which shows currently mouse over link.
2. Arrows to control cube tilt.
3. Zoom functionality.
4. Move across to AS2.0.
5. Music playing in background.
6. Text box to current background music playing.
7. Face and subface extrusion in time with music.
8. Possible port to AS3.0.
9. Bundling of cubemap layout tools, face link files and cube software for final version.

Once this moves to AS2.0 the responsiveness will increase dramatically and the cube will be more tesselated removing any of the texture mapping artefacts that can be seen currently :) The site itself needs to be cleaned up, its very much a first pass and as more people show interest will be made to look a lot nicer ( although i'll never get rid of the slightly retro graphical feel :) )

What is this coded in, and how have you done it?
As of the alpha version its coded for Flash 8.0 in raw ActionScript MX (1.0). I'm new to actionscript, i've been doing it for around 2 weeks now, and I wanted to see whether the language was fast enough at a base level to get something like this working. With the basics in place in this version, i'll be moving it across to ActionScript 2.0 ( completed as of 07/04/2007 ) and finally to ActionScript 3.0 when that is finalised ( completed as of 08/04/2007. ) How have i done it, hmmm, funny story about that... well I have a demo version of Flash Pro 8.0 and i've got a couple of weeks left before the demo runs out, and unfortunately can't afford a license for it... so i'm hoping that a few people put their adverts on here and i'll be able to afford a license so i can build this and some other things that i'm working on.

What is this "Alpha" version that you speak of?
In video-game-makers ( and probably most of the computing worlds ) parlance, there are different stages to creating an end product. By Alpha stage a product is commonly accepted to be functionally complete, however we pared that back to something that gives a vertical slice or proof of concept, and this is my proof of concept :)

What other stuff are you doing?

• A flash based music sequencer based around cellular automata that sing to each other.
• A complete rewrite of shapejam.
• A comic series involving zombies.
• A series of short scripts for a 10 minute film project.
• Electronic music composition.
• A working 3d engine in flash.
• The follow up to this site.

How do you find time to do all this stuff?
Well, I left the games industry so i'd have a chance to get all of this done. I'm currently working for a financial firm, who are doing some really interesting stuff, and manage to keep their staff working 9-5. I've got quite a bit of free time, and a gf that is very understanding :)

What are the black squares with question marks in them?
They are links to peoples sites that i think are doing or have done interesting things in my life. As each side reaches 50% coverage the links will be removed and replaced with paying customers, however they will always be linked in the Where section. Each of the people involved in those links rocks to a high degree and each of them has brightened my life in some way :)

I can't see the pixels on the bottom edge of the cube, why would i purchase them?
Well, one of the next features which will be available allows the cube to be tilted so that each face can be seen, and with the zoom feature there won't be any section of the cube that can be free from our eyes :)



CubicAdvert is copyright 2007 Nic Ho Chee. All Rights Reserved.