You can download 4.9.6.8 from ...
http://www.3dfa2.com/files/3DFlashAnimator4Setup.exe
This version mostly offers improved scripting. The movie script now has only two tabs, "When movie starts" and "On every frame".
While maintaining backward compatibility, 3DFA now uses more or less the same property definition technique as Flash.
Variables should always be declared before being used (although you can still get away without declaring variables when exporting to Flash 8). You can declare a variable using the 'var' keyword when it is first assigned a value.
var variable_name = value;
If a variable is declared in the "When movie starts" tab then it will become a permanent property of the movie or element, unless it is declared inside a loop, a function, or inside curly brackets, in which case it will be declared as a local variable which will lose its value when that particular script finishes executing.
3DFA overcomes some of the limitations of Flash's technique by allowing you to specifically declare a variable to be local. This will only have an affect on variables declared outside of curly brackets in a "When movie starts" script …
local var variable_name = value;
You can now also declare a variable to be global. Once a global variable has been declared, it can be accessed just like a normal variable from any script in any element.
global var variable_name = value;
3DFA now also supports user class definitions. You can define a class in any script and it will be available for use in every other script. A new class element has been added to help keep your project looking neat. A class typically looks like …
class class_name
{
var property_names
function function_definitions (){ … }
}
Class inheritance is not supported for classes when exporting to Flash 8, but it is available for Flash 9 ...
class class_name2 extends class_name
{ ...
Other improvements include the implementation of the SharedObject class for permanently storing data on a user's computer. The LoadVars class has also been revamped.
The new XML class is also available, but the supporting classes for loading XML data are still under construction. For the time being, you can load data inside an "#if as3" section and explicitly declare some default XML when playing inside 3DFA …
var url = "http://www.3dfa.com/my_data.xml";
var my_xml = <xml><dummy>data</dummy></xml>
#if as3
var loader = new URLLoader;
loader.addEventListener ("complete", completeHandler);
loader.load (new URLRequest (url));
function completeHandler (event:Event)
{
my_xml = new XML (loader.data);
}
#endif
One of the best things about the new XML class are that child nodes can be accessed using dot notation …
my_xml.child_name.grandchild_name
... or you can access the children using array notation ...
my_xml.child_name[grandchild_index]
... and you can perform queries on the xml data tree in a similar way to how you would query a database. A list of nodes that satisfy the query will be returned ...
my_xml.data.(query == condition)
The old Flash 8 XML class was comparatively useless, so 3DFA's Flash 8 export does not support XML at all.
The Transmit element will remain unfinished until certain key features are ready. One of those features is "user defined elements" which will allow you to develop your own 3DFA elements. If all goes well, Transmit will become a sample for user defined elements.
Projects saved from 4.9.6.7 cannot be loaded into previous versions, so please backup your old projects before editing them in the new version.
Please take the time to test a few things and send any bug reports to the contact address. There will probably be another release within the next 7 days, so please provide feedback sooner rather than later.
A Flash Developer Resource Site
Reply With Quote
