Flash & AS3 info, source, & experiments
Adobe AIR
Flashplayer and AIR Benchmark Test app
Aug 19th
I’m currently using the Flashplayer in more of an embedded system configuration. We’re evaluating multiple hardware configurations to decide what hardware to use and we’re also evaluating multiple version of the Flashplayer to decide which Flashplayer to use. So I made a quick open source test app to help with this evaluation. It allows you to compare animation performance between an EnterFrame animation vs a Tweener animation vs a Timeline animation. You can also apply various effects to see how they impact things. Since scaling can skew results, the app is designed to run at a specific resolution, but it is easily scalable to whatever resolution you wish to test (and steps are included in the source).
The results have been rather bewildering at times. Depending on the hardware (and I think the OS as well), I have seen filter effects drastically decrease the performance, drastically increase the performance, I have seen full screen mode have great impact or no impact, I have seen the AIR version help the performance and hurt the performance, and just about everything inbetween. Crazy! Anyway, tell me what your hardware/OS/Flashplayer version combination are, and what sort of results you get in the comments.
Usage:
It should be fairly straight forward. Just drag the sliders to add a new ball that is animated in the specified method. You can click on the top half or bottom half of the DiagnosticStats window (thanks Mr. Doob!) to increase or decrease the max fps. Use the + or – keys to increase/decrease the maximum # of balls allowed. In the AIR version, press Q or X to quit and click and drag the background to move it around.
Demo | Source | AIR | AIR Source
I now have Adobe AIR on Linux!
Mar 10th
Adobe accepted me into the AIR on Linux Alpha tester program! I just finished downloading everything and will let you know how it runs shortly. On a side note, I’m hoping it will fix the long-standing “while connected over an XML socket to a server, play a sound file and the network connection gets dropped” bug. More info as soon as I’m permitted to give some-stay tuned!
Update: My initial tests have shown many of the AIR-specific features running excellent! Way to go Adobe!
Adobe AIR on Linux!
Feb 26th
With the release of AIR 1.0 for Mac and Windows, Adobe is now focused on getting AIR 1.0 out for Linux. Currently, they are at the alpha stage and are taking applications for “Pre-Beta Testers”. Here’s a video of Kevin Lynch (Adobe’s Chief Technical Officer) demoing Parleys.com AIR app in Ubuntu (about 1:15 in) at Engage 2008:
Hopefully Adobe will consider me worthy of being a “pre-beta tester” and I can blog some more about the hard details in the near future.
Whatever happened to Saffron UML?
Jan 14th
Back in May 2007, I posted about Flash and UML. I mentioned Saffron in the post and Samuel Agesilas (author of Saffron) posted a comment saying, “I’m honored that you would like to be on the private alpha. I most certainly can put you on that list. I will email you all of the info,” but I never received any info, even after a couple of follow-up e-mails. Then, he finally responded saying life got busy (I can definitely relate, understand, and sympathize) and that he was planning on posting a public beta the 2nd week of December and he said “I will however shoot you an early build sometime before [then],” but I still haven’t seen anything. His last Saffron blog update was back on October 6th.
Maybe life got too busy and he’s no longer working on it? I would gladly continue work on it if you happen to be reading this and need any assistance Sam. I would have started my own Flash UML project had I not discovered Saffron and seen how gorgeous it looks. I hope to see this project’s development continue!
Does anyone have any further information?
Flash in Casinos and G2E recap
Nov 21st
I returned from Las Vegas a couple of days ago where the company I work for, DigiDeal, was an exhibitor at the biggest casino/gambling convention in the world, G2E (Global Gaming Expo). There were two highlights for me:
1. My parent company, IGT, has a distribution and development agreement with Microsoft for their Surface computing. I got to ‘go behind the curtain’ (literally) and have a personal demo of the multi-touch technology. Oh man is that stuff cool! I truly believe this is going to be something that changes the future. If you’re not sure you agree with me, check out the three video clips here. I can imagine some sweet multi-player Flash games!
2. It was very interesting to me to see just how many of the latest electronic casino games are using Adobe Flash for the front end. It seemed like every third game I checked out was done this way. Once Adobe releases AIR 1.0 and includes Linux support, I expect this number to raise significantly. It is very cool for me to see how many very unique implementations and applications Flash has found its way into. You rock Adobe, just get me AIR on Linux soon ;o)
Guitar Hero Won me Adobe CS3 Master Collection
Oct 30th
Prelude: So this post is sadly overdue. Life has gotten crazy recently. I finished building my new house (mostly), moved in, got settled, and have continued to do all sorts of stuff to it (like installing blinds, a garage door opener, adding a patio, etc). On top of this, work has really picked up as we’re getting ready for G2E. It has been about all I could manage just to keep up with the scene, much less contribute to it. But, hopefully I can change that now that the house stuff has settled down.
Anyway, at the on AIR tour in Seattle, Mike Chambers announced that there would be a Guitar Hero II tournament at the end of the show. He said that Danny Dura was getting pretty good at the game on the AIR bus and if anyone could beat him, they would get a copy of Adobe CS3 Master Collection. Since Guitar Hero II and Halo 3 are used to settle most disputes in my office, I knew I would at least have a chance.
The result can be seen here 
)
You rock Adobe! Thanks for the awesome on AIR tour and my new shiny CS3 Master Collection!
C U at the “Adobe on AIR tour” in Seattle
Jul 9th
I’m headed to the Adobe on AIR tour in Seattle tomorrow. If anybody else is going to be there that wants to hook up and exchange geek talk, drop me a comment or an e-mail…
