>From the AMFPHP site: "Finally, even with the advent of MX 2004 data components that make XML and SOAP handling easier, Remoting still has its place. AMF requires up to 75% less network traffic when compared with SOAP, because AMF is a binary format. The difference is especially clear when complex data types like resultsets are sent. Since the format is native to the Flash player, parsing and encoding are also much faster than with the Web Services connector. A performance benchmark is available here."
You don't have to convert your models to anything if you use DAE (which is XML formatted). AMF will transmit them as binary data to the player. The flash player uses binary data for everything, so the issue is converting that data to objects (like a custom 3D model object). If you use built in types like xml that conversion is handled by the player. Then it becomes a load amount vs server calls issue. Even with small amounts of data round trips to the server are expensive. ath. Jerome.
