Archive for the ‘ Flash ’ Category

 
Monday, February 8th, 2010

I’ll be speaking at IGDA Switzerland in Bern in few weeks,
Piergiorgio Niero IGDA Switzerland
a great opportunity for me to talk about the Flash Platform as a gaming platform, to share the experience I had making the engine of Wazzamba and to meet new people I only “met” in twitter or in their blogs :)

The meeting will take place in february 25th at “Nothing” (great name guys ;) ) hq in Wabern, you can find more info here in IGDA Switzerland blog.
See you there ;)

 
Monday, September 7th, 2009

Flash on the beach is each day closer and I started to plan my own schedule.
Each choice has been quite hard because of the high quality the conference is offering, the good thing is that even if I’m not 100% convinced to be attending some sessions I’m sure that I can switch to another one with the same or even higher quality :)

sunday:
papervision3D workshop by seb lee-delisle

monday:
Richard exposes all! – Richard Galvan
Casual game architecture – Keith Peters
Visualizing the voice – Chuck Freedman
Who’s a bright spark then! – Mike Jones
Cybernetic art revsited – Dr. Woohoo!
Telling Stories – Hillman Curtis
Epiphany – Joel Gethin Lewis

tuesday:
3 minute wonders – many (looking forward to Michiel van der Ros 3D optimization for MMOs)
Quick as a Flash – Grant Skinner
Leaving the sandbox – Joa Ebert
Application Frameworks – Richard Lord
More than bending pixels – Paul Burnett
Unconventional Webapps – Des Traynor + Eoghan McCabe
Choose your own adventure – Craig Swann

wednesdey
Play with vectors – Koen de Weggheleire
Connecting the dots – Mario Klingemann
Work/Play – Seb Lee-Delisle
Flashed Fashion – Andy Mcdonald
Research realtime graphics – Ralph Hauwert
Space – Joshua Davis

I’m getting in Brighton on saturday 19th, you’re allowed to poke me :)

 
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Today I encountered this blog post from Zevan (which blog is REALLY a good daily reading I suggest everyone to take) about bitmapData merging and I started tweaking some code doing some benchmarks to find out which way is the most performing. Here are my tests:

First strike (Zevan’s one): copyPixels

?View Code ACTIONSCRIPT
[SWF(width=650, height=650)]
var loader:Loader = new Loader();
loader.load(new URLRequest("http://actionsnippet.com/wp-content/chair.jpg"));
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onLoaded);
var w:Number;
var h:Number;
var rows:Number = 20;
var cols:Number = 20;
var tiles:Vector.<BitmapData> = new Vector.<BitmapData>();
var locX:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var locY:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var rX:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var rY:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var sX:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var sY:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
function onLoaded(evt:Event):void{
	w = evt.target.width;
	h = evt.target.height;
	var image:BitmapData = Bitmap(evt.target.content).bitmapData;
	var tileWidth:Number = w / cols;
	var tileHeight:Number = h / rows;
	var inc:int = 0;
	var pnt:Point = new Point();
	var rect:Rectangle = new Rectangle(0,0,tileWidth,tileHeight);
	var startTime:Number = getTimer();
	for (var i:int = 0; i<rows; i++){
		for (var j:int = 0; j<cols; j ++){
			 var currTile:BitmapData= new BitmapData(tileWidth, tileHeight, true, 0x00000000);
			 rect.x = j * tileWidth;
			 rect.y = i * tileHeight;
			 currTile.copyPixels(image, rect, pnt, null, null, true);
			 tiles[inc] = currTile;
			 rect.x += 25;
			 rect.y += 25;
			 sX[inc] = rect.x;
			 sY[inc] = rect.y;
			 locX[inc] = rX[inc] = -rect.width * 2
			 locY[inc] = rY[inc] =  Math.random() * stage.stageHeight;
			 setTimeout(startAnimation, inc *4 + 100, inc, rect.x, rect.y);
			 inc++;
		}
	}
	trace("copyPixels",getTimer()-startTime,"ms");
	addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onLoop);
}
function startAnimation(index:int, dx:Number, dy:Number):void{
	var interval:Number;
	var animate:Function = function(index:int):void{
		locX[index] += (dx - locX[index]) / 4;
		locY[index] += (dy - locY[index]) / 4;
		if (Math.abs(locX[index] - dx) <1 && Math.abs(locY[index] - dy)<1){
			locX[index] = dx;
			locY[index] = dy;
			clearInterval(interval);
		}
	}
   interval = setInterval(animate, 32, index);
}
var canvas:BitmapData = new BitmapData(stage.stageWidth,stage.stageHeight,false, 0xFFFFFF);
addChild(new Bitmap(canvas));
var loc:Point = new Point();
 
function onLoop(evt:Event):void {
	  canvas.fillRect(canvas.rect, 0xFFFFFF);
	  var startTime:Number = getTimer();
	  for (var i:int = 0; i<tiles.length; i++){
			var tile:BitmapData= tiles[i];
			loc.x = locX[i];
			loc.y = locY[i];
			canvas.copyPixels(tile, tile.rect, loc, null, null, true);
	  }
	  trace("copyPixels",getTimer()-startTime,"ms");
}

in my machine (mbp, osx) it takes ~27 ms to extract data and ~2-3ms each iteration for setting data on the canvas bitmapData

Second strike: getVector\setVector

?View Code ACTIONSCRIPT
[SWF(width=650, height=650)]
var loader:Loader = new Loader();
loader.load(new URLRequest("http://actionsnippet.com/wp-content/chair.jpg"));
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onLoaded);
var w:Number;
var h:Number;
var rows:Number = 20;
var cols:Number = 20;
var tiles:Vector.<Vector.<uint>> = new Vector.<Vector.<uint>>();
var tileRect:Rectangle;
var locX:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var locY:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var rX:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var rY:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var sX:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var sY:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
function onLoaded(evt:Event):void{
	w = evt.target.width;
	h = evt.target.height;
	var image:BitmapData = Bitmap(evt.target.content).bitmapData;
	var tileWidth:Number = w / cols;
	var tileHeight:Number = h / rows;
	tileRect = new Rectangle(0,0,tileWidth,tileHeight);
	var inc:int = 0;
	var pnt:Point = new Point();
	var rect:Rectangle = new Rectangle(0,0,tileWidth,tileHeight);
	var startTime:Number = getTimer();
	for (var i:int = 0; i<rows; i++){
		for (var j:int = 0; j<cols; j ++){
			 rect.x = j * tileWidth;
			 rect.y = i * tileHeight;
			 tiles[tiles.length] = image.getVector(rect);
			 rect.x += 25;
			 rect.y += 25;
			 sX[inc] = rect.x;
			 sY[inc] = rect.y;
			 locX[inc] = rX[inc] = -rect.width * 2
			 locY[inc] = rY[inc] =  Math.random() * stage.stageHeight;
			 setTimeout(startAnimation, inc *4 + 100, inc, rect.x, rect.y);
			 inc++;
		}
	}
	trace("vector push:",getTimer()-startTime,"ms");
	addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onLoop);
}
function startAnimation(index:int, dx:Number, dy:Number):void{
	var interval:Number;
	var animate:Function = function(index:int):void{
		locX[index] += (dx - locX[index]) / 4;
		locY[index] += (dy - locY[index]) / 4;
		if (Math.abs(locX[index] - dx) <1 && Math.abs(locY[index] - dy)<1){
			locX[index] = dx;
			locY[index] = dy;
			clearInterval(interval);
		}
	}
   interval = setInterval(animate, 32, index);
}
var canvas:BitmapData = new BitmapData(stage.stageWidth,stage.stageHeight,false, 0xFFFFFF);
addChild(new Bitmap(canvas));
var loc:Point = new Point();
 
function onLoop(evt:Event):void {
	  canvas.fillRect(canvas.rect, 0xFFFFFF);
	  var tmpVec:Vector.<uint>;
	  var startTime:Number = getTimer();
	  for (var i:int = 0; i<tiles.length; i++){
		  	tmpVec = tiles[i];
			tileRect.x = locX[i];
			tileRect.y = locY[i];
			canvas.setVector(tileRect,tmpVec);
	  }
	  trace("vector push:",getTimer()-startTime,"ms");
}

on my machine it takes only ~9 ms to extract tiles slices (yes, 3 times faster!!!) and ~1ms for pushing them all in the canvas for each loop iteration

Third strike: getPixels\setPixels

?View Code ACTIONSCRIPT
[SWF(width=650, height=650)]
var loader:Loader = new Loader();
loader.load(new URLRequest("http://actionsnippet.com/wp-content/chair.jpg"));
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onLoaded);
var w:Number;
var h:Number;
var rows:Number = 20;
var cols:Number = 20;
var tiles:Vector.<ByteArray> = new Vector.<ByteArray>();
var tileRect:Rectangle;
var locX:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var locY:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var rX:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var rY:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var sX:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var sY:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
function onLoaded(evt:Event):void{
	w = evt.target.width;
	h = evt.target.height;
	var image:BitmapData = Bitmap(evt.target.content).bitmapData;
	var tileWidth:Number = w / cols;
	var tileHeight:Number = h / rows;
	tileRect = new Rectangle(0,0,tileWidth,tileHeight);
	var inc:int = 0;
	var pnt:Point = new Point();
	var rect:Rectangle = new Rectangle(0,0,tileWidth,tileHeight);
	var startTime:Number = getTimer();
	for (var i:int = 0; i<rows; i++){
		for (var j:int = 0; j<cols; j ++){
			 rect.x = j * tileWidth;
			 rect.y = i * tileHeight;
			 tiles[tiles.length] = image.getPixels(rect);
			 rect.x += 25;
			 rect.y += 25;
			 sX[inc] = rect.x;
			 sY[inc] = rect.y;
			 locX[inc] = rX[inc] = -rect.width * 2
			 locY[inc] = rY[inc] =  Math.random() * stage.stageHeight;
			 setTimeout(startAnimation, inc *4 + 100, inc, rect.x, rect.y);
			 inc++;
		}
	}
	trace("getPixels",getTimer()-startTime,"ms");
	addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onLoop);
}
function startAnimation(index:int, dx:Number, dy:Number):void{
	var interval:Number;
	var animate:Function = function(index:int):void{
		locX[index] += (dx - locX[index]) / 4;
		locY[index] += (dy - locY[index]) / 4;
		if (Math.abs(locX[index] - dx) <1 && Math.abs(locY[index] - dy)<1){
			locX[index] = dx;
			locY[index] = dy;
			clearInterval(interval);
		}
	}
   interval = setInterval(animate, 32, index);
}
var canvas:BitmapData = new BitmapData(stage.stageWidth,stage.stageHeight,false, 0xFFFFFF);
addChild(new Bitmap(canvas));
var loc:Point = new Point();
 
function onLoop(evt:Event):void {
	  canvas.fillRect(canvas.rect, 0xFFFFFF);
	  var startTime:Number = getTimer();
	  for (var i:int = 0; i<tiles.length; i++){
			tileRect.x = locX[i];
			tileRect.y = locY[i];
			canvas.setPixels(tileRect,tiles[i]);
			tiles[i].position = 0;
	  }
	  trace("setPixels",getTimer()-startTime,"ms");
}

a nice one, ~ 17 ms to extract and ~2ms to loop on my mac, faster than copyPixels but vectors are still leading…

Fourth strike: merge

?View Code ACTIONSCRIPT
[SWF(width=650, height=650)]
var loader:Loader = new Loader();
loader.load(new URLRequest("http://actionsnippet.com/wp-content/chair.jpg"));
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onLoaded);
var w:Number;
var h:Number;
var rows:Number = 20;
var cols:Number = 20;
var tiles:Vector.<BitmapData> = new Vector.<BitmapData>();
var locX:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var locY:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var rX:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var rY:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var sX:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var sY:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
function onLoaded(evt:Event):void{
	w = evt.target.width;
	h = evt.target.height;
	var image:BitmapData = Bitmap(evt.target.content).bitmapData;
	var tileWidth:Number = w / cols;
	var tileHeight:Number = h / rows;
	var inc:int = 0;
	var pnt:Point = new Point();
	var rect:Rectangle = new Rectangle(0,0,tileWidth,tileHeight);
	var startTime:Number = getTimer();
	for (var i:int = 0; i<rows; i++){
		for (var j:int = 0; j<cols; j ++){
			 var currTile:BitmapData= new BitmapData(tileWidth, tileHeight, true, 0x00000000);
			 rect.x = j * tileWidth;
			 rect.y = i * tileHeight;
			 currTile.merge(image,rect,pnt,0xFF,0xFF,0xFF,0xFF);
			 tiles[inc] = currTile;
			 rect.x += 25;
			 rect.y += 25;
			 sX[inc] = rect.x;
			 sY[inc] = rect.y;
			 locX[inc] = rX[inc] = -rect.width * 2
			 locY[inc] = rY[inc] =  Math.random() * stage.stageHeight;
			 setTimeout(startAnimation, inc *4 + 100, inc, rect.x, rect.y);
			 inc++;
		}
	}
	trace("merge",getTimer()-startTime,"ms");
	addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onLoop);
}
function startAnimation(index:int, dx:Number, dy:Number):void{
	var interval:Number;
	var animate:Function = function(index:int):void{
		locX[index] += (dx - locX[index]) / 4;
		locY[index] += (dy - locY[index]) / 4;
		if (Math.abs(locX[index] - dx) <1 && Math.abs(locY[index] - dy)<1){
			locX[index] = dx;
			locY[index] = dy;
			clearInterval(interval);
		}
	}
   interval = setInterval(animate, 32, index);
}
var canvas:BitmapData = new BitmapData(stage.stageWidth,stage.stageHeight,false, 0xFFFFFF);
addChild(new Bitmap(canvas));
var loc:Point = new Point();
 
function onLoop(evt:Event):void {
	  canvas.fillRect(canvas.rect, 0xFFFFFF);
	  var startTime:Number = getTimer();
	  for (var i:int = 0; i<tiles.length; i++){
			var tile:BitmapData= tiles[i];
			loc.x = locX[i];
			loc.y = locY[i];
			canvas.merge(tile, tile.rect, loc, 0xFF,0xFF,0xFF,0xFF);
	  }
	  trace("merge",getTimer()-startTime,"ms");
}

~36 ms to extract and ~12ms to merge tiles on the canvas!!!…too slow all the way…:\

There are still some methods left such as getPixel\setPixel, getPixel32\setPixel32, and copyChannel but they’re a too much restrictive choice because they’re handling one pixel, or channel at time therefore a further loop would be required to get them doing this task.

Summary:
getVector\setVector : ~9ms\~1ms
getPixels\setPixels: ~17ms\~2ms
copyPixels: ~27ms\~2-3ms
merge: ~36ms\~12ms

make your choice ;)

NOTE: these benchmarks are valid from flash player 10 because we (both me and Zevan) used the Vector native type to store lists of typed data. To make them valid for previous version of the player make sure to replace vectors with arrays and check other types are already supported by the target player.

stay tuned ;)

 
Sunday, November 30th, 2008

Yep, i made my submission to 25lines contest just few days ago (right in time :) ), so (as Sakri did some days before me) I’m publishing my code. It’s an easy terrain generator…

Actually, I think it can be somehow improved both in lines of code and actual performances, so feel free to edit or tell me “you’d better to do that this other way…” :)

What’s going on is:

  • generate a shape filled with a gradient to create a reference color for differents “height”
  • generate a perlinNoise everyframe for dataprovider use
  • detect each perlinNoise pixel depth according with its main channel value (blue in this case..)
  • generating a vector of Bitmaps to be employed in the view
?View Code ACTIONSCRIPT
/**
 * 25-Line ActionScript Contest Entry
 *
 * Project: Random Terrain 3D Generator
 * Author:  Piergiorgio Niero (aka pigiuz) piergiorgio.niero[at]gmail.com
 * Date:    11/24/08
 *
 * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
 * of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
 * in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
 * to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
 * copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
 * furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 *
 * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
 * all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 *
 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
 * IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
 * AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
 * LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
 * OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
 * THE SOFTWARE.
 */
 
// 3 free lines! Alter the parameters of the following lines or remove them.
// Do not substitute other code for the three lines in this section
[SWF(width=800, height=800, backgroundColor=0xffffff, frameRate=24)]
stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
// 25 lines begins here!
var _bd:BitmapData = new BitmapData(50,50,false,0x0000FF);
var _points:Array = new Array(new Point());
var _vxCont:Sprite = Sprite(addChild(new Sprite));
_vxCont.x = _vxCont.y = 400;
var _vexels:Vector. = new Vector.((2500),true);
var _hMap:BitmapData = new BitmapData(255,1,false);
var _gradient:Shape = new Shape();
_gradient.graphics.beginGradientFill( GradientType.LINEAR,new Array( 0x4267F9, 0xF9EAB0, 0x9EF07D, 0x8DF273, 0x9D5E1E, 0xFFFFFF ),new Array( 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 ),new Array( 90, 105, 110, 120, 145, 185 ),new Matrix(0.2456396484375,0,0,0.0006103524625,127.5,.5));
_gradient.graphics.drawRect(0,0,255,1);
_hMap.draw(_gradient);
addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,generatePerlinNoise);
function generatePerlinNoise(e:Event=null):void{
	_bd.perlinNoise(25,25,1,0,false,true,4,false,_points);
	Point(_points[0]).y+=1;
	for(var v:uint=0;v&amp;lt;(2500);v++){
		_vexels[v] = (_vexels[v]==null)?generateVoxel(v):_vexels[v];
		_vexels[v].y = Math.pow((_bd.getPixel(v%50,Math.floor((v/50))) &amp; 0xFF)/255*6,3)*24*.24;
		_vxCont.rotationX = mouseY*.1;
		_vxCont.rotationY = (_vxCont.rotationY-(90/stage.stageWidth*(mouseX-stage.stageWidth)+45))*.5;
		_vexels[v].bitmapData.floodFill(0,0,_hMap.getPixel(255-(_bd.getPixel(v%50,Math.floor((v/50))) &amp; 0xFF),0));}}
function generateVoxel(v:uint):Bitmap{
	var b:Bitmap = new Bitmap(new BitmapData(24*.5,24*.5,false,0x000000),"auto",false);
	b.x = v%50*24-(_bd.width*24*.5);
	b.z = Math.floor((v/50))*24-(_bd.height*24*.5);
	return Bitmap(_vxCont.addChild(b));}
// 25 lines ends here!
 
enjoy ;)

 
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

Here’s the link to download Astro’s API documentation: http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplayer10/flashplayer10_as3langref_052008.zip

At this time it’s only available for download, not for online consultation.

 
Friday, May 16th, 2008

It’s time to upgrade! :)
Astro is here!

flashplayer10_demo_nofl_557√ó475.jpg

Let’s take a look to what chefs cooked up for our taste pleasure:

  1. 3D support: finally adobe put some z in flash!:D on astro release notes Adobe’s claiming that they’re enabling everyone to create complex 3D effects using simple code… mmm… i’m curious about that! i’m a papervisioned guy! :D
  2. hardware acceleration: flash player 9.0.115 introduced hardware acceleration… astro is becoming even friendlier with your gpu. Now flash player supports GPU compositing and blitting, both parameters must be enabled by html.
  3. Adobe Pixel Bender: formerly Hydra (which was a cooler name :) ), this system let us create our own custom filters and apply them runtime..
  4. New text engine! Multiple columns text, support for chinese (GB18030 )
  5. Speex! a free codec used to encode speech….Ribbit thanx while pacifica voip project is waiting…
  6. Dynamic sound generation!…Andr√© Michelle’s “Adobe make some noise” petition really made some noise! :D
  7. File reference runtime access! Finally we don’t have to upload our files to manipulate them inside our RIAs! Files are handled as ByteArrays so we can do quite everything :)
  8. Many others…

Another impressive innovation is Astro is available for Ubuntu Linux users too…so even penguins can try new features shown in the demo on labs site.

Finally the coolest news: WE ALREADY CAN COMPILE CONTENT TARGETING ASTRO!

I’m so excited i don’t need mana to stay awake tonight!:D

Questo √® uno “microtutorial” piuttosto semplice sulle maschere (sono 2 linee di codice -.-) che per√≤ ho notato non essere troppo conosciuto.

Come creare un effetto “pila” o “occhio di bue”? o pi√π banalmente, come creare una maschera sfumata con flash8 o superiori?

  1. crea un movieclip da mascherare
  2. crea un altro movieclip contenente una forma con riempimento a gradiente nel quale almeno un colore abbia alpha minore di 100
  3. posiziona nello stage (fisicamente o via actionscript) i due clip: il mascherato e la maschera
  4. via actionscript imposta a true la propriet√† “cacheAsBitmap” di ciascun movieclip
  5. sempre via actionscript imposta la maschera del movieclip da mascherare (setMask in AS2 o mask in AS3)

ecco il risultato:
(Either JavaScript is not active or you are using an old version of Adobe Flash Player. Please install the newest Flash Player.)

questo il fla dell’esempio (CS3) Download Source

 
Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

Flow” √® un tool che permette di lanciare il compilatore flash (sia il test movie che il compile vero e proprio) direttamente da Eclipse.


Lavora in command line, ma viaggia in automatico, una volta configurato il path di compilazione nel file .config eclipse fa praticamente tutto da sola.

Esistono altri progetti simili a questo, lo stesso Jaco ne cita due : flashCommand e compileProject, ma a quanto pare non sono pi√π sviluppati.

Jaco ha pubblicato anche uno screencast dove viene mostrato Flow in azione (Venetian Spoken :D ).

Per ora Flow √® disponibile in EXE…quindi niente trippa per gli unixbased come il sottoscritto…per ora (vero jaco?:D)

Un tool che non faciliterà la vita a tutti, ma a molti :D

Grande, respect.

 
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

AS2 o AS3?
Idee e opinioni degli addetti ai lavori sulle versioni di actionscript, sulle tendenze di mercato..

gotoandfuck.png

Riporto il topic su wave9.it, leggetelo qui o andate direttamente alla fonte :D

Apro questo thread perch√® √® forte lo slancio che da un p√≤ di tempo a questa parte ha trascinato l’attenzione di molti “flasher” su AS3, e diverse sono le opinioni a riguardo tra gli addetti ai lavori e non solo.

Actionscript 3 ha portato insieme gioie e perplessità,
ha sicuramente accentuato le differenze tra le figure “flash coder” e “flash designer” marcando pi√π strettamente il territorio di confine.
Forse ha incrinato la figura del “flasher” come “colui che sviluppa in flash” e ha attirato (soprattutto con la sempre maggiore diffusione di flex) una valanga di coders a cimentarsi con actionscript.

C’√® chi pensa che AS3 abbia solo complicato le cose, o meglio turbato l’equilibrio che si era andato a creare con l’avvento di flash mx,
che con AS3 serva scrivere molto pi√π codice per fare le stesse cose che si facevano in AS2, e quindi non serva a nulla,
che AS3 e la AVM2 (la virtual machine di flash player 8.5+) sia solo una strategia di marketing per stravolgere il mercato e vendere flash 9 (ehm…cs3) e flex builder ad una fetta pi√π ampia di coders….

C’√® anche chi pensa che AS3 sia il “futuro” ( anche se non ancora ben rodato),
che AS3 sia effettivamente pi√π valido di AS2, che la virtual machine sia nettamente pi√π performante della precedente…e via cos√¨…

…e intanto hanno presentato al MAX il flash player 10…

E voi cosa ne pensate?

Di recente ho trovato una pagina in cui adobe presenta le statistiche ufficiali di diffusione del flash player in base alle versioni, interessantissima per chi ha a che fare con le grandi distribuzioni (o semplicemente vuole coprire il maggior numero di utenze).

stats.gif

Non fatevi ingannare dal titolo della pagina, flash player version “penetration” non √® quello che avete immaginato…
per quello vi rimando qui :)