[Flashcoders] Flash Future - Unity3D, iPhone and performance
Hi, Not sure that's really the right place for it, but... I'm wondering what are your thoughts about that. Which Flash Developer has never had a struggle with Flash Player performance and garbage collection? I'm not surprised apple doesn't want flash on their iPhone because of performance issues. You can say not it is not true, it is because of their PDF renderer, and they have a flash player running on the iPhone in their lab, blah blah. But the Flash Player is a slow virtual machine, isn't that right? Even AIR applications are always kind of slow, not as quick and reactive as a desktop application should be, and this because of the Flash Player. Just resizing a window, select text or other simple action is not as reactive a real desktop application should be. When I see what the Unity3D player (and very lightweight in terms of file size) can render, WOW. Yes the Flash Platform has wonderful tool and framework to create applications, but how long before someone is coming all these tools (such as AIR, the Flex framework, layouts and components)? Maybe Unity? Maybe another? On the iPhone you can't see a Flash site or a Unity3D site, if I'm not wrong unity has created a tool to convert Unity application to iPhone application (not web-based then), but... where the hell is that Flash Player converter to create iPhone application from AS code? What is Adobe doing about that? How can 35 people from Unity can be more reactive than Adobe? Does Adobe have a problem with the Flash virtual machine? With today's computer, how can a virtual machine be that slow? And I'm not talking about web-based application that can limited by the browser, but also AIR application. Even if Flash will be here for a great bunch of years, I don't see a real good future unless they re-write a real new Virtual Machine that is taking all the power you can use from a computer. If I'm not wrong Flash is running on Google Android phone? Is it working well? You might say I'm completely wrong, fine, I dont know everything. I'm just asking questions. I'm just wondering what's going because I have to struggle about Flash Player performance. What do you think? If the Flash Player a great virtual machine or will it be overwhelmed by other technologies if Adobe does not react? Is there something I'm missing? Flash Community is a wonderful one, I'd like to think the Flash Platform will evolve. Romu ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Flash Future - Unity3D, iPhone and performance
loved this post and think it will be a great discussion if some of the heavy hitters on this list get involved Unity is an amazing piece of tech and will be a big player in the future (anyone who doesn't believe should spend an hour with cartoon network's www.fusionfall.com) Adobe has established itself as the de facto supplier of creative apps but just like Quark did in print, it is definitely in danger of walling itself into it's own garden and simply becoming irrelevant. It made a brilliant strategic move (for itself, if not for the consumer) in buying macromedia but doing so hasn't guaranteed it's future and I think it should be looking for ways of being relevant on all platforms, despite the platform holder's reservations. What you have suggested for flash as a separate app in it's own right (being launched by the browser, maybe on a click on a flash icon, much like youtube is right now) would seem to be a brilliant idea. Flash is a bit of a processor hog but without the encumbrance of the browser as well, it could work really well on the iphone and not be too much of a drain. Apple's main problem with flash, as with java, is that it won't allow other development platforms onto it's hardware. It maintains that this is for security reasons but I don't think that there is a dev out there that thinks it's anything other than to stop people circumventing apple's appstore for distribution. However, I think the argument that the web itself (as well as unity) could be seen as a platform and was certainly sold as such by apple originally as the iphone development environment before the appstore came along is much more valid. There can be no doubt that Apple will have to allow something of flash in the future but until apple and adobe stop squabbling like kids in a playground, that may be quite some way off, after the damage has been done a On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 11:59 AM, Romuald Quantin soundstep.mail...@googlemail.com wrote: Hi, Not sure that's really the right place for it, but... I'm wondering what are your thoughts about that. Which Flash Developer has never had a struggle with Flash Player performance and garbage collection? I'm not surprised apple doesn't want flash on their iPhone because of performance issues. You can say not it is not true, it is because of their PDF renderer, and they have a flash player running on the iPhone in their lab, blah blah. But the Flash Player is a slow virtual machine, isn't that right? Even AIR applications are always kind of slow, not as quick and reactive as a desktop application should be, and this because of the Flash Player. Just resizing a window, select text or other simple action is not as reactive a real desktop application should be. When I see what the Unity3D player (and very lightweight in terms of file size) can render, WOW. Yes the Flash Platform has wonderful tool and framework to create applications, but how long before someone is coming all these tools (such as AIR, the Flex framework, layouts and components)? Maybe Unity? Maybe another? On the iPhone you can't see a Flash site or a Unity3D site, if I'm not wrong unity has created a tool to convert Unity application to iPhone application (not web-based then), but... where the hell is that Flash Player converter to create iPhone application from AS code? What is Adobe doing about that? How can 35 people from Unity can be more reactive than Adobe? Does Adobe have a problem with the Flash virtual machine? With today's computer, how can a virtual machine be that slow? And I'm not talking about web-based application that can limited by the browser, but also AIR application. Even if Flash will be here for a great bunch of years, I don't see a real good future unless they re-write a real new Virtual Machine that is taking all the power you can use from a computer. If I'm not wrong Flash is running on Google Android phone? Is it working well? You might say I'm completely wrong, fine, I dont know everything. I'm just asking questions. I'm just wondering what's going because I have to struggle about Flash Player performance. What do you think? If the Flash Player a great virtual machine or will it be overwhelmed by other technologies if Adobe does not react? Is there something I'm missing? Flash Community is a wonderful one, I'd like to think the Flash Platform will evolve. Romu ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
[Flashcoders] swfobject 2.1
Hi list, I reinstalled my pc recently and I only installed the latest flash 10 player. I opened my site and it tells me I don't have flash installed (using swfobject 2.1). So just for fun, I installed player version 6, and now it tells me I have version 10 installed. Can anyone tell me what is going on? (swfobject tests for a minimum version of 8.0.0) regards, Hans ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Flash Future - Unity3D, iPhone and performance
Maybe Adobe will make their own A-Phone. Research has shown that customers should have substantial space in their pocket once the money has been removed from their wallet to buy it. Naturally, to get the optimum feature set you will need to buy the whole A-Phone suite, A-SatNav, A-PhotoDevice, etc to get the best from the A-Phone, further slimming the wallet. On the downside you will require a pocket a foot square to put it all in.. ;-) - Original Message - From: allandt bik-elliott (thefieldcomic.com) alla...@gmail.com To: Flash Coders List flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 12:30 PM Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] Flash Future - Unity3D, iPhone and performance loved this post and think it will be a great discussion if some of the heavy hitters on this list get involved Unity is an amazing piece of tech and will be a big player in the future (anyone who doesn't believe should spend an hour with cartoon network's www.fusionfall.com) Adobe has established itself as the de facto supplier of creative apps but just like Quark did in print, it is definitely in danger of walling itself into it's own garden and simply becoming irrelevant. It made a brilliant strategic move (for itself, if not for the consumer) in buying macromedia but doing so hasn't guaranteed it's future and I think it should be looking for ways of being relevant on all platforms, despite the platform holder's reservations. What you have suggested for flash as a separate app in it's own right (being launched by the browser, maybe on a click on a flash icon, much like youtube is right now) would seem to be a brilliant idea. Flash is a bit of a processor hog but without the encumbrance of the browser as well, it could work really well on the iphone and not be too much of a drain. Apple's main problem with flash, as with java, is that it won't allow other development platforms onto it's hardware. It maintains that this is for security reasons but I don't think that there is a dev out there that thinks it's anything other than to stop people circumventing apple's appstore for distribution. However, I think the argument that the web itself (as well as unity) could be seen as a platform and was certainly sold as such by apple originally as the iphone development environment before the appstore came along is much more valid. There can be no doubt that Apple will have to allow something of flash in the future but until apple and adobe stop squabbling like kids in a playground, that may be quite some way off, after the damage has been done a On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 11:59 AM, Romuald Quantin soundstep.mail...@googlemail.com wrote: Hi, Not sure that's really the right place for it, but... I'm wondering what are your thoughts about that. Which Flash Developer has never had a struggle with Flash Player performance and garbage collection? I'm not surprised apple doesn't want flash on their iPhone because of performance issues. You can say not it is not true, it is because of their PDF renderer, and they have a flash player running on the iPhone in their lab, blah blah. But the Flash Player is a slow virtual machine, isn't that right? Even AIR applications are always kind of slow, not as quick and reactive as a desktop application should be, and this because of the Flash Player. Just resizing a window, select text or other simple action is not as reactive a real desktop application should be. When I see what the Unity3D player (and very lightweight in terms of file size) can render, WOW. Yes the Flash Platform has wonderful tool and framework to create applications, but how long before someone is coming all these tools (such as AIR, the Flex framework, layouts and components)? Maybe Unity? Maybe another? On the iPhone you can't see a Flash site or a Unity3D site, if I'm not wrong unity has created a tool to convert Unity application to iPhone application (not web-based then), but... where the hell is that Flash Player converter to create iPhone application from AS code? What is Adobe doing about that? How can 35 people from Unity can be more reactive than Adobe? Does Adobe have a problem with the Flash virtual machine? With today's computer, how can a virtual machine be that slow? And I'm not talking about web-based application that can limited by the browser, but also AIR application. Even if Flash will be here for a great bunch of years, I don't see a real good future unless they re-write a real new Virtual Machine that is taking all the power you can use from a computer. If I'm not wrong Flash is running on Google Android phone? Is it working well? You might say I'm completely wrong, fine, I dont know everything. I'm just asking questions. I'm just wondering what's going because I have to struggle about Flash Player performance. What do you think? If the Flash Player a great virtual machine or will it be overwhelmed by other technologies if Adobe does not
Re: [Flashcoders] Flash Future - Unity3D, iPhone and performance
Naturally, to get the optimum feature set you will need to buy the whole A-Phone suite, A-SatNav, A-PhotoDevice, etc to get the best from the A-Phone, further slimming the wallet. On the downside you will require a pocket a foot square to put it all in.. ;-) And another pocket a foot square for the hard disk needed to install all the common files... ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
[Flashcoders] Tips for newbie
Hi all! Im new in Flash, but I have a long background in programming (php, C, asp, Flex, and there we go) for a long time. I was really into Flex' view, but after discussing with a friend, I've met and choosed Gaia Framework. Now I have the problem: Where to start? In Flex, it would be pretty simple tasks like dynamically add custom created components an passing parameters on them, but, how to do that in flash? Sorry if it sounds lazy, but, my cable is off and I need gather most tuff possible to get home and use it a lot at weekend. Thanks in advance -- Sidney G B Ferreira Desenvolvedor Web Cia2 ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Particle Playground, Flash 10 General Purpose Comuting with Pixel Bender
You can try haXe, it outputs Alchemy bytoce for that extra performance: http://ncannasse.fr/blog/adobe_alchemy Still, it's odd that to get the best of Flash you are forced to use... C or haXe, not ActionScript. On Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 8:25 PM, Latcho spamtha...@gmail.com wrote: You are still clever:) I think the Alchemy story is a bit of a frustrating one (to know). Especially if you don't want to go C++ to obtain...performative AS3. Latcho mike cann wrote: Just thought I would update anyone interested, I have updated my Particle Playground see post: http://www.mikecann.co.uk/?p=392 Also I stumbled accross this very interesting particle on 300k 3D particles in flash using alchemy and pixel bender! http://www.unitzeroone.com/blog/2009/03/18/flash-10-massive-amounts-of-3d-particles-with-alchemy-source-included/ It put a swift end to the thoughts about how clever i was with 40k 2D particles :P 2009/3/18 mike cann mike.c...@gmail.com Sure will, i learnt quite abit about what you can and cant do with shaders in flash making this. I hope to share with you all soon. 2009/3/18 Eric E. Dolecki edole...@gmail.com Ping us when you release something or have a demo online. Looks cool. E. On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 8:03 AM, Hans Wichman j.c.wich...@objectpainters.com wrote: awesome:) On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 12:45 PM, mike cann mike.c...@gmail.com wrote: Hey List, I have been playing around with particles again... I have just released my latest little saunter into the world of particles and shaders in flash 10. It started off as and idea to use the new pixel bender shaders of flash 10 as a more efficient method of updating particle simulations. Well after a few struggling evenings I managed to get a little prototype going. I was so amazed at some of the beautiful patterns and effects that the particles were making I thought it may be nice rather than just releasing a tech demo, to add abit more to it and release it for others to enjoy. I will be releasing the source code in the coming weeks along with a blog post which should explain in detail how the technical aspects of updating and rendering tens of thousands of particles per frame works. The tool features a gallery tab which you can use to take screenshots then upload them to my picassa account (proxyed via php). The hope is to get some realy beautiful images in here, perhaps if some are good enough ill get them printed and framed ;) You can see it in action over on my blog: http://www.mikecann.co.uk/?p=384 Let me know what you think! Mike Cann http://www.mikecann.co.uk/ http://www.artificialgames.co.uk/ ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders -- http://ericd.net Interactive design and development ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders -- Mike Cann http://www.mikecann.co.uk/ http://www.artificialgames.co.uk/ ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders -- Juan Delgado - Zárate http://zarate.tv http://blog.zarate.tv ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
[Flashcoders] setBufferTime on stream locks up flashplayer
Hi list, when setting the buffertime on a stream thats played through http, setting the buffertime completely locks up my interface for a few seconds. has anyone seen this before? regards, Hans ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] setBufferTime on stream locks up flashplayer
I had a problem with FP9 connecting to a http stream which went with FP10... Hans Wichman wrote: Hi list, when setting the buffertime on a stream thats played through http, setting the buffertime completely locks up my interface for a few seconds. has anyone seen this before? regards, Hans ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Flash Future - Unity3D, iPhone and performance
Disk space will be the least of all issues. What you say about Quark is quite relevant. I would say it's already happening. I'd have never become a developer if it weren't for the actionscript 1.0 on-ramp. But after 9 years, I'm seriously considering a move to full time Unity development. There's no reason at all that Unity can't experience the same ubiquity as the flashplayer with a more seamless installer. Once macromedia started the built in upgrading with fp v6, new version adoption sped up dramatically. The recently released fp10 penetration numbers are impressive to say the least. More on point, the lack of flashplayer on iPhone is purely control and well within Apple's rights. I support lawful profit security. But it does not close the gate completely on porting actionscript/flex based apps to the iPhone. Just yesterday I was reading herehttp://www.unitzeroone.com/blog/2008/11/28/adobe-alchemy-is-it-actionscript-heresy/about C++ conversion. You all remember the Quake demo I'm sure. There's no secret agreement between Unity and Apple that I know of, Unity has simply created a great compiler for an already supported language. I think it's quite possible to create a similar tool for actionscript and flex. On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 10:04 AM, Glen Pike g...@engineeredarts.co.ukwrote: Naturally, to get the optimum feature set you will need to buy the whole A-Phone suite, A-SatNav, A-PhotoDevice, etc to get the best from the A-Phone, further slimming the wallet. On the downside you will require a pocket a foot square to put it all in.. ;-) And another pocket a foot square for the hard disk needed to install all the common files... ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders -- --Joel Stransky stranskydesign.com ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
[Flashcoders] AS3 Image Cropper
Hey Everybody, I just finished putting together an image cropper in AS3. http://www.gigafied.com/dev/cropper/ Wanted to get some peer-developer feedback and if you have any suggestions on improving it, notice anything wrong, etc. The window is scalable, i.e. you can resize the window and the contents will fill the screen, also, saving is not hooked up yet. Any thoughts/feedback would be appreciated. - Taka p.s. if you upload an image 1 mb+ it seems to perpetually keep loading, so large images won't work atm. ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Flash Future - Unity3D, iPhone and performance
Unity is pretty kick-ass, but Unity != Flash They serve two different purposes. Unity is a multiplatform game development tool, whereas Flash is more encompassing -- i.e. it is not strictly a gaming platform, in fact though it is used quite a bit for online games, that is not its main purpose. You can't build a website in Unity... therefore, the only real semi-contender to Flash is Silverlight, I really don't think Flash is in too much danger at the moment. On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 11:32 AM, Joel Stransky stranskydes...@gmail.com wrote: Disk space will be the least of all issues. What you say about Quark is quite relevant. I would say it's already happening. I'd have never become a developer if it weren't for the actionscript 1.0 on-ramp. But after 9 years, I'm seriously considering a move to full time Unity development. There's no reason at all that Unity can't experience the same ubiquity as the flashplayer with a more seamless installer. Once macromedia started the built in upgrading with fp v6, new version adoption sped up dramatically. The recently released fp10 penetration numbers are impressive to say the least. More on point, the lack of flashplayer on iPhone is purely control and well within Apple's rights. I support lawful profit security. But it does not close the gate completely on porting actionscript/flex based apps to the iPhone. Just yesterday I was reading herehttp://www.unitzeroone.com/blog/2008/11/28/adobe-alchemy-is-it-actionscript-heresy/about C++ conversion. You all remember the Quake demo I'm sure. There's no secret agreement between Unity and Apple that I know of, Unity has simply created a great compiler for an already supported language. I think it's quite possible to create a similar tool for actionscript and flex. On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 10:04 AM, Glen Pike g...@engineeredarts.co.ukwrote: Naturally, to get the optimum feature set you will need to buy the whole A-Phone suite, A-SatNav, A-PhotoDevice, etc to get the best from the A-Phone, further slimming the wallet. On the downside you will require a pocket a foot square to put it all in.. ;-) And another pocket a foot square for the hard disk needed to install all the common files... ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders -- --Joel Stransky stranskydesign.com ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Flash Future - Unity3D, iPhone and performance
I'm not suggesting Unity is a replacement for flash so much as that it's worth having a viable market. I'd like to be able to tell a client some day who has a banner campaign only capable in Unity that it has a large enough install base. On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 3:00 PM, Taka Kojima t...@gigafied.com wrote: Unity is pretty kick-ass, but Unity != Flash They serve two different purposes. Unity is a multiplatform game development tool, whereas Flash is more encompassing -- i.e. it is not strictly a gaming platform, in fact though it is used quite a bit for online games, that is not its main purpose. You can't build a website in Unity... therefore, the only real semi-contender to Flash is Silverlight, I really don't think Flash is in too much danger at the moment. On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 11:32 AM, Joel Stransky stranskydes...@gmail.com wrote: Disk space will be the least of all issues. What you say about Quark is quite relevant. I would say it's already happening. I'd have never become a developer if it weren't for the actionscript 1.0 on-ramp. But after 9 years, I'm seriously considering a move to full time Unity development. There's no reason at all that Unity can't experience the same ubiquity as the flashplayer with a more seamless installer. Once macromedia started the built in upgrading with fp v6, new version adoption sped up dramatically. The recently released fp10 penetration numbers are impressive to say the least. More on point, the lack of flashplayer on iPhone is purely control and well within Apple's rights. I support lawful profit security. But it does not close the gate completely on porting actionscript/flex based apps to the iPhone. Just yesterday I was reading here http://www.unitzeroone.com/blog/2008/11/28/adobe-alchemy-is-it-actionscript-heresy/ about C++ conversion. You all remember the Quake demo I'm sure. There's no secret agreement between Unity and Apple that I know of, Unity has simply created a great compiler for an already supported language. I think it's quite possible to create a similar tool for actionscript and flex. On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 10:04 AM, Glen Pike g...@engineeredarts.co.uk wrote: Naturally, to get the optimum feature set you will need to buy the whole A-Phone suite, A-SatNav, A-PhotoDevice, etc to get the best from the A-Phone, further slimming the wallet. On the downside you will require a pocket a foot square to put it all in.. ;-) And another pocket a foot square for the hard disk needed to install all the common files... ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders -- --Joel Stransky stranskydesign.com ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders -- --Joel Stransky stranskydesign.com ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Tips for newbie
Hi Here are some quick tips. Look at the help docs in Flash IDE for: Programming ActionScript 3.0: Working with movie clips - Creating MovieClip objects with ActionScript. To summarise, you can use MovieClips to group together stuff into components (Not formal Flash Components in the Button, DataGrid, etc. sense - creating these is a bit more tricky because you have to follow certain rules - the principle that they collect a load of other MovieClip / Sprite based assets is the same as above, but the class heirarchy may be different. I would recommend following the tutorials / samples in Flash's help as these will be very useful.) I think if you use the Gaia Framework, it generates your FLA's for you and also AS3 classes that are linked to your page, you can then work in one of these FLA's to create components in the informal sense. The idea of creating components is similar to the way Gaia scaffolds your FLA's with classes that are linked to them - I am not sure how you would make your components available across the whole Gaia'd site - look in the doc's about Assets probably - but if you want to create a component in an individual page that you can instanciate in code: Make a MovieClip symbol, in the Advanced properties of the create dialog, choose to export for ActionScript. If you want to add behaviour to your symbol ~ to mx:Script in your MXML, you would create an AS3 class file and set this class file as the Class of your MovieClip. Then in other AS files used in the same FLA, you can instanciate by calling new ClassName() - you can add params to the constructor if you like too, but if you drag a copy of the Symbol on stage, Flash may moan because it creates the ClassName instance, but passes no params... Also, if you want to link your AS class to more than one symbol in the library of the same FLA, you will need to set it as the Base Class and use a different name for each Class property of the Symbol - Flash will automatically generate an class internal to the SWF with the same name and you would instanciate it with that name, but it would behave as the Base Class - like extends in php... For some good books - Keith Peter's Making Things Move is nice, because you do interesting things, but maybe it's not geared towards UI stuff completely. Colin Moock's AS3 book is about 3 times the size of the AS2 one, but invaluable. There are PDF sample chapters out there for lots of books - look on Friends Of Ed / O'Reilly for these and see what you think. Look at the Devnet site on Adobe too for loads of useful stuff I hope this is useful, it can be a bit fiddly getting stuff right - watch out for declaring your variables in code and flash's publish settings for AS3 (File-Publish Settings, Flash tab, Settings button), untick declare stage instances automatically. If you do have sub-components in a component on the stage, you need to give them an instance name - like the id attribute in Flex - the same as your variable in codeselect the clip on the stage in Flash and name it in the Properties panel in the box where it says Instance Name. If you instanciate anything dynamically you won't (should become obvious...). Also, like Flex, you may have to wait for the ADDED_TO_STAGE event before you can manipulate child clips that you add at author-time... Hope this is a bit useful :) Glen Sid Ferreira wrote: Hi all! Im new in Flash, but I have a long background in programming (php, C, asp, Flex, and there we go) for a long time. I was really into Flex' view, but after discussing with a friend, I've met and choosed Gaia Framework. Now I have the problem: Where to start? In Flex, it would be pretty simple tasks like dynamically add custom created components an passing parameters on them, but, how to do that in flash? Sorry if it sounds lazy, but, my cable is off and I need gather most tuff possible to get home and use it a lot at weekend. Thanks in advance -- Glen Pike 01326 218440 www.glenpike.co.uk http://www.glenpike.co.uk ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Flash Future - Unity3D, iPhone and performance
quote Unity is a multiplatform game development tool /quote Banner ads, really?? I'd like to be able to tell a client some day who has a banner campaign only capable in Unity that it has a large enough install base. That to me sounds like cramming a banner ad into the Quake engine. One of the reasons Flash became so popular was because of its small filesize. The Unity plugin is about 11mb, flash plugin (fp10) is around 1.5mb. I'm not surprised apple doesn't want flash on their iPhone because of performance issues. But the Flash Player is a slow virtual machine, isn't that right? I'd say for a 1.5mb plugin its damn fast and it gets better with every version. Yes the Flash Platform has wonderful tool and framework to create applications, but how long before someone is coming all these tools (such as AIR, the Flex framework, layouts and components)? Maybe Unity? Maybe another? People have been saying this for years now, still have to see it happen. Silverlight anyone?? Even if Flash will be here for a great bunch of years, I don't see a real good future unless they re-write a real new Virtual Machine that is taking all the power you can use from a computer. At what cost? I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with Adobe not being able to write a decent VM. Meaning, I'm sure they're capable of doing so, but at what cost? Well, for one, filesize comes to mind again. Is there a market for Unity 3D? I'm sure there is and their demo site shows that as well. Does this affect Adobe/Flash? I seriously doubt it. As Taka pointed out: Unity is pretty kick-ass, but Unity != Flash One is a game development platform, the other a rich (internet) application platform. regards, Muzak - Original Message - From: Joel Stransky stranskydes...@gmail.com To: Flash Coders List flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 8:53 PM Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] Flash Future - Unity3D, iPhone and performance I'm not suggesting Unity is a replacement for flash so much as that it's worth having a viable market. I'd like to be able to tell a client some day who has a banner campaign only capable in Unity that it has a large enough install base. On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 3:00 PM, Taka Kojima t...@gigafied.com wrote: ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Flash Future - Unity3D, iPhone and performance
Banner ads, really?? Yeah banner ads. Or whatever the case may be. I don't just shell out flash on a whim, only if it's the only platform that can achieve my clients needs. We've always wanted a good 3d solution and even Anark guys are moving over to Unity. Just saying it'd be nice to have that option should the need arise. On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 5:51 PM, Muzak p.ginnebe...@telenet.be wrote: quote Unity is a multiplatform game development tool /quote Banner ads, really?? I'd like to be able to tell a client some day who has a banner campaign only capable in Unity that it has a large enough install base. That to me sounds like cramming a banner ad into the Quake engine. One of the reasons Flash became so popular was because of its small filesize. The Unity plugin is about 11mb, flash plugin (fp10) is around 1.5mb. I'm not surprised apple doesn't want flash on their iPhone because of performance issues. But the Flash Player is a slow virtual machine, isn't that right? I'd say for a 1.5mb plugin its damn fast and it gets better with every version. Yes the Flash Platform has wonderful tool and framework to create applications, but how long before someone is coming all these tools (such as AIR, the Flex framework, layouts and components)? Maybe Unity? Maybe another? People have been saying this for years now, still have to see it happen. Silverlight anyone?? Even if Flash will be here for a great bunch of years, I don't see a real good future unless they re-write a real new Virtual Machine that is taking all the power you can use from a computer. At what cost? I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with Adobe not being able to write a decent VM. Meaning, I'm sure they're capable of doing so, but at what cost? Well, for one, filesize comes to mind again. Is there a market for Unity 3D? I'm sure there is and their demo site shows that as well. Does this affect Adobe/Flash? I seriously doubt it. As Taka pointed out: Unity is pretty kick-ass, but Unity != Flash One is a game development platform, the other a rich (internet) application platform. regards, Muzak - Original Message - From: Joel Stransky stranskydes...@gmail.com To: Flash Coders List flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 8:53 PM Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] Flash Future - Unity3D, iPhone and performance I'm not suggesting Unity is a replacement for flash so much as that it's worth having a viable market. I'd like to be able to tell a client some day who has a banner campaign only capable in Unity that it has a large enough install base. On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 3:00 PM, Taka Kojima t...@gigafied.com wrote: ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders -- --Joel Stransky stranskydesign.com ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Flash Future - Unity3D, iPhone and performance
Well, banner ads usually have a 50 k cap size limit, rich media usually caps it at around 150-200k, I don't think you can even accomplish what you want to accomplish with Unity within that size limit anyways. On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 3:27 PM, Joel Stransky stranskydes...@gmail.com wrote: Banner ads, really?? Yeah banner ads. Or whatever the case may be. I don't just shell out flash on a whim, only if it's the only platform that can achieve my clients needs. We've always wanted a good 3d solution and even Anark guys are moving over to Unity. Just saying it'd be nice to have that option should the need arise. On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 5:51 PM, Muzak p.ginnebe...@telenet.be wrote: quote Unity is a multiplatform game development tool /quote Banner ads, really?? I'd like to be able to tell a client some day who has a banner campaign only capable in Unity that it has a large enough install base. That to me sounds like cramming a banner ad into the Quake engine. One of the reasons Flash became so popular was because of its small filesize. The Unity plugin is about 11mb, flash plugin (fp10) is around 1.5mb. I'm not surprised apple doesn't want flash on their iPhone because of performance issues. But the Flash Player is a slow virtual machine, isn't that right? I'd say for a 1.5mb plugin its damn fast and it gets better with every version. Yes the Flash Platform has wonderful tool and framework to create applications, but how long before someone is coming all these tools (such as AIR, the Flex framework, layouts and components)? Maybe Unity? Maybe another? People have been saying this for years now, still have to see it happen. Silverlight anyone?? Even if Flash will be here for a great bunch of years, I don't see a real good future unless they re-write a real new Virtual Machine that is taking all the power you can use from a computer. At what cost? I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with Adobe not being able to write a decent VM. Meaning, I'm sure they're capable of doing so, but at what cost? Well, for one, filesize comes to mind again. Is there a market for Unity 3D? I'm sure there is and their demo site shows that as well. Does this affect Adobe/Flash? I seriously doubt it. As Taka pointed out: Unity is pretty kick-ass, but Unity != Flash One is a game development platform, the other a rich (internet) application platform. regards, Muzak - Original Message - From: Joel Stransky stranskydes...@gmail.com To: Flash Coders List flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 8:53 PM Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] Flash Future - Unity3D, iPhone and performance I'm not suggesting Unity is a replacement for flash so much as that it's worth having a viable market. I'd like to be able to tell a client some day who has a banner campaign only capable in Unity that it has a large enough install base. On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 3:00 PM, Taka Kojima t...@gigafied.com wrote: ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders -- --Joel Stransky stranskydesign.com ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Tips for newbie
There is plenty of info in the Gaia documentation and Steven answers pretty much every post in the forum. Try to steer clear of non-gaia related questions though. A Gaia project starts with creating a new project in the Gaia panel. Then you edit the site.xml it generates to scaffold out the site, then back in the panel, you have it generate .fla's and document classes according to site.xml You can add an asset node to one of the parents (index or nav) to hold all of your components, then call functions in that assets Document class to return new instances. In Gaia, always attempt to use the api and asset subclasses (MovieClipAsset, NetStreamAsset, etc.) before rolling your own. On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 4:53 PM, Glen Pike postmas...@glenpike.co.ukwrote: Hi Here are some quick tips. Look at the help docs in Flash IDE for: Programming ActionScript 3.0: Working with movie clips - Creating MovieClip objects with ActionScript. To summarise, you can use MovieClips to group together stuff into components (Not formal Flash Components in the Button, DataGrid, etc. sense - creating these is a bit more tricky because you have to follow certain rules - the principle that they collect a load of other MovieClip / Sprite based assets is the same as above, but the class heirarchy may be different. I would recommend following the tutorials / samples in Flash's help as these will be very useful.) I think if you use the Gaia Framework, it generates your FLA's for you and also AS3 classes that are linked to your page, you can then work in one of these FLA's to create components in the informal sense. The idea of creating components is similar to the way Gaia scaffolds your FLA's with classes that are linked to them - I am not sure how you would make your components available across the whole Gaia'd site - look in the doc's about Assets probably - but if you want to create a component in an individual page that you can instanciate in code: Make a MovieClip symbol, in the Advanced properties of the create dialog, choose to export for ActionScript. If you want to add behaviour to your symbol ~ to mx:Script in your MXML, you would create an AS3 class file and set this class file as the Class of your MovieClip. Then in other AS files used in the same FLA, you can instanciate by calling new ClassName() - you can add params to the constructor if you like too, but if you drag a copy of the Symbol on stage, Flash may moan because it creates the ClassName instance, but passes no params... Also, if you want to link your AS class to more than one symbol in the library of the same FLA, you will need to set it as the Base Class and use a different name for each Class property of the Symbol - Flash will automatically generate an class internal to the SWF with the same name and you would instanciate it with that name, but it would behave as the Base Class - like extends in php... For some good books - Keith Peter's Making Things Move is nice, because you do interesting things, but maybe it's not geared towards UI stuff completely. Colin Moock's AS3 book is about 3 times the size of the AS2 one, but invaluable. There are PDF sample chapters out there for lots of books - look on Friends Of Ed / O'Reilly for these and see what you think. Look at the Devnet site on Adobe too for loads of useful stuff I hope this is useful, it can be a bit fiddly getting stuff right - watch out for declaring your variables in code and flash's publish settings for AS3 (File-Publish Settings, Flash tab, Settings button), untick declare stage instances automatically. If you do have sub-components in a component on the stage, you need to give them an instance name - like the id attribute in Flex - the same as your variable in codeselect the clip on the stage in Flash and name it in the Properties panel in the box where it says Instance Name. If you instanciate anything dynamically you won't (should become obvious...). Also, like Flex, you may have to wait for the ADDED_TO_STAGE event before you can manipulate child clips that you add at author-time... Hope this is a bit useful :) Glen Sid Ferreira wrote: Hi all! Im new in Flash, but I have a long background in programming (php, C, asp, Flex, and there we go) for a long time. I was really into Flex' view, but after discussing with a friend, I've met and choosed Gaia Framework. Now I have the problem: Where to start? In Flex, it would be pretty simple tasks like dynamically add custom created components an passing parameters on them, but, how to do that in flash? Sorry if it sounds lazy, but, my cable is off and I need gather most tuff possible to get home and use it a lot at weekend. Thanks in advance -- Glen Pike 01326 218440 www.glenpike.co.uk http://www.glenpike.co.uk ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com