Flash & AS3 info, source, & experiments
Archive for April 23, 2007
The Little Tweener that Could
Apr 23rd
I used MC Tween all the time. When AS 3.0 came out, I loved everything about it, except the fact that there was no MC Tween. I sent an e-mail to Zeh asking if he was planning on porting it. He mentioned that he was working on a new implementation called Tweener, but that it was only for AS 2 and not yet ready for the public. Zeh was kind enough to send me the source so I spent that week porting it to AS3.
It’s funny to think back to those days, which was really not that long ago, and now I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to make a Flash app without using Tweener!
Well, apparently I’m not the only one. It’s been great to see John Grden talk about how easy it was to learn and use in conjunction with Papervision3D, or to hear Ricardo Cabello (aka, Mr. Doob) say, “If you need a tween class, don’t look [at] any other, you only need Tweener!”
If you don’t know what Tweener is yet, head over to the project on Google Code and read the quick description. I promise it is worth it!
Flash Network Programming via TCP/IP, part 1
Apr 23rd
A while back I led an ActionScript 2 project with two other classmates in a Network Programming class I was taking at EWU. We created a Flash game we called “Zelda Arena” in which multiple players on multiple computers would connect via TCP/IP to a C++ server. You could custom color your own hero (Link) and duke it out against each other with your sword. I wanted to take the idea a lot further, but figured Nintendo might not appreciate it. Here are a couple of screen shots:
If Nintendo happens to read this, I would love to build you this game for your website! A guarantee it would generate a lot of traffic. But alas, you will probably just steal my idea. Then again, I guess I stole yours first. 
Anyway, I have since redone a lot of ActionScript 3 networking code. In the near future, I’ll post some further information on Flash/AS3 networking and share some free classes to simplify the process. Stay tuned…
Converting AS2 Code to AS3
Apr 23rd
I recently had reason to attempt to convert a few old ActionScript 2 classes to ActionScript 3. I stumbled across Patrick Mineault’s post about his AS2 to AS3 converter and decided to give it a whirl. It worked better than I had expected actually. I ran my code through the converter, spent about 10 minutes fixing a few small details that it didn’t catch and I was up and running–nice! It is certainly not a completely full proof converter but is nonetheless a great time saver. Unfortunately, Patrick is now “retired” so I doubt we will see any future updates, but it’s a great place to start.
