FLASH: Flash 5/6 aka DirectFlash! Some suggestions

[Damien Morton]

Heres a couple of suggestions for Flash 6:


Ive been looking at Branden Hall's sprung.swf Flash 5 demo. A 1-spring, 2

body system consumes 50-60% of my 600MHz CPU. Now Branden is a smart guy, so

I cant really imagine that hes implemented that demo too shabbily. If this

is anything like what we can expect, then the performance of ActionScript5

leaves a lot to be desired. Suggestion: Make ActionScript byte code

interpretation much much faster. For games, for anything requiring a modicum

of physical simulation or computation, a faster interpreter is needed.


Ive been looking at Moho from lostmarble.com. They have a lovely tool,

oriented around the concept of 'bones' and how 'bones' cause shapes to

morph. Unfortunately, it looks like the output filesizes of their tool are

going to be huge because bones arent supported by they Flash file format.

Morph shapes would be great if, rather than interpolating the control points

along linear paths, the control points were interpolated along curves.

Suggestion: add a Morph Shape tag/command that supports interpolation of

control points along curves rather than lines. A better suggestion: Buy

lostmarble and incorporate their animation technology into Flash 6. Another

suggestion: Fully integrate the bones feature into flash and make it

programmable/accessible through actionscript. Something like this would help

us escape the stiff animations we now create, while maintaining a small

filesize.


Flash really falters when it comes to video. I know there are a lot of

competing video technologies out there, but, going forward, video sprites

are pretty much a must-have feature. Suggestion: Pick a video compression

technology and go with it. Even a proprietary tech would be perfectly

acceptable, although implementing a single Quicktime codec (e.g. sorenson or

somesuch) or MPEG1/2 might make more sense.


Alpha channels - It would be lovely to be able to retain alpha channels in

lossless compressed images. Import as PNG/TIFF/RGBA, output as

JPEG(ish)/RGBA. Also, JPEG2000 is just around the corner, and the

compression ratios possible with JPEG2000 are way beyond what is possible

with JPEG. Lets have the very best possible compression tech implemented in

Flash, so that we can keep our file sizes really small while extending our

ability to use photographs freely.



> -----Original Message-----

>

From: ownerchinwag [dot] com [ownerchinwag [dot] com]On">mailto:ownerchinwag [dot] com]On Behalf Of John

> Dowdell

> Sent: Monday, August 07, 2000 4:18 PM

>

To: flasherchinwag [dot] com

> Subject: Re: FLASH: OT: Flash 6 aka DirectFlash!

>

>

> At 10:53 AM 8/7/0, Dave Broz wrote:

> > I know this is a little earlier for a Flash 6 discussion

> > considering Flash 5 is not out yet....

>

> Actually, now is a very good time to start considering how you'd like

> Macromedia Flash to change beyond the 5.0 version. Granted, the dev team

> has to finish this version in all its various forms (commercial, academic,

> English, localized, authoring, players, etc), but after a little break

> they'll be starting right back in on a development cycle.

>

> As hard as it is on you, the quicker after release you can get your

> feedback and further desires in, then the better chance it has of making

> the next development cycle, thanks.

>

>

> > I have been wondering what is going to happen in Director when

> > Flash 5 comes out.

>

> With each new version, the area of overlap changes. The Macromedia Flash

> and Shockwave Players, and Macromedia Generator, all can solve

> some classes

> of problems. Each of those can uniquely solve other classes of problems.

> When any of these tools change, the area of overlap changes.

>

> With Flash, the prime considerations are making a fast and

> universal way of

> designing predictable interfaces. Player size must remain small so that

> nearly every computer has it. The movement this year is also towards

> non-computer devices... the Flash Player must be easily ported

> and embedded

> into portable connectivity devices.

>

> The Shockwave Player doesn't have to be as small or portable. It can take

> better advantage of desktop computers. It has a much faster

> display engine,

> far more media abilities, extensibility such as with the recently

> announced

> Shockwave 3D engine... Shockwave can do more because it specializes in

> destinations for desktop computers.

>

>

> > does anyone know if there are intentions of a new Flash Asset

> > Xtra...?? MM??

>

> Yes, you hit the nail on the head... the Shockwave Player will be able to

> auto-update its Flash Asset Xtra. This is already in development but I

> haven't heard an estimated date of completion yet. Once it passes all

> testing they'll be able to flip the switch at the website, and it

> will take

> about a month for all Shockwave Players to be updated.

>

>

> > I make some pretty weird stuff quite often using Flash Sprites

> > (sometimes not made by me) that were originaly built for the web

> > and then implemented in Director....

>

> yikes. I would strongly encourage you to "test early, test often, test on

> all your target machines"... if you're developing for web browsers then

> test in web browsers, but if you're developing for other hosts, then test

> in those hosts as you go along!

>

> (Background: When making Flash for a browser everything has to be stuffed

> in a single file. When making Flash for Director, though, you can use

> *multiple* SWF sprites together. Don't stuff bitmaps and sounds inside

> Flash sprites which load movies! Make everything a first-class citizen in

> Director instead. Flatter hierarchies of simpler sprites are easier to

> manage.)

>

>

> > anyway there doesn't seem to be anything said at MM that tackles this

> > issue..

>

> I dunno... I type all the above a few times each week.... ;-)

>

>

>

> > Sorry if  this may seem like a Director rant.. but it should be heard

> > on the Flasher side of things as well ...we are all growing up fast....

>

> The way I think of it is that we're all in this new field of rapidly and

> economically delivering messages to people around the world. The tools

> themselves are incidental, so learning what others in similar situations

> find important is very useful.

>

> jd

>

>

> John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US




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