Away3D includes a large selection of materials. The various shading techniques that can be used by these materials were covered, which allows for a selection of materials ranging from those that display a simple texture map to those more advanced materials, which produce more interesting detailed results like reflections, lighting, and shadowing. We have covered Pixel Bender, and seen how it has been used by Away3D to create some of these advanced materials.

Those materials that can be lit from an external light source were listed, along with a table that breaks down the types of light sources that affect these materials.

We have seen how resources, like textures, can be embedded into the final SWF, or loaded from external resources. Embedding resources is generally the best solution as it avoids a number of potential issues like security restrictions and network failures, but for those situations where loading external resources is required, we saw how the BitmapFileMaterial and LoaderQueue classes can be used.

In the next chapter, we will learn how to load and display more complex 3D objects, which can be used in place of the primitive 3D objects that we have been using since Chapter 1, Building Your First Away3D Application.